Cannabis: What Parents Need to Know About Teen Weed Use (Marijuana 2.0)

Alcohol isn't cannabis. Using cannabis once for the wrong person can completely change their course of life. Our cannabis today is significantly more potent than it was. And so let's say that person with the family history uses a really, really potent strain of cannabis, becomes psychotic, and it doesn't go away. Then what do we do?

Welcome back to The Parenting Pair Podcast. I'm Dr. Suzanne Allen.

And I'm Dr. Annalise Caron.

And we are really thrilled to welcome an expert and a and a lovely person today, doctor Amy Swift, who is the deputy chief medical officer at Silver Hill Hospital in New Canaan, Connecticut. And while she is a clinical practitioner, she is also a specialist in addiction psychiatry with nearly two decades of research and clinical experience. And while she is an expert, and that is in part why we wanted her here, we had a couple of other reasons as well. One, we have seen her present, and she's been part of many community panels. And we so connected with this idea of another clinician who really wants to be out there and share excellent and sound and research based information with families.

And in addition, one of the things that we really loved on her bio is that she speaks about her determination to treat anyone who needs it. And so we just felt like this is such a a wonderful person who has this expertise and clinical background, but also a really caring clinical professional who can help offer some guidance to families today. So welcome, Doctor. Smith. We're so excited to have you.

Oh, thank you so much for the invitation.

Yeah. I think today, we'd really love to focus on cannabis use in teens, you know, teens and young adults, because I think there's a lot of confusing information for parents out there. And, you know, with recent legalization in a number of states, we have people that listen from all over The US, so things, you know, vary by state. But there there seems to be some, you know I don't I don't know if confusion is the right word around kind of the perception of harm related to cannabis because now suddenly it's legal and, you know, there's all different, you know, ways to impart cannabis. And so I wondered if we could start there because I hear from parents and I hear from teens as well that they have the impression that maybe, you know, cannabis is better to use than alcohol or, you know, is more okay.

Do you hear that, and what are your thoughts about that?

I do also hear that. And unfortunately, it's a 100% false. And if I may give you my elevator pitch for why cannabis is really important to be aware of the risks of. I think that it would be a lovely way to start this conversation.

We'd love that. Please.

Yeah. So cannabis, there is no role for cannabis in a teen's life. Cannabis is a substance that dramatically impacts brain development and makes for a can mess with what our teens are trying to do, which is optimize the way that their brain develops and the decisions they make and, honestly, the experiences they have. As you stated, with legalization, there is this myth that it's harmless, and it is something that carries significant risk, but more particularly for the adolescent brain than for the adult brain.

And when you say significant risk, could you speak more to that? I mean, I I certainly have some sense of what you mean, but for our listeners, what is that significant risk for teens? What sorts of things are you seeing or are you concerned we could be opening the door for in their development?

The biggest risk factor for teens that use cannabis is that it can impact their mental health. And there are a couple of different ways that it can impact their mental health. The first, I'll start with the most concerning. Cannabis is what's called a psychoactive substance, meaning that it can create symptoms in the brain that weren't already there and that aren't connected with reality. So it can create what we call psychotic symptoms.

Most of us, in layman's terms, it can make you really paranoid. And when you say that, people can identify that experience, and sometimes you'll get a little smile or, you know, some acknowledgement. But paranoia is not normal. And the more that it happens, the more that it gives you the indication that there's something in your brain you have to watch for. That's the most serious one.

But also, there was a recent study that that I've talked about recently in one of the other presentations that I did they really highlighted for us what cannabis can do to the teen brain, and it showed a direct connection between cannabis use and the development of anxiety and depression up to two years later. And that is not something that we can ignore because anxiety and depression in a teenager can really disrupt their functioning and impact their ability to perform in school, to perform socially, with sports, all the things that are so important for that time period.

I I think what's interesting about I I have questions about both things you said. But what's interesting about the second thing you were just speaking to is a lot of teenagers will tell us, right, in therapy that the reason they started using cannabis is because it helps their anxiety. Right? And so it's like a confusing point, but it helps. And so, you know, and and to some degree, for some people, I would say, it does feel as though it helps, right, in in the short term.

And and so the teen teens will say that, and yet you're, you know, educating us that this can really lead to greater mental health problems or more significant anxiety or depression.

Right. And that's the thing that we, as a culture, have to do better about is being able to identify that helping your anxiety doesn't just mean distracting from it. And that's what they're actually saying, is that I don't notice I'm so anxious for the time period I'm intoxicated. And I get why that's enticing. Sure.

It's nice to think I have something that's gonna give me a little bit of a break from how much anxiety I feel throughout the day that oftentimes piles up by night. Your, you know, your gas tank is empty, you're completely depleted, and you want a break. You don't wanna feel the way you've been feeling. So I agree that there are experiences that it's helping with it, but it's actually just distracting from it. And we do know through research that it's contributing to anxiety becoming a lifelong worse disorder that you will actually have to manage the rest of your life as opposed to this little Band Aid of two hours where you feel less anxious because you don't notice that the anxiety is still there.

Right. And just as a follow-up to your first point about the paranoia and that being, you know, sort of a risk of, you know, psychotic symptoms, I think a lot of, you know, people may think that the paranoia they experience is kind of funny, you know, or fun, or isn't it, you know, oh, Sally over there feels really paranoid. But when you're saying, you know, psychotic symptoms, you're meaning that that could fundamentally could lead to a more significant long standing type of concern?

It can. The thing that I would love for teens to understand is not everybody gets paranoid. And because, like you described, they think it's funny, they also think it's normal, and it's very much not normal to become paranoid. So to that level. So if you do notice it, it means your brain has a unique characteristic that's allowing for it, and we have to pay attention because it's very much you know, if you have a, you know, kind of a ground full of leaves and you've uncovered a little pile where you see the ground, and that's paranoia.

Right? The more you do that, the more ground that's gonna be exposed, the more chance that all of a sudden you're gonna see that the ground underneath is incredibly rocky, and now you can't cover it anymore. And that's what this is doing, It's it's uncovering these little piles so much so that at some point, you may not be able to put it back together. So noticing it is incredibly important, and highlighting that it is not normal to become paranoid when you smoke pot is one of the messages that we as a community have to embrace and honestly share.

Well, you're doing that for us today. Thank you. Yeah.

I you know, it makes as we're talking about this, I'm thinking about a lot of the questions that we get as clinical psychologists who work with with teens and families. And I I can say I've gotten numerous text messages and phone calls through the years from parents when they kind of stumble upon some information that their teen might be experimenting, might be using. You know, they see a text message, they find something in their room, and, you know, sometimes not sure kind of what to do next, how concerned should they be, what part of this is kind of, you know, we we hear a lot of times, like, normal or typical adolescent desire for experimentation, but hearing you speak, this sounds like really risky. And so kind of what would what do you recommend parents do and kind of how aggressively, I guess, to to go after this if they discover something, and then how to talk to a teen about it? Because most of the time teenagers don't love when their parents have found something out that they've been hiding.

Right. That's usually not a great start for a conversation.

Correct. Correct. So there are a

couple of ways. One, the first thing is just kind of the way we do everything in medicine should be preventative to start. So if you start conversations early and start conversations with younger kids, you already have a framework for when they may be exposed to it that you can pull from to have a conversation. The second thing is to come at it with curiosity. First, fact find about what may be going on.

Because if we come at it as a parent with all our emotion or all our worry, they're just gonna feel the emotion, and they're gonna ignore the content. So being curious first will hope help open the door so you can answer the next question, which is what do you really do with the information you get? And so that's where we as a parent have to be prepared to hear anything. We have to prepare for the worst, hope for the best. So prepare for the idea that their kid might say, you know what?

I smoke pot every day before school. And then be able to modulate our own emotions so that we can continue to gather information. Because if we don't model emotional control, the kid's gonna erupt with an even bigger display of emotion, and the whole conversation's gonna shut down. So the most important thing that I would say is gather as much information in a calm manner that you can. If you do find out that your kid is really using more than having tried it, absolutely involve somebody else.

As we said, it is incredibly dangerous for the teen brain to be exposed to cannabis. The more they're exposed to it, the more problematic it is. The more regularly they're exposed to it, the more problematic it is. And as you identified earlier, maybe there is something going on that they're trying to help themselves cope with. And so we do have strategies to help teens cope with anxiety, depression, things of that nature, but cannabis isn't it.

But we can give them the recommendation to what it is. The last kind of comment I'll make on it is if you do identify that there really could be a use disorder, involve a person that's a professional. Triangulate the conversation. You can't force them to stop if you really just say stop doing this. The teen does the exact opposite.

They just hide it from you more. And so being able to push the accountability to a professional that's less emotionally attached to the consequences will be really important because parent dynamics with kids, as you know, are very multifactorial. If you have just one person managing substance use in the teenager, the identified goal is clear, and it really illuminates for the adolescent what is expected of them. Whereas in the parent child dynamic, there's a lot expected of them in different settings, in different ways, at different times.

I also think that that's very helpful and clear. I I think sometimes parents need clear guidance, but it also should be a little bit of relief to parents because I think so often parents feel like they're supposed to know, they're supposed to do, they have to fix it, they have to stop it, and sometimes you just can't. Like, you need the extra help, and that helps the parent teen relationship. Right? Like, you know, you can say, well, doctor so and so suggested x or y, and we're gonna follow this paradigm.

I'm you know, because this is what's best for us, for all of us as opposed to you know, there's so much pressure parents feel.

We had a patient on our inpatient unit that was really struggling with cannabis use. He was a 14 year old kid. And I first had a meeting with mom, and I said, listen. We're gonna sit down. I'm gonna make the recommendation in front of both of you that she does not police you.

Because at this point, it has gotten to the point where this policing of your cannabis use has gotten eruptive, and we can't have this escalation of behavior. And so to be very clear, like you're saying to the parent and what we're expecting of them, but also share with the child that we are putting somebody else in play that's going to help the situation so that they don't that we're not they're they're very everyone's very clear of what their roles are. Because the parents, you know, they typically come in with quite a bit of shame when they realize that their kid's doing something that, quote, deviates from the norm. Right? Like, my 14 year old smoking pot every day, I'm a failure as a mom.

Right? And that that's not what we're saying. We're saying that your 14 year old smoking pot every day, I want you to continue to be mom, and let's help put somebody in the dynamic that can help your 14 year old not smoke pot every day.

I really appreciate what you're seeing here. And and I think holding that as a parent, I I think that's one of the hardest things of how do you remain curious and fact find and try to manage your own emotional responses. And then also with that urge of, right, like, if you're really fearful for them, how do you stay open and regulate yourself and be open to whatever they're gonna share with you? And then you're also supposed to get them to stop it somehow too because this is really bad. Right?

So it's like, I think it's such a hard line as a parent, this, like, being open, being curious, encouraging honesty in your young person, but then also policing them too. Because they kind of run counter to each other. Right? Because the minute you start to police, they don't wanna share it with you if they're struggling to stop or don't wanna stop.

Right. And that's where I would honestly, my advice to the parent would be to reach out to the professional first, get guidance about and maybe role play a little bit first about how you're gonna approach it so the parent has a framework when they go in. Because if they try and go in blind and, like you're saying, try and regulate and then police and do all those things, it's a lot to ask a human to do when you're looking at this person you love in front of you and, you know, your mind is spinning and catastrophizing of what could happen if you don't do this right. So I think that my I'll amend my recommendation to add, have, you know, the parent find out what what support they're gonna recommend if it's worst case scenario, and maybe reach out to that person first.

Very good advice. Yeah.

Can we shift this

and ask a question a little bit about when we think about alcohol with teens? Obviously, alcohol affects the developing brain, granted in a different way, a couple of different ways. But there is this sort of understanding, maybe with the longer years of regulation or whatever else, that teens, not all teens, seems to be decreasing a bit, but, like, may try alcohol. And we do educate parents that, you know, you wanna express that using alcohol, it's it's illegal. It has effects on the brain.

It's dangerous to drive with. We don't support that. And if you do, I don't want you to get yourself in trouble. Right? And we've sort of threaded that needle for a long time, educating parents that we really want to model, you know, appropriate sort of drinking if you drink, you know, in front of your children.

But then on top of that, to let them know that you'll always get them if they could find themselves in a difficult situation. I wonder if you could speak to Marijuana feels a little bit differently, but if we're if we're talking about not the teen that's the 14 year old using cannabis every day before school, but as someone who maybe, I don't know, has has tried cannabis twice, and you're you're aware of that for some reason, what should the response be? Should we be threading encouraging parents to thread that needle in that way? Or do we handle it differently because of the, you know, significant risk, particularly if you're vulnerable, if you happen to be one of those people that's vulnerable to greater psychiatric risk?

I would say we handle it differently. This isn't that. Alcohol isn't cannabis. Using cannabis once for the wrong person could completely change their course of life. If they or somebody like you just described that potentially has a family history of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, even affect you know, a mood disorder, and they use the wrong you know, because we haven't touched on this point yet, but this is part of the cannabis conversation.

Our cannabis today is significantly more potent than it was. And so let's say that person with the family history uses a really, really potent strain of cannabis, becomes psychotic, and it doesn't go away, then what do we do? Right? Now we really, really have a different situation on our hands. So I think that although I understand why people would think those scenarios are the same, try drinking a couple times or tried cannabis a couple times, the response has to be entirely different.

If you know that your child has tried cannabis, definitely I would recommend crafting a conversation where they can be open to hearing what the actual risks are. And the actual risks for the teenage brain are huge. This isn't true for alcohol. The risks of the behavior on when somebody's intoxicated could be problematic for the teenager, but not the lasting insult to the brain. The lasting insult to the brain from cannabis on the teenage brain could be immense.

So helpful for that clarity because I think it it also it it's understandably you know, I I have a lot of sympathy and empathy for parents. Like, it's confusing to people. Right? The the messaging on on cannabis a bit. And I think for parents who may be either medicinally or recreationally use themselves, knowing how to thread this needle, it's it's it's different from alcohol is is very important.

But that leads me to my next question, kind of, do have guidance for those parents maybe that use? And because I will tell you that right after it was legalized in Connecticut, I went to a gathering of a bunch of adults, but there were young people, and this was years ago, so probably tweens, you know, there and and elementary school students there, and and a number of parents were were using. And it was right it it was surprising to me. So so just how do how do we sort of educate in that context?

Right. And that's it's unfortunately what you're describing is incredibly common. And because cannabis is more of an invisible substance, right, there now that we have gummies and different ways to ingest it, there may not even be a smell or it it's two seconds of popping into your mouth and and it's done. That doesn't make it less dangerous. And so one of the things that we as adults, and honestly, we should be doing in our social settings, is really, really sharing the message that the cannabis impact on the adult brain is significantly different than what we're talking about for kids.

So if an adult is choosing to use it around their child, I would hope I I don't think that they should be using it around their child, be honest, because it's very hard for a child to see if you could do something, why can't I? But if they are choosing to do that, to be explicit every single time, honestly, and reminding them that what this does to me is not what it could do to you. It could change your life. For me, the risks have diminished because my brain is fully developed. Your brain is in a period of such rapid development that it is still risky to do.

It's very much, you know, when we pick up a baby when they're very, very little, we hold their head. Right? There are things we put in place, guardrails we put in place because physiologically, they haven't developed in a way where they can safely sit up on their own. Right? This is the same thing.

They can't you know, this is us holding the baby's head when they're newborns. It's saying they're not prepared yet to be in that position, and that's what it is for cannabis. Their their brains are not prepared yet to be exposed to THC, which is the active ingredient in cannabis. But that leads me to my next point is that it's very, very hard to police adults. So it's very, very hard to say to anybody, particularly in social situations, to your friends, like, hey.

Do should we be doing this in front of our kids? And so where I would love for kind of the movement to go next is be able to get the parents in the room and gather everyone together in the shared mission of if you are going to use, I'm not gonna tell an adult what they can or can't do, but let's create a scenario where we all are able to share the message that using this is not okay for you.

Yeah. I I think that would be be very powerful. And, you know, and I I have a I have a lot of understanding for what for why parents are confused, but I think you're right getting that message out. And it really and and it also strikes what you were saying earlier about how much easier and more helpful it is to start this message early. Because if you're giving this message to, you know, your 18 year old son or daughter, you know, that ship has sailed.

They've got you know, they're in their identity development. They're clear. You're wrong. Right? Whereas if it starts early and this is sort of a value of the family, not only a value, it's the facts, but it's sort of a part of the culture.

It's probably easier to be received and taken in.

Yeah. I I think about this, and I I the the preventative nature you were talking about, and I can also imagine that for many parents who maybe, you know, have a a fifth grader going into middle school or maybe they haven't encountered it yet in their community or for whatever reason, that the idea of kind of launching into a cannabis conversation with, you know, a ten, eleven, or 12, you know, might, for some families, feel like that's coming out of nowhere. How how do I do this? And so I I would love, you know, any thoughts that you have for parents if you have a younger teen, tween, or or elementary schooler. Like, what what might those conversations look like?

Yeah. I mean, I'll disclose. I have I have a sixth grader, and we talk about it because she's curious now. She'll listen to me now. She wants to know what mommy has to say now.

I have to, you know, I have

grader and he's still listening too. I got him for a little longer.

Exactly. But, like, this is the window of opportunity for us to plant seeds. Right? You don't plant a seed and expect the flower to grow. But my hope is that the more that we talk about it, when this when she does find herself in some situation where somebody offers it, she now has this framework.

Right? Like I've helped her develop a superego in her mind where she could pull from and say, hey, that's not really for me. I really you know, in her case, she's really, really dedicated to sports. And so one of the things that we you know, she asked me. She's like, why do people smoke pot?

And I'll be like, wow. That's I mean, there are a lot of reasons people make individual choices, but can I share with you why I would hope that you wouldn't? So I don't wanna reinforce the information about why it's good. I wanna counter the information about why it might be problematic. And the other thing that I do with her, but is I I do with all my patients and, you know, kind of in life and the way I talk to people is we all believe the things that our own voice says.

So if I can craft questions that then she produces an answer that would help reinforce not using, that's what I do with her. So I say, what would be really like, if if you were to smoke pot and something were to happen, what would be the scariest thing that could happen? And have her say that so that that reinforces for her that this is not a great thing. Because the more that we, as humans, argue for something, the more that somebody else is gonna argue a bit against it. So I want to create conversations where she herself is arguing against it.

So for her, she would say, well, if I were to smoke pot and everybody would make fun of me, I'm like, yeah, you really wouldn't like that it created a situation where people were laughing at your behavior. Right? So then I'll reinforce what she said back so she hears it in a way that is, oh, that's bad. I don't want that. But also developing with the younger kids the ability to say no.

It's their greatest superpower, and that predicting what happens when you say no is you feel this wave of embarrassment. Right? Everybody's gonna have this reaction. And being understanding that if you ride that wave for ninety seconds, it'll go away. Onto the next.

Kids will notice something else. But they have to know or be able to have some idea to anticipate the wave of embarrassment ending.

Yeah. That's that's a very good point.

Yeah. Because I think sometimes we can inadvertently frame, like, doing the right thing, and you have to be brave enough to say no, you know, or even practicing kids helping saying no, which, you know, practicing things at home, there's nothing wrong with that. But I we talk about this all the time, obviously, on this podcast, how powerful emotions are. Right? You can be the most confident and have the most you know, and you say that no, and then you feel terribly embarrassed.

That's embarrassment is one of those ones. That's and particularly as our kids get older as teens, right, around peers to feel like you're the odd one out or doing something different, we can't underscore how powerful that feeling can be.

And that's why I try honestly, I'll tell you the secret, is try and tie being intoxicated with cannabis as the embarrassing thing. I'm not saying that explicitly, but I'm trying to draw out from them that when the potential exists, when you smoke, that you'll feel like everybody's against you, that you'll feel embarrassed by the way your actions are, what people are perceiving of you, so that they understand that although it feels very embarrassing to decline it, the potential embarrassment of being intoxicated and being Sally in the corner is significantly worse.

And and the idea that they don't you know, if they get themselves into that situation, have the agency in that moment to stop it. Because once you're intoxicated with cannabis, you can't just turn that off. Whereas, if you if you do, you know, get that agency to say no, you may feel the discomfort. But as you point out, it will pass. And you add the agency, and you can control the whole rest of your evening.

Right. And it reliably will pass. And the difference the other thing that I will say, the difference between cannabis and alcohol is that there are things that people can do to modulate the effects of intoxication from alcohol. So unfortunately, some teens, you know, if they're feeling really, really drunk, they'll throw up or they'll, you know, try and drink a bunch of water, eat or things like that. Cannabis is in your brain.

It's gonna last as long as it's gonna last. So once you're there, like you said, you're there, and you're on that journey until it's gone. And that also could be a really terrifying feeling for a teen that just wants to be in control much of the time.

That's a very good point. That's a very good point. I'm curious, just given you mentioned your daughter's age. You know, another aspect to this is, you know, do do parents that do use recreationally or medicinally, do they lock it up or have it hidden, or is it readily available? Right?

And I'm I'm curious. This is sort of, I guess, a broader question about kind of our movement in terms of education around cannabis. A, do you have thoughts on that? And and b, it seems as though we should be talking to our kids, which which we were about the packages, you know, the the gummies and the things that look like candy that you could run into something that doesn't look like this, but is this, and how to be aware of that. It's it's a it's a big burden for our kids to be tracking.

It's hard.

It is, and we should be locking it up. This is the the industry has done everything to make it look attractive. We have to understand the potential impact of this. It's very much, you know, you wouldn't I don't know if you've ever seen some of the memes or something about, like, kids that accidentally drink energy drinks or something. Like, they're it's not good for them, and we shouldn't be making it look attractive or accessible to them.

We that message has to be consistent. And so as you said, like, we're not gonna tell parents you can't use this. But what we should say is if you're choosing to use something that could cause a mental health concern in your child later, should they use it in a problematic way? It should be treated with concern and in a conservative nature in your home. We lock up guns.

Right. Well, that's what that's exactly what I was thinking. Right? That there was you know, and and it got to a point, I don't hear about that as much anymore, but where people were asking, you know, do you have a gun in your home? You know, at least, know, in in this country.

Dates. That's Yeah. Before play dates. And and it's it's a fair question. Right?

And is that is that blocked if you do? I think moving a culture is is going to be hard, and we're in a great period of transition. I wonder, just for our audience, would you be willing to speak a little bit about just how different not you you mentioned already that the levels of THC are so much higher than if you think of the eighties and nineties or when we were growing up. Could you speak, you know, a little bit to even just the fact that it's not kind of regulated like alcohol? Like, we all learned in health class that one glass of wine was one shot of this is you know, we don't really have that, and it seems like what you might get in a gummy one week is totally different than what you might get a different week.

Right?

Right. It's a 100% different. There's no way to test it. The only test is when you if someone takes it and they have a really, really bad reaction. And we get these false sense of security.

They'll be like, oh, I got it from the same person, the same thing every time. Okay. But upstream. Right? The person that they got it from, you have no idea.

And unfortunately, you know, for adults that buy it at dispensaries, yeah, sure, it is regulated. But they're also still choosing these kind of high content, which means that we know it's psychoactive. So if even if the kid is like, oh, I got it from my parent who got it from a dispensary, that's like 20% THC sometimes. That's huge. And that's really problematic for the teen brain.

So either they're getting it illicitly and we have no idea what's in it, or they're potentially getting it from their parent from a dispensary and we know what's in it and that's bad for their brain.

Could you speak to I think there's a perception too that, you know, that marijuana being laced is less frequent, you know, and and I think this, you know, certainly in terms of fentanyl and stuff, people wouldn't imagine or for certain types of drugs, they imagine that the drug could be laced with fentanyl. But with marijuana, they say, oh, that's not gonna happen. In your experience, can you speak to that? Is that a thing?

So two things. Yes. It's a thing. It can be laced with fentanyl. But the second thing is is that people wanna call it laced when it's just the cannabis that's causing the problem.

It's just the amount of THC that caused the bad trip or the bad experience. So, yes, it can be laced, and more often, it's just the density and the potency of the of the THC that's the problem.

Yeah. That's that's a helpful perspective.

But that being said, I will I do give Narcan kits to people that have heavy cannabis use if I fentanyl in their urine. Like, say they come in and they say, all I do is smoke pot, but their urine's fentanyl positive. I'll be like, guess what? Your cannabis was laced. You need to have a Narcan kit on you because the chances that you could unintentionally overdose are high.

That's that's it's really scary. It is really scary. Yeah. This is unrelated. I mean, it's related, but unrelated.

Just since you brought up Narcan, I could talk to you all day. I I know. Really, like, just come over to my living room and what's that?

Oh, we can do it later.

Because I know you're out of time. I just but to the Narcan issue, you know, a few years ago, I was almost wondering if really everyone with a child or everyone in a neighborhood should just have a Narcan kit in their house. I mean, I feel like this is easy. This is easy peasy and important. Right?

Literally. And it should be like a party favor. Right? Like, you leave middle school quarterly, and you get a Narcan kit because it's so low risk, and it is so important. It will could save a life if people around you in the home if there's one kid at a party that their friend smoked that lace cannabis with fentanyl, they'd never seen it any before, all of a sudden, somebody slumped over in the corner while somebody else is deciding whether or not safe to call 911.

You just give them a little puff in the nose. And if they wake up, you just save their life. If they don't wake up, it wasn't that. Right. There's no honestly, it's like we should be teaching kids how to empower them to be that person there at the right time with the right information to potentially save a life.

You'll never regret that.

A 100%. And there's no downside to using it?

No downside. Like you were No downside. Correct, and it wasn't like Narcan you could Narcan me right now. I'd be fine.

Well, that would make the podcast interesting, but it but it would be a good educational tool.

And I've had it in my desk. I do it to myself when you write it.

Can we have you in my pocket? It'll be Yeah. Well, there there's so much you have so much information. Thank you for for interrupting your workday to speak to us and thereby speak to all of our listeners.

Do you have any you know, if if parents are feeling like, oh my gosh. I'm I'm afraid. I'm overwhelmed. I I couldn't have this conversation. I don't know what to say.

Do you ever have any recommendations of kind of not sensationalist or fear mongering places for parents to maybe, you know, watch a video on a on a good way to talk about this or just to learn a little bit more about cannabis so maybe they feel a little, you know, more knowledgeable?

There are some websites. I haven't really vetted them out because honestly, I'd like if I get that, I just talk to the person myself. So I should I should know that more about where I would tell somebody to go. But maybe I can try and find that out at some point. Maybe you guys could attach it to your website or something.

Yeah. Yeah. Because I just do it in the moment. If someone says, what should I do? Said, let's talk about it now.

Yeah. And, you know, I and I think, you know, we can all go down this rabbit hole of research. I think also what I've heard from you today, so I should highlight this other side is we parents don't have to be experts. None of us have to be experts. Right?

And part of the curiosity is trying to understand where our kids are coming from, what they know about cannabis, being curious maybe with ourselves and our own attitudes and perceptions about it. Right? So so we don't have to kind of have all the scientific data and evidence to argue with our kids about use. Right? But but just some general knowledge and understanding, and really maybe just at the basis of it's not for them and their brain development.

And we we gotta start there. And then also be curious about what they know or or think or believe.

Right. Exactly. But it's a clear message. It is not for the adolescent brain. It really isn't.

Thank you so much, doctor Swift. We really appreciate this conversation. We would love, you know, we at some point to have you back to talk about, you know, other concerns that our teens are face facing. You're just so very knowledgeable.

I'd be happy to. Anytime.

Well, with that, I think we'll wrap up for today. Thank you, doctor Swift, for coming on. As always, if you have any feedback for us or any questions, don't hesitate to reach out. Email us at glow@theparentingcare.com or DM us on Instagram. If you

what else? I think that's time and wanna rate and review, we'll take that as well.

That sounds great.

And and share this episode with another parent because, genuinely, not only, you know, is this really helpful for everyone in the community to know, but you really could save someone's life or really help the trajectory of another family's life preventatively. So please, share this with someone that you you care about or you know. 100%.

Alrighty. Have a great week. And now a quick word from our lawyers. The Parenting Pair Podcast is designed for informational and educational purposes only. Do not rely on the information presented in this podcast as a substitute or replacement for professional psychological or medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

If you have concerns about you or a family member's well-being, please contact a licensed mental health professional or physician.