THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

With the advent of legal marijuana use in several fortunate states, how do parents talk to their kids about marijuana. After years of laughing at the egg in the fry pan will the kids respond to a separation of Mary Jane from coke, meth & smack? Do parents now compare it to alcohol?

The War on Drugs and “Just Say No” campaigns of the 1980s provided a national moral mandate and a singular template for parents: All drugs are bad. But many parents today believe that the reductionist catchphrase oversimplifies the complex landscape of the nation’s drug use.

Today, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, 18- to 25-year-olds are the biggest abusers of opioid pain relievers, A.D.H.D. stimulants and anti-anxiety drugs. Prescription drugs account for more overdose deaths among this age group than all illegal drugs combined. Alcohol remains the No. 1 health hazard and date-rape drug on college campuses. And a new generation of pen-size, odorless vaporizers, with USB ports for easy recharging, allows students to get high virtually anywhere, even at school.

With these realities in mind, more parents seem to be accepting the probability that their teenagers will self-medicate at some point, and they see pot as having more manageable risks than other substances. Rather than adhere to a “just say no” theology, they are embracing a nuanced, harm-reduction approach. They are even, in some cases, revealing their own use to help create a dialogue with their children.

Honesty about drug use is encouraged by Dr. Donald A. Misch, medical director at the University of Colorado, Boulder, who oversees the health of nearly 30,000 students on a campus long considered marijuana-friendly. During an orientation session in August for parents entitled “Stress, Risk Taking, Alcohol/Drugs and Parents as Partners: What Every C.U. Parent Should Know,” Dr. Misch responded to a father’s question about whether to tell his son about his own prior usage. “What you should say depends on your family,” he advised. “As a general rule, I believe in being honest.”

Those who used in the past have some idea what is involved, but what about those who bought into the lies of the Drug War?