by Danny Foster, Esq.
As 2018 ends and 2019 peeks its head around the corner I have a news flash that should not come as a news flash: raising kids is damn hard! It appears as if raising kids in 2019 will be as challenging as raising kids in 2018. As a father of three teenagers I face the daily struggle of limiting phone time, arbitrating sibling arguments, and trying to figure out where the heck they are all the time and who they are with.
Teenagers can really test a parent’s patience and sanity. Don’t get me wrong, I like my kids. A lot. But parenting is really hard. And now that my kids are knee deep in high school and middle school we have to address the alcohol and marijuana issue. You know, that issue.
It’s a balancing act talking to your kids about the dangers of drugs/alcohol and at the same time letting them know that IF they choose to indulge that we absolutely do not want them to be afraid to let us know if they need a safe ride home or need our help if they are struggling with substance issues.
On the one hand we cannot, as mature, law-abiding parents, condone our kids engaging in illegal and self-destructive behavior, but on the other hand we don’t want to see their bad choices have deadly consequences. Our law firm has for years hosted a free community seminar titled “High School Boot Camp” for parents and students to address the dangers associated with alcohol/drugs as well as a host of other issues. Even with all my knowledge and training I am often frustrated by the complexities of how to raise kids.
Telling our kids that we will be there for them, no questions asked, if ever they need our help during such a drug/alcohol crisis is a mixed message. However, it is a mixed message that is entirely reasonable in light of the fact that teenagers’ decision making can often be suspect. I am willing to say that in this case a mixed message is pragmatic and essential to the well-being of our children.
But the mixed messages our children face are even more complicated now that marijuana has become ubiquitous in Colorado. What once was taboo a few years ago is now mainstream. And now just in time for 2019, the City of Denver is making it even harder for parents to teach our children correctly with the nation’s first legal heroin injection sites. Yes, you read that correctly.
Just this past month the Denver City Council voted 12-1 to legalize heroin injection sites with city support. Call me old-school but I don’t think we should be making it easier to shoot heroin; yet the Denver City Council thinks that the benefit of being able to provide “safe places” for heroin addicts to get high outweighs the negative impact this will have on the City. This is the city’s attempt to play parent to the teenager. Except we are not talking about being too drunk to drive home from a party and getting a safe ride home, we are talking about engaging in highly illegal and self-destructive behavior that ruins lives and destroys neighborhoods.
Trying to rationalize this city ordinance in any context is dangerous. I applaud the city council’s desire to save lives, but this proposal normalizes and essentially condones heroin use, with zero evidence that it will save lives. Further, the crime and homeless problem will only get worse. Been to Civic Center Park lately? Neither have I. It has become a mecca for heroin abuse and violent encounters. That problem will only worsen. If you build it, they will come.
While it is highly unlikely this heroin ordinance will survive the state legislature’s ratification or U.S. Attorney’s challenge, the fact that the city council wants to make our beautiful city more enticing to heroin abuse is a sad commentary on what we deem to be permissible nowadays. Thankfully councilman Kevin Flynn voted against this ordinance and I urge everyone to call his office and thank him for his courage to do the right thing. I also urge everyone to call their state representative and urge them to vote against this bill if it comes up for discussion in 2019. It is an unreasonable and dangerous response to a national epidemic. There are not a lot of easy solutions to the opioid epidemic, but this is certainly going in the opposite direction.
So parents, I hope 2019 brings joy, peace and lots of love to your families. I hope you can devise a way to discuss these complicated issues with your teenagers because I for one am tired of seeing good kids suffer because their parents refused to engage in these challenging discussions. And I hope the state legislature puts a swift and resounding end to Denver’s decision to normalize heroin use in our city.
Danny is a managing partner of Foster, Graham, Milstein & Calisher (FGMC). His practice focuses on personal injury. The law firm of FGMC, located in Cherry Creek, is a full service law firm focusing on: criminal defense, personal injury, real estate, litigation, liquor licensing, construction law, tax/estate planning, bankruptcy and zoning. This article does not create an attorney-client relationship and is for informational use only (what do you expect from an attorney!)