Susan Soares spent a year interviewing adults about talking to their children about cannabis. She found that less than 5% of parents she interviewed were informing their children about the subject—even if they worked in the industry. Obviously, in many cases unless it’s for something specifically medicinal, kids and cannabis aren’t a good mix. But Soares believes that when you hide something from children it can suggest that you are doing something wrong which in turn could feed the negative stigma around cannabis, which could cause the children to become judgemental of it as well.

Soares believes that informing young people on cannabis helps keep them safe. “Unless it’s being used for a medical purpose, it would really be better for them if they waited until their brains are fully grown,” she said. “They need to have the information.”

Soares decided to tackle this matter by giving adults an aid to talk to their kids about cannabis— something that would be light enough for a child to enjoy, but also talked about the importance of waiting to enjoy this quickly-becoming-legal plant that adults are so excited about.

Soares lives in California, where medical cannabis has been legal for decades, and became recreationally legal in 2018. (source)

The book is called  What’s Growing in Grandma’s Garden and tells the real-life tale of her grandson getting curious about her greenhouse that was always locked, because it was full of cannabis.  The book starts out by describing her garden from the kids point of view, and is a great resource for adults on how to talk to their children about cannabis.

After introducing the locked greenhouse, the pair gather ingredients for lunch. Grandson picks out sweet potatoes, and grandma gets raw cannabis to put into her fruit smoothie. When he asks her to try a bit of it, she doesn’t let him. (This part is especially important during a time when people are putting CBD into everything—non-intoxicating doesn’t mean it’s not interacting with the delicate and understudied ECS.) She then draws a brain with sidewalk chalk to help explain that his brain is still growing, and that he needs to feed it the right things to ensure he grows up to have a strong and fast brain.

After grandma medicates her sore sidewalk-chalking knees with a non-intoxicating cannabis oil, everyone comes over for their weekly barbecue. While the kids play hide-and-seek, and the other adults sip some wine (“do grown-up things”), grandma finally gets to get her buzz on, hanging downwind with a joint by the greenhouse. Then she packs up lots of fresh vegetables for everyone to take with them, and they’re on their way. (source)