News & Views

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?