The Advocate - www.newarkadvocate.com - Newark, Ohio
PATASKALA — A video showing a infant being forced to smoke marijuana by two Pataskala teenagers has been released by the Drug Enforcement Administration.

The child, now age 2 but about 18 months old at the time, according to a federal complaint, can be seen squirming on a couch to avoid a marijuana pipe being held in front of her face.

Melvin L. Blevins, 18, and Angel Dailey, 16, have both been charged for the incident — Blevins in federal court and Dailey in the Juvenile Division of the Licking County Court of Common Pleas.

Dailey is the daughter of Don Dailey, 39, and the niece of Tim Dailey, 38, who were allegedly found to have more than a ton of marijuana and millions of dollars in their Harrison Township homes during the March raids.

The Dailey brothers and Blevins were charged with conspiracy to distribute more than 1,000 kilograms of marijuana, according to a federal indictment released Thursday.

The tape was discovered after Blevins sold a camcorder containing the tape to a Columbus pawn shop on Feb. 18, the federal criminal complaint alleges.

I reported this awful case last week, but I had to follow-up on this since the DEA has now released the video. Remember that the only semi-successful plank in the prohibitionist’s argument is “What about the children?” This video will go a long way toward reinforcing some people’s negative attitudes about marijuana, so it is important that we address the issue and point out that we are as offended by the misuse and abuse of marijuana as they are. Videos like this are why we support responsible regulation of marijuana - we want to make it tougher for those teens to acquire marijuana in the first place.

Tags: New Jersey, toddler

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 15th, 2008 at 4:58 am and is filed under 4:20 NewsHour, Parents and Kids. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a trackback from your own site.