As if it weren't bad enough that the Fed has been cracking down on marijuana dispensaries, now there's a troubling story in the news making use of the drug for medical reasons look dangerous. A family in Southern California could face child endangerment charges after a grandmother -- who was prescribed medical marijuna to ease her pain caused by cancer -- baked up a batch of pot cookies and her 3-year-old grandson reportedly found them hidden in a garage refrigerator.
Police say the little boy ended up in the hospital when his family couldn't wake him from a 16+ hour snooze and realized he had consumed the cookies. Now, if toxicology tests confirm the child had marijuana in his system, the family could be in serious hot water.
Oh dear ... Poor kid, but also poor grandma!
Honestly, child endangerment charges seem too extreme. From what we know, it doesn't seem like there was a tremendous amount of negligence on anyone's part. Instead, this sounds like a terrible accident, perhaps due to a miscommunication among family members or perhaps just a bold and curious kid grabbing what appeared to be regular ol' cookies out of a forbidden fridge.
I'm sure no one -- the grandmother especially -- expected the child to find her pot cookies. It's not like she left them near the regular cookie jar, or in the regular refrigerator near the little boy's snacks he'd know to go for.
Of course, that's not to say that some kind of action -- a slap on the wrist -- isn't necessary. Perhaps appropriate punishment might be a warning or some kind of probation, in which the family would be checked up on and the home inspected a few times to be sure any items considered dangerous/hazardous are safely locked up and stowed away from children. Guess we'll have to wait and see what happens with the toxicology tests ...
In the meantime, I really hope this isn't seen as a damning evidence that medical marijuana scripts are a mistake. The truth is, a worrisome incident like this could have happened with any drug.
What do you make of this incident? How do you think the grandmother/family should be punished?
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Comments 22
Sounds like an accident to me, and I'm not usually one to say that in stories involving drugs and small children. Two-year-olds are sneaky and quick. Someone might have thought he ran off to find another adult (maybe he was even told to go to another adult and got sidetracked) or was playing in another room. She took precautions to keep them out of sight and out of reach and unlikely to be mixed up with the boy's snacks. This is an accident and I'm sure they'll all thankful that the little boy is okay. And Grandma will likely be keeping those cookies under lock and key from now on.
I notice a trend lately where the writers here at the stir post articles about children that get into peoples pills, or pot, or drugs or whatever, but the writers feel that the parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, whoever, shouldn't be blamed, or have charges brought against them, or shouldn't be responsible, or whatever bullshit, but, why not? I mean really? Why are we, they, who-ever NOT responsible for properly keeping their pills/drugs/medications/dangerous/hazardous materials whatever locked up, put up, out of reach, where ever, whatever it takes, to keep the children safe? I realize that yes, it is next to impossible to keep an eye on kids 24/7, every second of the day, I raised mine, I know it's hard, but I also realize that you have a responsibility to genuinely do the best you can, and I see a lot of these cases where these people didn't honestly do that, and in those cases, that makes them (gasp!) RESPONSIBLE! And therefore, they should be charged with something in those cases, something along the lines of child endangerment, or neglect, or whatever, something that shows that it is indeed time for adults to take responsibility for, well, their responsibilities!
Seriously, TS could launch a site based on just "Caregiver Relatives of Babies Gone Bad" stories alone. Ah. My bad!... you already have.
LOL LucretiaMcEvil!
He was 3, why was he in the garage alone? That's neglegent. Garages are dangerous places.
To the person who asked if someone else's child goes to the bathroom with them: what kid doesn't follow Mommy to the bathroom?!