It degrades the brain cells and can seriously affect memory and learning skills in young people. It can also cause memory problems for older people who regularly use it. The pushers of legalisation have jumped on the “sympathy bandwagon” and are pushing for medical marijuana as a backdoor for the full legalisation of the use and home-growing of marijuana. We must not get sucked in to decriminalising this harmful drug out of sympathy for a very small number of people who might be assisted by using some derivatives of the marijuana plant.

That “selected” use is a far cry from legalising the growing of marijuana for personal use. This is a group of selfish adults who care only for their so-called pleasure and who totally disregard the mountain of evidence about the long and short term harm caused especially to young people by its use.

Parents, also remember that your smoking can influence your children/teenagers towards using what is seen as today’s equivalent, marijuana.

Parents, familiarise yourselves about the truth of such drugs and discuss such issues openly before your children/teenagers get to experiment with this dangerous substance.

MY MUM had a small ceramic tile hanging in our hallway until the day she moved to an aged care home. It read “home is where you grumble most and are treated best”. It was so true while I was growing up and once I had left home my grumbling was transferred to others but being treated best by my parents remained until the day they died.

This memory was prompted by the very sad, by often played out, family squabble that was reported in The Daily Advertiser, March 25, 2015. I know nothing about the family reported about except for the view of one family member through the filter of the reporter, the editor and the headline writer.

This is not just about that story, but families in general. One thing I will say to this particular family is for all of you to take a deep breath and take a short time away from each other with no contact.

Stop and think about the facts. It has only been five-and-a-half since the money was won, hardly time to absorb the win, let alone decide what to do with it. It was a wonderful thing to happen for the owner of the ticket. It was a wonderful gift to the recipient from the giver.

I strongly suggest anyone who is interested in repairing the family to arrange a session with a mediator to everything off your chests, resolve any frustration, pain or fear around the issue, clear up miscommunication and misunderstandings with a qualified counsellor, while it is still fresh.

Talking about it to other people will never resolve it but it has every chance of worsening it through gossip which, we know, turns a pumpkin seed into a paddock full of pumpkins.

I strongly suspect this is not about greed but expectations, misunderstandings and hidden family rivalries. Pain can’t be resolved if people refuse to communicate and if done with a professional, who is a neutral mediator and ensures everyone has their say, this story can have a happy ending after all.

Winning money is a happy event, it is what happens after that changes your life. It can be good or bad depending on everyone’s expectations and actions. There are many definitions of forgiveness and with families sometimes the best one is: Forgiveness, is when you realise your brother/sister did not do what you thought they did.