Cannabis and Parenting

By Annette M. Mackay, MA

Cannabis is shedding the stigma of illicit behavior and is becoming more mainstream. Evidence for this comes from expanding legalization, positive cultural images, and open rather than underground groups for recreational and medicinal cannabis users. As cannabis use increases, studies of how people incorporate consumption in daily life merit scrutiny.

It stands to reason then that cannabis use among parents of minor children aged 17 and under will be a topic of discussion. In a 2017 Yahoo News/Marist poll, 22 percent of adult Americans said they regularly consumed. Of this group, 54 percent or about 30,000 adults were parents. A greater percentage of parents said they have tried cannabis at least once or were occasional users. But is cannabis use acceptable behavior for parents, or are there different standards depending on the parent’s social group?

Research on cannabis and parenting is still emerging, but the debates surround issues of parental responsibility, racism, legality, and social class disparity in perceptions of its use. Framing cannabis either as a social problem or a social fact appears to shape attitudes toward parents who use cannabis as well as the merits of cannabis in fulfilling the role of a parent. A social problem generally causes harm and requires corrective action. A social fact, on the other hand, is generally accepted as part of our existence; one that we live with rather than try to change.

Parental Responsibility and Stigma

Society recognizes parenthood as a serious responsibility. After all, moms and dads are the primary caregivers to the dependent human beings who are our hope and our future. While there are few rewards for being known as “a good parent”, the label of “a bad parent” often carries a heavy social stigma. Not only is one’s personal reputation at stake, bad parenting can have far-reaching legal and social consequences. Considering that the complex history of cannabis often influenced discrimination and prejudice, the combination of cannabis and parenting often reproduces racial and social class disparity in our society.

Political Objectives and Racism

When it comes to alcohol and drug consumption there are clear perceptional directions: approval if they are beneficial or at least not harmful to the family, and disdain if there is suspicion of harm from inappropriate use. Indeed, substance use is a strong factor in the judgement of parental responsibility. Overall, groups that offer helpful aid and advice to parents are more likely to focus on remediating substance abuse rather than promote any benefits of alcohol or cannabis.

Knowing this, political operatives exploited the stigma of bad parenting on behalf of their policy objectives. “Good parenting” became political tool for advancing the War on Drugs and its subsequent racially biased aftermath. Historically, business leaders, social reformers, and politicians have long used cannabis for racist, xenophobic, and economic objectives. In the Reagan era, social activists and politicians weaponized the motivation for good parenting to conflate cannabis use with parental irresponsibility and child endangerment from underage drug use. With leading parent advocacy groups supportive of anti-drug measures, policymakers attached parental cannabis use to the label of bad parenting. Politicians formed allies among parent organizations who were more likely to support anti-drug candidates and oppose those that favor cannabis legalization.

The War on Drugs effectively expanded legal powers in the criminalization of cannabis which had concurrent racial overtones. According to the ACLU, blacks are nearly 4 times as likely to be arrested for cannabis than whites. Add that to the data showing that blacks are incarcerated at a rate 5 times higher than whites, the “bad parent” stigma combined with cannabis criminalization creates a power tool for discrimination. A study reported in the Journal of Women's Health found comparable positive test rates among black and nonblack peripartum mothers. Yet black mothers were tested at higher rates for cannabis prior to giving birth. The implicit assumption is that black mothers are more likely to be unfit.

When we consider the negative effects of incarceration on child well-being, the logic of harnessing the motivation for good parenting in anti-drug policies backfires. Instead of making our communities more nurturing places for all children, the War on Drugs has created a social hierarchy where poor and minority families are more likely to struggle to achieve the ideal of good parenting. The consequences of incarceration include parental separation, job loss, poverty, and emotional instability. These are all markers of less than optimal parenting which again disproportionately affects minority families.

Government reports and medical studies funded by government agencies take the stance that parental cannabis use is detrimental to children rather than beneficial. For example, a paper sponsored by the Drug Enforcement and Policy Center of the Ohio State University College of Law links cannabis use to dimensions of neglect like economic instability, heath risks from second hand exposure, and accidental ingestion by children. The tone in this paper and others suggests that parental cannabis use is problematic for children and adolescents. In addition, parents who consume do so willfully against their children’s best interests. Even a study that acknowledged calming and coping benefits from medical marijuana diminished the benefits by concluding the same can occur from other stress relieving mechanisms. Much of this comes from the fact that until recently cannabis has had no standing in legal settings.

Therefore, the concept of positive parenting and cannabis is foreign to most researchers.

Cannabis use often becomes leverage to remove children from parental custody, even if the amount of cannabis involved is insignificant for prosecution in criminal cases. As with mass incarceration, poor children of color are overrepresented in the foster care system because of parental cannabis use. Fighting custody battles is costly, even in non-criminal cases like divorce settlements. White middle class parents are more likely to retain custody of their children because affluence and influence work in tandem to their advantage. In a New Jersey study, black children who represent 14 percent of the child population make up 41 percent of those in foster care. Generally, white parents accused of irresponsible parenting are often seen as less risky to the well-being of their children. Regarding parental cannabis use, consumption is risky for some parents but less so for others.

Is There a Place for Cannabis in Parenting?

Some of that attitude is changing as more states decriminalize or legalize cannabis for recreational or medicinal use. Formal research on how parents in different social and racial groups use cannabis is limited and most of what we know comes from non-academic sources. But several key aspects emerge from journalistic reporting that shed light on cannabis in a more accepting society.

To begin, parents are candid about being cannabis users and discussing its positive aspects. Articles from top parenting magazines and major news outlets point to increasing equivalence to the effects of moderate alcohol consumption. Proponents say that cannabis is not only a de-stressor similar to an afternoon cocktail, it provides an alternative to prescription drugs to manage stress and anxiety. Parenting small children can be tedious. Moderate cannabis use helps parents be more emotionally available to their children, especially for the more mundane aspects like playing with toys or reading a book that was long committed to memory. However, these articles make it clear that cannabis is for adult consumption only and consumed mostly in private. None advocated group consumption unless the children were adults. In this case, shared cannabis use with adult children could be a bonding experience like sharing alcohol at a meal.

This is not to say that stigma and social class disparity have vanished. Articles warn that parental cannabis use may incur judgment from family, schools, and a mentioned earlier, social services. The debate over the role of cannabis and parenting quickly shifts to disapproval when people question parental responsibility. Further, the evaluation of capable parenting does not distinguish between recreational medicinal cannabis use. Both forms risk censure, especially if the parent is poor or a racial minority.

Conclusion

Two things are apparent in this is brief survey of cannabis and parenting. First, the relationship between cannabis and parenting is still part of an ongoing effort to criminalize cannabis users in one capacity or another. Arrests and convictions will decrease with legalization, but parents can face prosecution and child separation if cannabis can be used as evidence of neglect. The line between legal and punitive substance use is a tricky one.

Second, the perception of parents who use cannabis carries strong racial and classist overtones. It is compelling that given similar circumstances, black parents are and punished more for using cannabis. The comparison between child removal into foster care and mass incarceration is also clear: family separations occur more in black families. The articles supportive of cannabis use take the perspective of parents who enjoy privilege in society--the nonblack middle class who feel safest in disclosing their behavior with less concern for reprisal.

All of this creates a knowledge gap. What do we know about positive aspects of cannabis in black families or those who cannot disclose its use because of risk of losing their parental rights? We need to explore racial and class disparities as more states legalize cannabis. A full evaluation of cannabis and parenting is impossible unless we take discrimination and bias into consideration.