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7 tips for talking to kids about smoking pot

Listen, stick to the facts and don’t lie — or they’ll smell it on you

1. Don’t lecture. “Look for opportunities to have little chats instead,” advises Mitch Earleywine, associate professor of psychology at State University of New York at Albany. Even if your kid does have the attention span to hear you out, information is more likely to be absorbed when you deliver it over time in small doses.

2. Listen first, talk later. We learn more by hearing the whole story and then asking questions, rather than by dispensing advice from the get-go. Earleywine, who is also on the advisory board of National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, suggests questions such as, “Do you know anyone who is having problems with marijuana? Do you think he thought he’d develop problems?”

3. Get educated and use scientific fact. You can’t share the truth if you don’t know what it is. Legal and scientific facts not only earn credibility but remove subjectivity. Earleywine explains that recent brain-scan studies suggest the brain is still developing all through the teenage years. That’s a legit argument a kid might be willing to hear.

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