For Parents Only: What Kids Think About Marijuana

It don't really matter. >> Let's fire up a bowl. >> Yeah, you got >> fire a bowl. Come here. Give me one. I smoke about 10 joints every day. I enjoy getting high. I don't do it cuz my friends do. I just like getting high and like the feeling and I'm more cheerful and I laugh and it's just >> I don't know. >> I enjoy [Music] it. >> I started using pot in the ninth grade. Couple friends got me high for once and I liked it and I started getting into it. My parents the first time that they found out that I was spending so much money on it, that was their concern, the money that I was spending on it. Being high is really hard to explain. It makes me feel good. Yeah. It's like going out with my friends, living it up. >> It's basically a way just to live it up. Just take it as as it comes. I just buy it, smoke it, >> and nothing comes out of it except ashes. [Music] I was around 11 years old. And it started with my cousin. She was around what 15 at that time. And she introduced me and my other cousin around my age to a joint. And you know, you just say, "Wow, what is this?" And they showed us how to hit a joint. You know, we're saying, "Okay." And we got high. Well, really the first time I smoked I was about 8 years old. But, you know, it was when I first tried it and I'd say I started, you know, smoking it, you know, on a regular basis about the age of 10. One night Rodney came in and he went straight to his room and he was 11, I guess. And um, you know, and I went in there and I said, "Rodney," cuz he usually, you know, he'll stop and talk to me. And uh so I went in there and his eyes were just all, you know, and I knew that he'd been smoking. >> National surveys are now showing that 11% of seniors in our high schools are getting stoned or drunk, which is a better term, every single day. We did a survey last year that showed 30 to 70% of high school students are getting stoned three to five times a week. That's a lot of marijuana use. It really got popular with my age group and I went to my first party when I was 12 and I just I had a ball and I just kept on going to parties and finally around when I was 13 I got into high school and I started to find out where to get it, you know, who to buy it from, who the dealers were, and it was like a a big family, you you know, drug users. >> Young people like Regina usually are an experimental stage of life. They want to try out new things. The problem that we're seeing more and more is in the places where they have recreation, like the parks, in places like schoolyards. There are more people who are, you know, making marijuana available to them. And out of curiosity, more of them are trying it. And they're trying it because it's available. It's relatively inexpensive and it's supposed to be fun and every young person wants to do something for fun. So, they'll try it. Sure, why not? >> I used to get high on the bus a lot coming to school and get to school, hang in the front, and go get high again. There's nothing else better to do sometimes. in the morning if you'd meet a friend before school and get high, you know, it just made the day you looked forward to it a little more. >> When I first started smoking, it was like I was really conscious of just what I was doing and all of my friends were getting high and it was a lot of peer pressure. >> I did it cuz, you know, I thought I could be with his gang, you know, be older than what I was. When I first get up, I smoke a joint because I get higher easier, you know, in the morning when I first wake up cuz my body hadn't started going, you know. >> It was, I guess, pure pressure. I I never wanted to admit that, but I, as I think about it, I think it was. >> Yeah. 90% of them use every day is, you know, what I know. And the other 10% go to school, you know, good little kids. And I'm one of them now. >> Well, most of them find that life, just the everyday going to school and whatever is pretty boring. And for them, it's a kick. You know, using marijuana makes them high, makes things funny, makes their dull lives exciting. And many of them don't know how to deal with their boredom. So, they find that using marijuana is one way of being. It's entertaining. They can laugh at things that weren't funny before. They enjoy things better. That's what they think. [Music] Yeah, I could say that I would get into the music more. You know, it's not really a hard drug that that totally alters your mind. You know, it doesn't make you stumble and it doesn't make you slur your words. It's not all that all that different from being straight. you know, being high doesn't affect my performance. You're just more relaxed and you just you're more into what you're doing. >> It's a euphoric thing and it's the best way to listen to music, if not the only way to listen to music. You can hear every sound, you know, just every little tone of music. You can hear and it just uh your body just moves to it, you know, to the sounds and it's weird. You think you can do things better, think your conversation's better, you know. Well, I really know what I'm talking about when I'm high, you know, and it it sounds stupid, but that's really the way people think. >> Now, >> I found I could do most of the work and I really enjoyed the work when I was high, but I couldn't really read as well outside, but I could do math and all that really well. I found that I liked it a lot. It was fun. >> The marijuana user has a kind of delusion where he feels that marijuana is not affecting him or if it's affecting him, it's making him a better person, a more sensitive person, a more intuitive person, a more laidback person, a kinder person, a more intelligent person. In fact, when we test that, whether it's at the wheel or at the keyboard or uh at tests in school, it doesn't work out. They in fact perform much worse. >> I I just know more when I'm high cuz, you know, I can think better cuz my head just feels good. I can write down some answers. Sometimes they're right. when I go into class high, I'll either I won't do my work or I'll go home and then I'll get high and then I can do it, you know, in a snap. It's just easy. Then before school, I, you know, I I sometimes I smoke pot, you know, and sometimes I don't, but you know, when I'm in school, I can think clearly, you know, it might not be, you know, real pot, you know, it might not be real quick like, but I can think clearly. food. This is the worst year Rodney has ever had at school. He has always been a really good student and uh I mean I know how smart he is and I've always been told that uh he's a really good student, but uh this year now he made like three D's on his report card and um he's just been he goofs off. >> Come on. After that, >> there would be things that I could do when I was high. I'd do things like I'd draw diagrams that were really explicit and it would tell a thousand words instead of writing it all down. There's some things like art and wood shop can really be creative when you're high. >> Well, maybe >> I like to be high and do my artwork because it's just I just have more I'm more comfortable and I see my work, you know, differently. >> You're more creative. Definitely, you know, I feel more creative, more relaxed. Are are you going to put a title? >> I could deal with people more and better. >> So, you're almost done. >> Yeah. >> Are you going to put a title on? >> No, I'm not almost done. Look at how much I've got to do. >> Well, >> that is going to be incredible. >> How about you're going to outline every every one of >> every little thing. >> Well, what about here? Don't you want to let that just go? >> When you talk with the teachers and as the principal when I go in and talk with them, >> what we find is that their performance starts to go down in math class. They can't grasp the concepts. they seem to be tripping out on you. In English class, their writing ability and their ability to comprehend. And now when you talk about, you know, an art project or music, the loss of interest, the whole thing seems to be get out and get with your friends and get a joint and get high. You see the grades start to drop from A, B, C, and you find a lot of failure. >> As a school psychologist, I view the problem here as a fairly large one. You know, when I see kids who are very alienated, very low energy, uh missing a lot of classes, there's a syndrome that develops, you know, that you can pretty soon recognize as I bet this kid is heavily into pot. They don't care about classes. They don't care very much about anything except rapping with their friends. They usually meet after school, rap, smoke a joint or two, and it makes them feel that whatever they're doing when they're under the influence, and it's a lot better than it really is. So, it takes away a certain amount of pain that adolescence must feel in terms of not being able to accomplish, not being able to measure up. You know, I thought maybe I was just putting so much pressure on him. And and I said, "Rodney, you know, is it are you trying to escape from me or you know, your family life? Is it so bad?" He says, "No." He said, "I love you." And he said, "I just love everything." And he does. The child is, you know, I don't know. >> Our culture tells kids in many different ways that it's okay to get high and it's okay to get super high. [Music] We have head shops that are selling uh paraphernalia in great numbers. It's now a $600 million a year uh operation. [Music] We have the rock stars who are saying that you can use anything you want and you don't have to pay any dues. We have a whole literature of uh magazines that are saying you can get high that are even giving you sendaways where you can uh get the formulas and learn how to make uh drugs. Uh our culture is giving a big message that getting high is okay. your um actions are sometimes slower and you'll laugh at yourself just say wow I tripped over that you know how could I miss that and you just start laughing and when you start laughing you just can't stop you know and you think it's so funny and in reality it's not. And reality is dull and boring and true. And who wants who wants something dull and boring? >> That was my head. >> They don't know what's real, what's really going on. They don't enjoy life. They don't enjoy life unless they're high. And therefore, they don't learn how to make themselves happy. But the reality is they don't remember very much of what happens to them. They stop doing certain things like they probably cut down on certain amount of activities. They don't see other friends. They don't do physical activities. Sports drop off. Certain things that other kinds of fun things they could be doing. They start to do it less. They stop communication with some of their friends who want to do squares. >> They stop communication with their parents. They get themselves cut off. Then they find themselves alone. and they're left in a position where they can be picked up by people that maybe they would have never ever been with. But now that they're in this situation, you know, those are the only people left to be friends with. >> We got a little place down by the school, little walkway called the steps. You go there and usually a couple people there, you know, if they got a joint, I might have a joint. We match them. You know, they smoke theirs with me and I smoke mine. you know, we just get higher and then, you know, just go to school and just usually go through the school day. And then after school, we might go down to the steps again, you know, smoke some more and then, you know, go home and eat >> and supper. And then, you know, after supper, I usually go back out and party some more. >> There's no better example of impairment of motor function than we have with driving an automobile or operating complicated machinery. The sadness is that many a kid feels that he drives better. Uh the term that's often used is I get into my driving more. But when that's tested either in an automobile or in a laboratory situation that uh simulates road conditions, there is a deterioration of function. >> I'd much rather be high if I'm driving than I'm drinking driving. you know there's uh being high doesn't you know affect affect my driving ability whatsoever. It's I you know I can my p my some people say like your depth perception will be you know altered. Mine isn't. >> There is a loss of uh vision especially peripheral vision. There is a loss of memory and there's a loss of judgment. So that it may show up in the following way. A driver proceeding home who's stoned may respond perfectly well to a stoplight, to a stop sign, to a familiar turn. But if something unfamiliar and unexpected happens, a child or an very significant loss of function. >> There's a tremendous amount of new material that is coming out in the last several years about how hormonal function is affected. We're talking about levels of sex hormones, testosterone in men, uh estrogen in women, growth hormone, its effect on the pituitary. Now, that's serious stuff and to take that lightly makes no sense in my opinion. We need to be very cautious about that. Further, we have evidence that marijuana is retained for a long time in the body. If you >> we were to have a uh shot or several shots of uh liquor right now, in 24 hours, our system would eliminate all of the alcohol and there would be no traces in the body. If uh I would have a uh joint of marijuana now in 30 days, we could still detect traces of the active ingredient THC in my system. Now that means that the regular user is likely to have a cumulative effect if we add that then to uh hormonal changes and effects on uh certain cellular function. We may have long range effects that no one has even dreamed of yet. Kids generally like to take the uh pro marijuana side uh and they tend to uh go for that research that information that says marijuana is not harmful or marijuana is less harmful than alcohol or less harmful than cigarettes that kind of information. Uh whereas anything that would say the opposite of that uh they don't like to deal with that. It's just I just do it and ignore the other things, I guess. Ignore the things that people say that'll hurt you and all this other stuff. >> Yeah, it is bad for you. I don't know. It's just you makes you lose your memory. That's all I know. >> I've just about heard it all. I mean, you know, I've had people try to, you know, my mom just try to, you know, tell me things that scare me, but I've, you know, I don't really, you know, not many, not much scares me about it. >> I'm not really worried about what people have told me or what I've heard, I mean, read, you know, so far. But my mind might change later on in the years, but so far, I don't think I'm going to quit. Not for a while, a long while. I think, you know, if you not really sure about something, you should find out for yourself. And I've been smoking it now for, you know, on a regular basis for about four or five years. And, you know, I'm leading a pretty good life. There ain't nothing to matter with me. >> There's no place in the United States today that you can go that marijuana is not available. And not only is it available, but it's cheap. So that if a kid wants to have a single joint or a few joints, it's very easy for he or she along with friends uh to have it in a regular way. >> Well, I just, you know, call up the dealer or, you know, get in touch with them >> and ask them if they got any to sell >> and if they do, you know, I'd set it up, meet them somewhere, go to their house or something. >> 40 bucks. >> Yeah, it's, you know, >> I have no problem. I >> I go to my dealers. I have uh probably about 12 or 13 of them. One of those guys is got to have it. >> What do you think? I'm letting them know. Go for it. >> Yeah. All right. You got how much? 20. There you go. >> A ounce usually cost about $35. You know, just regular marijuana. And it just cost $35. And a half bag, which is a half an ounce, cost $7.50. >> It's not really hard. I mean, you know, everything in life cost you a little bit. I mean, you know, to get a car cost, you know, you work up to save money to buy a car. I just save money to buy pot. >> Hey, where can I pick up a joint? Or where can I pick up a sack? Oh, over here, over there. You know, so and so ran out, so you have to go to so and so. You know, there's usually a main dealer where all the small dealers at the schools go to. Very often as we uh focus on what happens to the marijuana user, we sort of put the magnifying glass on uh that person and we forget all of the other people in his or her life that are affected. For example, family interactions are greatly affected. If a kid becomes uh secretive, guilty, angry, tense, there can be a significant disruption in the quality of family life. >> Well, when I first noticed it, she was acting really bored all the time and uh seemed like she just had to be on the go all the time. And I thought there was something strange about it, but I never thought it was marijuana or, you know, or anything like that. I just thought that she was just bored with life. But why? I didn't know. >> When Gina's grades started going down and skipping classes and stuff like that. Well, I didn't know what it was. I think if I had have known this, then I could have said, "Hey, she's on marijuana. Maybe I could have done something right away because I just didn't know what it was." And I think if parents would learn these things, they could see the difference in their child. parents can get together. They can form support groups. Uh and I'm talking about forming uh support groups in their neighborhood to uh use the resources that are available to them. Uh there are parents within uh every community who share similar kinds of problems. >> That's the other part of the egg, isn't it? >> There was really a denial period. We really didn't accept the fact and take steps right you know any real hard steps at that time >> 10 hours a week again next week offer you had >> I guess that was my biggest problem I was shocked like not Jean not my sweet little girl you know I try to talk to her you know asking her what's wrong and she was missing a lot of school too and I just kept trying to find out why you know what have I done wrong >> I'm just going to look at it >> my mother gave up on me and that hurt you know although I was using heavily that hurt and you know I realized my family is going to be the only one that's with me for the rest of my life you know and these people out on the streets could give a damn about me >> I never can agree with the fact that you can be your buddy to your child you're still the parent but I think you should be a good listener I think young people like adults who listen, but still are strong enough to have some conviction to say to have an opinion on something. They like direction. I think young people want a friendly uh listener, but they also want an adult to take some kind of stance. When you say, "I'm your friend and I it doesn't matter to me what you do." They usually don't respect you. They like for you to have an opinion. They like for you to give them an alternative. If not this, what? Well, there's a word I really like and as a principal I use it too is tough love. >> The person who really loves a child but knows how to be an adult and give leadership, the most effective thing is to show them love, be able to express affection, but also to show them direction. [Music] >> Talk, communicate with your young person. Don't yell and cry and get upset and say, "Oh, why are you doing this to me?" You know, everybody would say, "Oh, why are you doing this to me? Those young people are doing it to themselves. >> Parents have to understand that they do have power, that they have power to change uh their situation. They have power within themselves to deal with the problems that they're facing. But parents can't deal with their problems until they get to the point where they say, "Okay, I've had enough. What can we do? Let's do something. >> If you could just get your children and just um you know have maybe twice a week group sessions you know with the parents and the children and and um you know just talk and maybe you could find out maybe there is a problem that's causing these children to uh you know just get high and and um you know do all these things. I have a parent group, a parent support group I go to and um most of their kids was in the same situation and they all had the same problem. They don't know where it went wrong or what to do about it. And we got this parent group together and we uh we meet every Monday and we talk about these things and it's easier now for me. When a parents group forms or when parents begin to examine this, they get all kinds of new information. That information arms them so that they can take a stand. They are further positioned by having company and companionship into feeling that they're not alone. >> I'll probably smoke until I'm in my 40s or 50s. I mean, you know, I might not ever quit smoking. You know, from now at the from viewpoint now, I don't think I ever quit. >> The parent has to say that I care enough about you that I don't want you to endanger your health. I'm not going to sit back and allow you to injure yourself and to get stoned in a regular way as you grow up. You're not going to win this in an arm wrestle. You're going to win it because ultimately you care about your child. You want him to care about himself. You want him to respect himself and have good feelings about himself and be thoughtful about his body. And your love for him is what is going to convince him. You have to operate from a position of feeling that you have a right to do that. That you have a right to take a position. That you don't have to back off and leave it to someone else.