• Introduction : What is "Families & Psychoactives"?
  
• Dialogs : Family Members Talk about Their Experiences
  
• Questions : What We're Interested In
  
• Contact : Questions, Comments and Suggestion
  

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Introduction

Erowid is gathering stories about how families who value cannabis and psychedelics have handled things in the midst of the Drug War. The emphasis in our approach is on "family" rather than just "kids and drugs" or what may be wrong with school-based programs. This focus is also on personal accounts rather than empirical research. These are stories we are less likely to read among existing resources, since this is a taboo subject, and families' experiences are shared person-to-person and are not often documented.

Dialogs

"Our kids are pretty straight in a lot of ways [mother]" A couple whose kids just left for college have been doing psychedelics fo years, but did not let their children know, preferring to give them a choice.	"It's like questions about sex [father]" Recently divorced, this father of a 17-year-old and a 14-year-old describes how he's handled the topic of drugs with his children.
"The Normal Everyday Family [mother, daughter, & son]" This mother and her two adult children, ages 23 and 19, discussed with us their family's approach to "medicines" in the context of prayer circles.	"We were leading really different lives [mother]" A mother of two sons, ages 25 and 28, who raised them as a single parent. As adults, they've done psychedelics together.
"I feel a lot of responsibility [sister]" A college student whose little brother recently started doing drugs, and who struggles with how best to talk with him about it.	"As easy as looking in the Dictionary [mother]" A mother, gardener, business owner, teacher and writer who developed drug education classes for her sons' schools.
"My main concern is balance [mother]" A single mom raising her 15-year-old daughter.	"She sat me down and talked about it [daughter]" A teenager who did mushrooms for the first time, with her mother.
"No idea what had just happened [son]" Usually very open about his use of psychedelics, when asked about his experience doing LSD with his mother, Michael took pause.	"Hoping it would bridge some communication [cannabis activists]" Hemp and medical marijuana movements who interact with many families who have faced questions around cannabis.
"We needed him to protect our privacy [chaperones]" A couple who chaperoned their friend's 15-year-old son for his first mushroom and ecstasy experiences.	"It was different in my household [daughter]" -- Corporate executive who grew up in a hippie household; her mother was a staunch proponent of cannabis use.
"Not until they were curious enough to ask [father]" An MD clinical psychopharmacologist who has been honest with his children about drugs.	"So I gave him MDMA and 2C-B [brother]" A 24-year-old peer counselor and health educator. At the time of his interview, he and his wife were the guardians for his 16-year-old brother.
"We have to be careful about babysitters [mother]" Parents with an interest in psychoactives discuss issues around selecting babysitters for their young son.	"He understands[daughter]" A 17-year-old girl who has been open with her father about her use of psychoactives.
"Because of his background, wait until he's older [mother]" A single mother raising an adopted 12-year-old son.

Questions We've Asked

• "Can you tell me a little bit about attitudes about psychoactives around your house when you [or your children] were growing up?"
• "Can you describe a little bit more the setting [of a particular experience]?"
• "How old were you [when this experience happened]?"
• "Knowing what you know now, and just thinking back on the experience, would you have done anything differently?"
• "What were some of the things that informed your approach? Was it seeing things around you that didn't work? Things that did work? Were there things that you read, or people that you met that had had experiences that you thought were relevant?"
• "What about siblings, how have their experiences differed from your own?"
• "What kind of follow-up, or "integration" happened after the experience?"
• "Were there other people in your community doing this in a similar fashion? Did you see yourself as having peers, in the context of a community?"

Contact

E-mail: families@erowid.org

Mail: Erowid -- P.O. Box 1116 -- Grass Valley, CA 95945