Breaking the stigma around parenting and cannabis use has been my personal mission statement for a long time, says Carmela, Store Manager at Lolly Pickering. One of my favorite things about cannabis is the way that it allows me to see humor in almost everything. Being able to laugh at things taught me that most things are not that serious. It humbles me. I laugh for long periods of time and it feels great. I am not a social smoker at all. I prefer to smoke in the comfort of my home and with close friends. My current experience with cannabis is very different from when I first started smoking weed twenty-five years ago. I find that I enjoy it more now than when I was younger. Trying to keep it a secret from family had me feeling extremely paranoid, although I never gave up on it.
I stopped smoking weed for almost two years when I found out I was expecting my daughter. Once my daughter got on a regular routine I was able to sneak a pinner or two throughout the day.
Questioning my relationship with cannabis as a mother.
As a first time mom I had a lot of moments where I questioned my way of mothering. I felt a tremendous amount of guilt every time I smoked. This was due to the stigma around cannabis at the time which provided me a false sense of what a good mother is. In a world that celebrates, and even encourages “mommy juice” across social media through funny memes, shouldn't mothers who enjoy lighting up here and there feel just as celebrated? We are all just trying to unwind after a long day and find our own peace, why does booze tend to be the only choice for that? A lot of people think cannabis is very bad, because that is what they have been told for many years. Looking back to the 1930’s Reefer Madness propaganda, up to the1960’s public enemy #1 ads to the outrageous statement that smoking weed causes devil worshiping. Breaking the stigma around parenting and cannabis use requires re-education and the dissemination of scientific information.
I have found that the only way to break the stigma around parenting and cannabis use is to be vocal.
The only way to change this programming is to be vocal about how helpful cannabis is to so many people. Once we start opening up the conversation and begin sharing our experiences, we can show the people in our lives and communities how cannabis has helped us and therefore changing conversations to involve a wide range of benefits when it comes to cannabis and daily life. I do believe that we will eventually get to the point where 4:20 is just as casual as “wine o'clock.” I’m in for the ride!
Join the conversation on the Yes We Cann Parent Facebook Group here.
Read @JohnOldschool's story on cannabis and parenting here.
