Jada Pinkett Smith Reacts to Son Jaden Revealing She Introduced Him to Psychedelic Drugs

Jada Pinkett Smith has promised to clarify her son’s statement about introducing the entire family to psychedelic drugs. Pinkett Smith has spoken publicly about using hallucinogens before, and on Friday she came into some controversy when her son Jaden Smith said that she had shared that interest with her children and family. Now, Pinkett Smith tells PEOPLE that she’ll cover the story in full detail in her upcoming memoir, Worthy.

“It all gets answered in the book,” Pinkett Smith said when asked about Jaden’s statement. She said that “everything” fans have ever wondered about her life will be answered in the memoir, which is scheduled to come out on Oct. 17, 2023. She said: “I think people have made a lot of assumptions. And you know what? Rightfully so. 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.”

Jaden spoke at the Psychedelic Science conference in Denver, Colorado on Friday. According to a report by Entertainment Tonight, he said: “I think it was my mom, actually, that was really the first one to make that step for the family. 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.”

Pinkett Smith discussed psychedelics on Red Table Talk back in November of 2021. She said became her go-to treatment for depression, explaining: “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.”

Psychedelic drugs have gotten a lot of attention in recent years for their therapeutic applications – not as curatives on their own, but as aids for psychiatric treatment including talk therapy and addiction relief. However, most psychedelic drugs are still illegal on a federal level at the time of this writing, and are criminalized on the state level as well. Denver made a historic move to decriminalize psilocybin – the hallucinogenic compound in Psilocybe mushrooms – in 2019. Since then, the cities of Oakland California, Santa Cruz, California, Washington, D.C., Somerville, Massachusetts, Cambridge, Massachusetts and Northampton, Massachusetts have done the same.

Pinkett Smith implied that she will discuss this topic and others related to it in her memoir Worthy. It is due for publication on Oct. 17, 2023. The book is available for preorder now in print and digital formats.