TOM HAYDEN California State Senator and father of two children
I didn't smoke much dope in the '60s. Pot sent me into giggling fits, and I feared the loss of control. My addiction was alcohol, which was approved by the same Establishment that was bent on criminalizing marijuana. My kids saw that, and they developed an acute sensitivity to hypocrisy. It took me many years to stop drinking and live without such addictions. When I did, that was a better lesson than any words I could have preached to them.

But this experience hardly makes me a neo-Puritan supporter of the continuing war against marijuana users. It's despicable to criminalize and imprison thousands for marijuana possession, while the liquor and tobacco lobbies are destroying so many lives with advertising and campaign contributions. I told my kids that marijuana in moderation for medicinal, ceremonial and recreational use is defensible, especially in comparison with alcohol and tobacco. I also warned them that marijuana has never improved anyone's ability to do homework or hit a curve ball. It infuriates me that my kids, like millions of their generation, are defined as criminals by a President who smoked but did not inhale.

DONNA SHALALA U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services
Our children need to hear a clear and consistent no-use message about marijuana—that it is illegal, dangerous and wrong. Research tells us it limits learning, memory, perception, judgment and motor skills, and it damages the brain, heart, lungs and immune system. Marijuana is not a "soft" drug.

RICHARD EVANS Board member of NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws
My son Jonathan is a bright, sociable and curious 13-year-old. Here's what I have told him about drugs:

1.) Don't do drugs. Kids don't drive cars, they don't sign contracts, and they don't do drugs.

2.) Now that that's clear, be aware that obeying Rule No. 1 is impossible because "drugs" are everywhere. Even chocolate and soft drinks contain caffeine.

3.) You will someday be invited to smoke marijuana. I want you to decline. However, if you try it, I want you to remember that the harm of any drug is only partly due to the drug itself. More important are the physical, social and psychological circumstances.

4.) In the case of marijuana, the greatest harm comes from being arrested.

5.) Don't believe much of what they tell you in school about drugs. For example, don't buy into the notion that drug "abuse" is the same as drug "use." Remember, one means harm, and the other doesn't. Know also that a lot of people use drugs—both legal and illegal—without any apparent harm to themselves or anyone else.

ANNE ROIPHE Author and the mother of three daughters
In New York City, among high school kids, it's almost impossible to stop pot smoking. You can try, but you won't succeed. Rather than saying you must never ever, what you have to keep saying is that this prevents you from having real relationships. It prevents you from understanding what is going on in your life. It prevents you from having real happiness. And it's dangerous.

I think parental control is perhaps not the deciding factor for teenagers. They are so much more influenced by their peer group. I do not present myself as a person who has been able to stop all my children from getting into trouble with drugs. I tried very hard.

I believe we have to instill a great deal of joy and confidence in our children before they get to be teenagers in order to protect them through those hard years. Parents tend to blame themselves for things that are culture-wide. The difference between moderate experimentation and catastrophic drug taking is vast. We should not get desperately alarmed about mild social experimentation. But we should get desperately alarmed about the child who is compelled to use drugs. The flat rules like "Just say no" are easy to pronounce but hard to enforce. It's so easy to make that kind of statement, and so hard to live it Saturday night by Saturday night.

From the Dec. 9, 1996 issue of TIME Magazine

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