New blog about Melissa Etheridge smokes pot with her kids, and it’s going just fine
I’ve lived in Washington nearly all of my life — it’s long been unofficially known as the “Evergreen State” thanks to our abundance of evergreen forests, but in 2012 we became extra-green when recreational marijuana sales were approved by voters. The details are a little complicated, but I’m proud to say that my state and Colorado were among the earliest adopters.
But five years later, things are still a little weird.
When my kids were little (and the laws had not yet changed) I had one mom friend who openly smoked. I’ve since moved, and now have zero mom friends who openly puff.
Sometimes I struggle to understand why that is. Everyone and their sister-in-law brings a bottle of wine to a social gathering, but I’ve never seen anyone bring bud, pipe, edible, or vape. It’s hard to tell if I’ve somehow just managed to surround myself with conservative folk, or if there’s something we’re all still not willing to admit about getting high.
Melissa Etheridge, however, has opened up about smoking pot with her children.
The 55-year-old, pictured here with current wife Linda Wallem, recently opened up about her thoughts to Yahoo! for their Weed & the American Family series. Take a look.
Melissa Etheridge smoked pot in her younger years, but grew to appreciate its medicinal purposes when she went through chemo and radiation for breast cancer.
These days though, how much and when it’s used by whom is a matter of who’s at home. Melissa’s daughter Bailey Jean is 20, and her son Beckett with former partner Julie Cypher is 18. She’s also mother to 11-year-old twins, daughter Johnnie Rose and son Miller Steven, with ex Tammy Lynn Michaels.
“My family, all four of my children, understand cannabis…they call it medicine,” she explained. “I don’t smoke in front of them, but they have certainly walked in and caught me at times, you know, back in my porch and smoking…and they ask, ‘Is that cigarettes?’ And I have to be very, very clear with them that it’s not cigarettes. There’s a difference between cigarettes and cannabis. Yes, this is a smoke, but cannabis is medicine, and they completely understand cannabis is medicine. There’s no need to hide it. It’s normalized at home.
“My children completely take what I say as true…and when I hold [a joint] without shame or confusion, then they can understand it, as simple as if I was pointing to a bottle of Percocet and said, ‘That’s Mama’s medicine.’ …just as a bottle of vodka would be, you know, ‘This is for Mom; you don’t [try] this. When you’re grownups you can deal with that.’”
And with her grown children, sometimes they enjoy it together.
“It was strange,” she commented when recalling smoking with her grown children. “It was funny at first, and then they realized it’s very natural [at the] end of the day. It brings you closer. I’d much rather have a smoke with my grown kids than a drink.”
Out of curiosity, I clicked on an E! News article about Melissa’s interview. These were among the first few comments left by random readers:
“What a way to be a parent, how about not doing it in the first place.”
“Disgusting……”
“Poor parenting, let them experiment with weed on there [sic] own terms.”
Going off the facts alone, I don’t think Melissa is doing anything wrong. But I’m not surprised by the comments her choices have received. Legality and social acceptance are two very different things.
My own kids are 12 and 10. They don’t drink or smoke anything. But what will I do when they’re of age? By the time they turn 18 6-8 years from now, maybe legalization will have spread, and this won’t be something to feel socially weird about.
Still, right now it’s odd to feel a little guilty for doing something legal in my state, and at this moment I can’t really imagine sharing that activity with my grown children. Is it possible I still feel weird because of the D.A.R.E program that was drilled into my head when I was young? Or maybe because for so many folks I know online around our country (including a few of my employers) it’s still illegal at this very moment?
At 35, I do enjoy sharing a glass of wine with my own mom these days. I guess I can’t rule out sharing a puff with my kids someday down the line, and in fact — just like Melissa — I imagine I’d rather do that than share a drink.
For now though, I’m happy to sit and watch how this all plays out.
Images by PR Photos, Wikimediacommons
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