Melissa Etheridge Says Smoking Pot With Her Kids Brings Them Closer Together!

Singer and songwriter Melissa Etheridge has made the controversial statement that she smokes cannabis with her two older children.

The Grammy Award winner became a huge activist for marijuana and it’s legalisation shortly after going through her battle with cancer in 2004.  Etheridge said she used it regularly to help with pain management while she was undergoing treatment. Her and her kids now refer to pot as ‘medicine.’

“My children have a very clear understanding of cannabis,” the 55 year old mum of four said. “When I hold it without shame or confusion they can understand it as simple as if I was pointing to a bottle of Percocet and saying, ‘That’s mama’s medicine.’ You take the naughtiness out of it and it’s not something kids then run to.”

“I have smoked with my older two,” she continued, referring to 20-year-old daughter Bailey and 18-year-old son Beckett. “It was funny at first and then they realized it’s a very natural end-of-the-day and it brings you closer, so I’d much rather have a smoke with my grown kids than a drink.”

(Etheridge is also mum to daughter, Johnnie Rose, and son, Miller Steven, who were born in 2006.)

The singer underwent a lumpectomy and several rounds of chemotherapy and radiation after being diagnosed with breast cancer. Although doctors prescribed various prescription drugs to help her deal with the side effects of treatment, she took the advice of singer and close pal David Crosby and instead turned to medicinal marijuana.

“It was a wake-up call for me,” she said. “When I used it as medicine, it became so clear to me that it has been maligned and misunderstood, and I really wanted to help people who are suffering. Going through chemotherapy is suffering and cannabis helps so many parts of just that. That’s just the beginning of what it does medicinally.”

“I smoked to be normal. I smoked to be out of pain. I smoked to lighten myself because you’re poisoning yourself with chemo,” she added. “It wasn’t about being high. It was just [getting] to a place where I could communicate with my children, to where I could get up, to where I could eat, where I didn’t have to go to the hospital. It was great medicine.”

Etheridge says she still gets high regularly today to help maintain the “health benefits,” like easing stress and sleeping better.

The musician, who is married to Linda Wallem, says the drug is also one of the best marital aids around!

“When it’s date night, it takes down your inhibition; your sexual desires are enhanced,” she said. “We take a bath every night and smoke and talk and wind down and sleep a very, very good night’s sleep and sleep is extremely important.”

What do you think of Melissa Etheridge’s revelations about pot smoking. Is it something you’d ever do with your kids?

Photos: Instagram