Parents prep for realities of legalized marijuana
TORONTO — B.C. mom Scarlett Ballantyne wonders if Ottawa’s plans to legalize marijuana will make her 14- and 16-year-old daughters more inclined to try it. But she’s not waiting to find out.
Ballantyne says her family has been discussing the dangers of drug use since the girls were 13 — a pre-emptive strike as pot shops and marijuana headlines have been popping up everywhere they turn.
She’s proud to say they are athletic, self-confident kids, but she also gets the impression that their generation sees marijuana as “not that big of a deal.”
“As parents, it’s just (about) stressing to them that it is a big deal,” she says from her home in White Rock, south of Vancouver.