(WHIO) DAYTON, Ohio — A 7-year-old boy led officers to his father’s marijuana grow operation, police said.
The father in question, Oliver McGuire, was arrested and taken into custody.
According to police reports, McGuire’s son told his school counselor about marijuana growing in the basement of his home.
Officers said they went to the Stewart Street home and found four pounds of marijuana, along with two plants and grow equipment.
“Thanks for your honesty, little Joey*. You were right to tell us about those funny plants your daddy was growing. Now we’re going to take your daddy away until you’re a teenager. But it’s all for your own good, you see, because your daddy’s gardening could have seriously hurt you. It’s OK, Joey, don’t cry, you can visit your daddy every week in a big scary building. Your mommy will be fine, though she’ll probably have to take another job to keep you fed, housed, and clothed, so you might not see her as much, either. You’ll be all right, we’ll see to it that we get your mommy some Food Stamps and other public assistance to make up for your daddy’s missing paycheck. Then, in a few years, when your daddy gets out, he can go get another job to help support you and mommy, though he won’t make nearly as much money since he’ll have to put ‘ex-con drug felon’ on all his applications. Yes, Joey, I know it is sad and scary, but remember, you did the right thing, because police officers like me are here to protect you.”
The next time some prohibitionist wants to scream “What About The Children!?!” in response to marijuana legalization, bring up Joey McGuire and ask, “Yes, indeed, what about the children?” Prohibition of marijuana ruined Joey’s family life far more than marijuana ever did.
*I don’t know that the kid is named “Joey”, but it’ll do.
Hear Hear!!
No, the same logic would not apply. The father robbing a bank to feed his starving family may indeed be a sympathetic figure, but he is causing harm to others in order to save his family. The father growing marijuana in his basement is harming no one.
By the way, cops do make the laws and ensure that we don’t change them. Every medical marijuana, decrim, and legalization bill and initiative I have reported on always comes with plenty of testimony against these marijuana law reforms from uniformed and armed members of law enforcement, paid by our taxpayer dollars to oppose that which a majority of Americans support.
I don’t smoke it and I’m an advocate of legalizing marijuana however I need to ask this question. Could the authors same logic be applied to bank robbery by a guy with a wife and a kid/kids who was struggling with debt and faced them living on the street or not being able to feed them? Could you justify his actions and would you blame the cops for arresting him? Cops don’t make the laws, they’re paid to arrest those who break them, it’s that simple.
Sorry but the law is the law, we need to change the law, not break it.
people just remember this when medical marajiuna is on the ballot..EVERY ONE should be rallying like other states and gettign petions signed for nov elections
if you THE PEOPLE get a voter passed bill
it takes 3/4 majority to change it
so go out and VOTE
and TELL others to also
so this drug war can stop
sooo many states are going foward with MMJ law and even full on legalization(cali) nov election
so make ohio one too
go out and fight
demand your rights as a tax payer..
I think i know this person. =(
Very well put Russ.
[...] Seven-year-old’s honesty about basement marijuana means father won’t get to see him grow up [...]
I went to the University of Dayton right on the corner of Brown St. and Stewart St. The area of the bust is a lower/working class neigborhood chances are Mommy and Daddy worked 50 hours a week and still had trouble paying the bills. Crack and Meth are fucking tearing Dayton apart, and all the old factory jobs have left. The city is dying. Now they bust this poor guy. What a fucked up country in deed.
What a country!
(Yakov Smirnov)
It’s because of the brainwashing they do in schools. Telling kids they are gonna die from marijuana. I told the social worker when I was 7 and my parents split that I wanted to live with my mom b/c I was afraid my dad would die from smoking and I’d be left alone. The social worker made no effort to correct me. The next 7 years for me were hell b/c my mother and I just aren’t two individuals that fair well tofether.
This crap has got to stop. Thanks to this system, he’s going to have a worse run at life. . . yeah, what about the kids. It is sad, because the kid is serving a sentence too.