Here’s a question: How do parents in Humboldt County address the pot culture with their kids? Is that too broad? Let me rephrase: How do parents raising kids in Humboldt County honestly address the issues surrounding the region’s cash crop? Even more specifically, let’s say you have no problems with pot smoking as practiced by adult types and you’re pro-legalization because you think pot being illegal is totally stupid. Nonetheless, you’re troubled by both the health issues of teenagers smoking dope and their idolization of the grower lifestyle. How do you deal with kids who aren’t bothered by the former and are caught up in the latter?

To some extent, I’m reminded of growing up in the ‘80s with the influence of L.A. near and profound. So many of my guy friends wanted to be coke dealers – the Porsches, the sex bomb girlfriends, the killer stereo systems. Given the (lack of) job prospects our kids face, a condition they’ve had drilled into them for most of their recent lifetime, the escalating cost of college and concurrent debt, why wouldn’t something a lucrative and widely accepted as growing pot in their hometown appeal far more than pursuing advanced education? (Note to self: It certainly would’ve made more sense than accumulating several thousands of dollars of debt in order to obtain a journalism degree.)

I’m not against growing pot. Some of the side effects trouble me, but that’s true of issues across the board and a separate discussion. What worries me is seeing a significant percentage of the teenagers I know view growing as the only future worth having. Young people shouldn’t discard their options so quickly.

Also not troubled by people smoking pot – it makes me sleepy and anti-social so I don’t do it, but I enjoy other indulgences. Point being: This is not a moral argument at all. The health consequences of kids smoking, though… their frontal cortexes still developing… do teenagers really need to do anything that impacts their decision-making more than their own hormone-wracked brains already do? When I bring this up, the response I usually get is, “Look at us! We turned out fine!” Maybe I worry too much. I don’t know.

What I do know is, I love Humboldt County. I’m so happy to have moved here, to be raising my kids here, to have made best friends and stumbled into numerous wonderful job and volunteer opportunities. The complex issues surrounding raising kids in a culture shaped by pot are still preferable to bringing them up elsewhere. But I wonder what other parents do to make sure their children’s imaginations aren’t limited when it comes to what they can do in the future.