Mary Jane

Recently I was told that one of our children was purchasing Marijuana in Red Lake for 700. for 2 ounces. I had to have that repeated. His wife uses marijuana and since it is legal it is no big deal to mention to his folks.

So like others, her coffee cup has a picture on it of Mary Jane. Another in-law has a t-shirt proudly displaying the plant.

When I was married to my first husband he was a dealer. I hear about dealers getting rich or driving nice cars and having luxury items. We did not. I thought we were just using up the profit. It was a way to have drugs.

I stopped smoking marijuana at age 24. My last smoke was when my baby, who was a month old quit breathing and we were too high to figure out for ourselves to run him to the hospital. The hospital was 1/2 block away.

I decided I never wanted to be that way again with my son. They couldn't find anything wrong and guessed that he had sudden infant death syndrome. (SIDS) They said he could die from that for 2.5 years.

My husband didn't stop but didn't do it in the house anymore with the kids. He would occasionally pass the baby to me, saying that he thought he wasn't breathing right. I stopped smoking cigarettes when I was pregnant at 24 too.

I never started to smoke cigarettes again as before I was pregnant I was smoking 2-3 packs a day. Until he was almost two and talking we didn't figure out that he was allergic to smoke.

I was told there was a correlation between smoking and SIDS. When we put it together he was at a relative's small trailer house and she and her sister were watching him and smoking cigarettes. He got home and when he was lying down to nap, he had an asthma attack.

It was pretty clear that it was from the smoke. Once he was old enough to talk, he would tell anyone he was allergic to smoke/cigarettes.

His father smoked and stated many times that he couldn't stop smoking pot. Right out of treatment he would start smoking and go right back to drinking within no time at all.

When we lived in Minneapolis, he was always driving the wrong way down a one-way. I hated riding with him stoned and if I knew he was stoned I would drive.

He had an experience where he was talking to dead people as we drove back from up north to the city. He would come out of that, be scared, and tell me to take him to the hospital. Before I got there he would say to stay on the road home.

I am not sure what was in his pot but I knew it probably wasn't marijuana alone.

I had two cousins who had a mental breakdown and it was attributed to pot according to my mother. She said that if they wanted their mental health issue to go away all they had to do was to quit smoking pot.

After I got into recovery, because of my experience with my baby and my husband not being available to help with him, I got into a recovery program. After two years, I stopped alcohol and other drugs.

My baby is 45 now and will get an occasional bout of sports asthma as he was running, and skiing, and now he still plays hockey.

We were at the boy's house that was recently in Red Lake and they were having a weekly get-together that we were at, where they serve pizza. They have some of the nieces over for that, a few of her children, and a couple of friends of theirs.

They were drinking and talking about the pop-looking beverage that had THC in it. They said that some of that, if you aren't a regular user can be too much.

They also mentioned that they go down into their attached garage to use marijuana. The son is my husband's son. I decided I would rather not attend any more of their weekly get-togethers. I remember all that was involved in that. It wasn't at all pretty.

After just a few drinks by them, it was time to go. When I was in my teens (married at 17) and early 20s, my husband and I had a party house and this reminded me of that time. Once our children were born, I was 21, that all stopped.

Their daughter is in prison right now as she couldn't stop using. She will be getting out soon and has been counting the days. We were told she would be staying with them. They are raising her two children.

I think this means she won't be staying sober. I'm so sorry about that but that is what I think.

Four years after my recovery from my addiction, I finished college and interned as a counselor at detox. Many of the people there thought they could use drugs, just not drink too. They were in detox for drinking.

Later working in treatment I worked with many people who were there with their drug of choice being marijuana.

Because of the whole legalizing thing, I am not sure how this will go but I think I got a bit of a look at what it might look like after spending time with my husband's son, and daughter-in-law.

And here I thought they weren't using anything. That is what they told us one time. And maybe that was true at one time. He is disappointed. He is worried for his granddaughter and great-grandchildren and so am I.