Teen charged with giving toddler marijuana
Teen charged with giving toddler marijuana - Crime & courts- msnbc.com
NEWARK, Ohio - A central Ohio teenager has been charged with giving a toddler marijuana.Sixteen-year-old Angel Dailey was arrested and has pleaded not guilty to charges of corrupting and endangering the child, according to police.Prosecutors said they were tipped after a videotape was found in recorder traded in at a Columbus pawn shop. A juvenile complaint said Dailey “participated in the administration and holding the child while causing her to ingest marijuana and/or illegal drugs.”
Prosecutors said they are not clear about Daily’s relationship with the toddler.
I’m seeing more and more stories like this, where young adults or teenagers are charged with forcing or allowing kids as young as four years old to use marijuana. This is certainly not what we mean by “responsible adult use of marijuana”. Forcing anyone to use any drug against their will is a crime.
The prohibitionists are going to paint this as the inevitable consequence of people’s use of drugs. The “what about the children” argument is one of the few roadblocks that remain in re-legalizing marijuana. So it is important that we acknowledge these stories, and then point out that some young adults and teenagers may force or allow children to use alcohol, but it doesn’t logically follow that we should prohibit alcohol again. Or that some people are irresponsible gun owners and leave their weapons in places where children can find them, but it doesn’t logically follow that we ban all guns. The logical response is to tightly control and regulate alcohol, firearms, and drugs, and the complete prohibition of drugs is the opposite of tight control and regulation. Prohibition is the abdication of the control of drugs to a criminal underground.
We should remind people that legal or not, a tiny minority will misuse marijuana in an irresponsible way. But if marijuana were legal, we’d have tighter controls on teenagers having access to marijuana and no prohibition profit to motivate underground dealers. Teen use of marijuana in the Netherlands, where marijuana is tolerated, is half that of the US.
