'It's Just A Plant' Is A Children's Book About Cannabis

This is a children’s book about cannabis.

Author Ricardo Cortes stated, “I just wanted kids to have another channel of conversation about marijuana other than just what they’re learning in school.”

Cortes wrote and illustrated “It’s Just a Plant” because he’s been interested in drug policy for a long time and saw how it was impacting families.

He explained “A lot of people would say marijuana — talking about marijuana, talking about drugs is inappropriate for children, but children are involved in the drug war. Their parents are arrested, their parents are — families are split apart, sometimes because of drug laws, so I thought it was really important that kids were involved in that conversation in a way that they could easily comprehend.”

Cortes believes educators and law enforcement take the wrong approach to drug policy education. He also believes that every parent should be able to have a talk with their kids about drug policy and the effect it has on society. This book makes it easier for some parents to do just that.

“There’s also a lot of parents out there that are like, “Hey. This is a really helpful way to get into the conversation.’ Sometimes a book adds legitimacy to a conversation that I think help parents or, you know, caretakers get into that talk”