Jada Pinkett Smith Responds After Son Jaden Says She Introduced Their Family To Psychedelic Drugs
Jada candidly spoke about taking psychedelics to help her depression in 2021. This week, Jaden attributed his use of hallucinogenic drugs to his mom.
Jada Pinkett Smith is speaking out on her son, Jaden Smith‘s, claim that she introduced psychedelic drugs to their family — in a few months. “It all gets answered in the book,” Jada, 51, told PEOPLE on Friday, June 30, while discussing her upcoming Oct. 17 memoir, Worthy. Until then, she is holding her tongue.
Jaden, 24, made the claim earlier this week at Denver’s Psychedelic Science convention, according to Entertainment Tonight. “I think it was my mom, actually, that was really the first one to make that step for the family,” he recalled of his first experiences with psychedelics. “It was just her for a really, really long time and then eventually it just trickled and evolved, and everybody found it in their own ways.”
Jaden also said his experimentation with psychedelic drugs helped him grow a stronger bond with his siblings, Willow, 22, and half-brother Trey, 30. “Siblings can argue so much and fight so much, and lord knows me and my siblings have done so much of that in the past,” he admitted. “But the level of love and empathy that I can feel for them inside of the [psychedelic] experiences and outside of the experiences has been something that’s profound and beautiful.”
Jada previously revealed she used psychedelics to ease her depression before she started therapy and got on medication during a Nov. 2021 episode of Red Table Talk, which aired on Facebook before getting canceled in April. “It’s not successful for everybody. I struggled with depression for so long. And the thing about the plant medicine is it helps you feel better but also solves the problems of how you got there in the first place,” she noted. Meanwhile, Jaden said he began using psychedelics out of curiosity and said his use of the drugs helped him see beyond his ego.
As for her memoir, the Matrix star said she does not leave a stone unturned. “I think people have made a lot of assumptions. And you know what? Rightfully so,” she debated to PEOPLE. “I have to take ownership of that, in regards to the narrative that I’ve participated in, the falsehoods about myself. In the book I really explain all of that extensively.”