We are pleased to announce the availability of a new prevention resource to help parents who are challenged to make sense of conflicting claims about cannabis.
The Cannabis Prevention Toolkit – Parent Materials will support your presentations to parents, parent groups and at community events about how cannabis impacts the health and well-being of youth.
This is an important time in Minnesota as we are now one of the legal states. Public health efforts are strengthened when parents have a role. They can be an effective prevention force in the family. Yet their understanding about cannabis use and health may be clouded with misinformation.
Our parent resource provides you – prevention specialists, outreach workers, and educators – with materials to support your parent prevention efforts. It's research-based and consists of numerous activities, videos, discussion questions and parent tips.
The files below have the following: Facilitator’s Manual; two PowerPoint files with notes, one of which is a proposed 30 min session and the other a proposed 60-90-min session; and several videos, worksheets and handouts to facilitate your presentations.
Several topics are covered: What is cannabis; ways that cannabis use can disrupt brain maturation and psychosocial development; how cannabis use is associated with elevated risk for mental illness; and how cannabis intoxication impairs driving ability. We also include several strategies to help a parent to address drug use issues with their teenager.
The PowerPoint files and worksheets can be adjusted as you see fit. You may want to create a shorter or longer talk. There might be topics you want to emphasize to your audience. Also, you might want to collaborate with us or have questions. If so, complete the “How Can We Help” document and send it to us.
We are grateful for your prevention work and hope these parent materials strengthens your efforts to guide parents toward accurate and balanced information about cannabis.
Click on the files to access (#2 and #3 require PowerPoint):
2. PowerPoint file for a proposed 30-minute talk
3. PowerPoint file for a proposed 60-90-minute talk
Regards,
The teams at Smart Approaches to Marijuana Minnesota and The Minnesota Prevention Alliance