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Please Save Our Kids From Dope
Jeremy Roberts | The Australian | 11/26/2005

Jenny Downing has lost one son to the mental illness brought on by marijuana and almost lost another. Now she wants John Howard and other parents to learn from the mistake she made of letting the drug into her family.

Mrs Downing, who lives in the South Australian country town of Maitland, watched as her sons Ben and Tim descended into chronic marijuana abuse, losing touch with their family - and reality - for more than 10 years.

Both edged towards mental illness before Ben managed to kick the addiction. His older brother Tim - the stronger-willed of the two - is lost to the family, full of suspicion and paranoia.

"At the outset, the drug appears to work for them, helping them work and study better, be more creative, more relaxed, and socially at ease," she writes to the Prime Minister in a letter.

"Then, after regular use from six months to two years, depending on the age of the user and the potency of the drug, the drug turns on them and causes a form of psychosis."

Mrs Downing told The Weekend Australian she spent this time "stumbling in the dark".

"I want other parents to know the warning signs," she said. "If you take a step back and admit that marijuana is the beginning of mental illness, we can make a difference if we intervene."

Ben, 31, said he started smoking at the age of 14 because of "peer pressure and curiosity".

Later he would blame his morose outbursts on the death of his father from colon cancer when he was 11 years old.

Soon he was given an ultimatum by his mother and stepfather.

"He could choose marijuana or he could choose a stable family life," Mrs Downing said. "He chose marijuana."

She vividly remembers Ben leaving the family home in Maitland, on the Yorke Peninsula.

"I will never forget the day he walked up our drive and into never, never land."

She said Ben was influenced by his older brother Tim's domineering personality, but eventually got psychiatric help and started making decisions that were good for him. "He stayed an adolescent for 10 years but now he is up and running."

She thought Tim, 34, had a job dismembering chickens at a factory in Adelaide. But she could not be sure.

Mrs Downing has seen the human side to mounting research showing a link between marijuana use and mental health problems, as reported in The Australian in the past month.

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Hashishi

once again i've got to say i can relate to what's being said. i completely dismiss the addiction claims, however. but in my oppinion the bottom line is that smoking from a young age is risky business. its not a given that it will cause mental illness, but it certainly can precipitate it.

my apologies, but i have to say it.

kb_chronic

So she kicked him out of the family for smoking weed. Nice... And it seems at this point he was already over 18. What a see u in tee.

Cassius

If he was over 18, she absolutely had the right to give him the ultimatum of leaving or quitting marijuana (or at least not smoking it at home). It's her house. If he was under 18, she probably would have done better to go with a different approach, however it's still her kid and her responsibility to raise him, not mine or yours.

I think she overinflates the relatively insignificant danger of marijuana use, especially in adults, however I can't say that I have anything to object to her repudiation of kids smoking it. It's not for everyone, and children is one of the groups I would say has the most to lose from it. Not only because of the slight possibility of increased psychosis in the developing child's mind, but because you're still forming habits at that age, too. I can pretty much guarantee you that virtually all of the people who give marijuana the "couchlocked stoner" stereotype probably have been smoking most of their life. It seems to me that the people who began to use it in adulthood have the most responsible attitude towards its use.

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Abomonog

I've been smoking for some 25 years+ now. The article above is conclusive proof that I'm a raving loonie.

1...2...3...and...

They're coming to take me away haha!
They're coming to take ma away haha! hehe! hoho! harhar!
To the funny farm where life is wonderful all the time and I'll be happy to meet those nice young men in their clean white coats and they're coming to take me away!!!

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It's all fun and games until the flying monkeys attack!

 

imported_Peace_Frog

It seems to me that responsible people who smoke marijuana have the most responsible attitude toward its use.

If you want to make generalizations based on anecdotal information you should write for The Australian.

king cola

Isn't it also possible that her kids might have used other off topic drugs which eventually made them paranoid. I talked to someone who used to have a cocaine addiction and claimed they were always looking over their shoulder thinking someone was out to get them, someone would be outside working on the phone line and they would think the cops were having someone bug their phone.

Just because she knows her kids were smoking pot doesn't mean her kids would let her know if they were using something stronger after awhile.

Smoking pot at a young age when the brain is still developing might have caused their problems or worsened them if they already had problems and then started smoking pot.

It said they started smoking pot at 14, before that it doesn't really mention much about their childhood. They could have been suffering from depression, maybe had a lot of family problems when they were little. One kid was 11 when his father died, i'm sure that wasn't easy for him, he blamed himself for it, did he recieve any counsoling or did his mom just say it wasn't his fault and thought he would be fine after that? It just seems like they might have had problems before they even started toking to begin with.

dasamm

Ok, let's not forget the obvious here. A lot of people start abusing pot in the first place to self-medicate a pre-existing symptom. Does pot lead to mental illness, or are those predisposed to mental illness find pot as an escape?

I do know that ANYONE under 18 or perhaps 21 should not be smoking marijuana. The funny thing is, I remember in 8th grade if I wanted to obtain a cut of weed, it was no problem. But if I wanted alcohol (other than taking my parents) it was near impossible. Legalizing herb would in fact make it more difficult for minors to obtain, in my opinion.

oneluv4boognish

Seriously i started smoking at 14....and i was already cracking up by 12. That's like saying that i'm bipolar cause i smoked pot as a teen. And it sounds like a crock to me. Guaranteed the mom isn't saying how the kids were beat or over-sheltered...i'm sorry but there's more to this picture than was told...and why would mommy admit that SHE might be at fault for her kid choosing pot over her. Then she might look worse than a plant, and then we wouldn't have anything to talk about aside from her **** parenting skills.

And along the way reading someone said something about those that started as adults are the responsible ones. That's another crock. I started as a teen...and now i've got kids of my own. I smoke ONLY when they're away for the weekend or have been asleep soundly for atleast an hour. There was a point in time when they didn't know the difference between a tobacco cigarette or a homemade cigarette, but when they were able to distinguish...that was over. Responsibility has to do with the person at hand, not the age. But opinions are like assholes i suppose...and mine might stink...take it for what it is, just my opinion.