Weed can’t seem so threatening when there’s a kids book about it. In an attempt to normalize the plant, author and cannabis consultant Russ Hudson from Maine wrote a children’s book about cannabis.
Titled “What’s That Weed?” the book is intended not only to help qualm the public’s fears about pot, but also to help parents talk to their kids and tell them “the truth about marijuana.” The book will be available for free in Maine libraries.
Hudson made his own six-year-old daughter the story’s main character, who learns about cannabis as a medicinal and recreational substance, as well as a kind of animal feed. According to the plot, Emmy visits her friend Stella’s farm, where she comes upon a seemingly mysterious plant: Weed. She realizes the plant has various special qualities, and that Stella’s family uses it for a number of reasons for food, wellness, and more. The story de-pathologizes cannabis as a drug, illustrates its value for serious conditions like PTSD and epilepsy, and shows how it can be used in a normal, everyday way, by happy, normal, everyday people.
“Into the house the girls raced as they laughed
stopping when they came upon Stella’s dad.
In a big wooden chair, with a book where he sat,
a strange apparatus perched in his lap.
“Hello, girls,” he said with a smile,
“I’m taking a break to read for a while.”
And then with a flash and a flick of his wrist,
he brought forth a lighter, and a glass pipe to his lips.”
In the book, cannabis is portrayed no different than if, for instance, a parent were consuming wine in front of their children.
“Why is it okay to consume wine, beer, or liquor in front of a child by not marijuana? Why can families hold barbecues and gatherings where alcohol is consumed, people get intoxicated, and that’s perfectly normal, but the moment someone lights up a joint to relax, they’re at risk of persecution? It’s legal to smoke cancer-causing cigarettes in front of your children, but a joint is worthy of prison or the forfeiture of parental rights? This has to end,” Hudson wrote in a press release. “Our children deserve to know the truth, and we owe it to them.”
According to Hudson, cannabis is potentially the world’s most valuable natural resource. “We were wrong to demonize it, and we’ve been unhappy as a result,” he said. “It’s time to reset the balance on marijuana, and restore it to its rightful place in our lives; on our plates, in our oils, in our industries, and in our minds and bodies.”
