Moms Who Smoke Pot Decry Double Standard For Wine Drinkers

Casual marijuana use is becoming more and more socially acceptable as the push for legalizing the much-loved smokable moves from state to state, and one of the last taboo groups of closet tokers — parents of small children — have been speaking up (albeit anonymously) to voice their frustration at a double standard when it comes to alcohol versus pot consumption among those with children.

As MSNBC notes, a controversial essay on the female-centric site Jezebel kicked off the most recent round of debate about pot-smoking moms and whether the use of marijuana is any more detrimental to home and family life than its notoriously destructive counterpart, alcohol.

But marijuana legalization has been spreading across state legislatures, spurred on by liberal state-level laws in states like California, and many closeted users are speaking out cautiously to advocate for responsible marijuana users — many of whom happen to be parents.

45-year-old mom Margaret, who declined to provide other identifying details to the site, described how marijuana’s calming effects allow her to be patient at home and complete rote housework tasks. She explains:

“It can make folding a pile of laundry fun… If I didn’t smoke, that’d be three piles later in the week.”

Margaret adds:

“Being judged for doing something nontoxic and totally organic, enjoying a god-given plant, by moms who suck back two bottles of Chardonnay like sports drinks feels like s—… Any hypocrisy is hard to swallow. A drunk mother is pathetic and I often leave parties when I experience other mothers tying one on.”

Diane Fornbacher of NORML, a marijuana legalization advocacy group, concurs with Margaret and brings up the age-old point that marijuana’s effects are far less harmful (if at all harmful) when compared to the effects of legal drugs like alcohol and tobacco:

“No matter what you use, you shouldn’t be judged if it works for you, you’re productive, and you do no harm… Marijuana parents aren’t perfect, but they’re far less imperfect than parents who use alcohol irresponsibly. Cannabis can influence people to be nicer to one another. You rarely find a story that says two stoners beat each other up outside of a bar.”

It seems in no small way that the “marijuana moms” debate is rooted in our puritanical view of what mothers should and should not do when they become parents, something we see played out in breastfeeding debates or formula criticism or any other of the many ways it is totally acceptable to boss around a grown woman in a somewhat otherwise advanced society.

However it shakes out, it’s probably a long way until stressed out moms can smoke one up together at the playground — do you think parents are better off smoking pot than having a glass of wine to calm down?