Calling the crime ‘‘repugnant,'' a federal judge Wednesday sentenced a former Gardiner woman to five years in prison for encouraging her toddler daughter to smoke marijuana.
...
A key prosecution witness was Brandi Nichols, an admitted drug user who turned Durham in after taking photographs of her holding a water pipe while her 18-month-old daughter put her mouth over the top. The water pipe, called a bong, allows smoke to be drawn through water into a glass tube and inhaled.
Now, I've gone on record before stating I think Marijuana is no worse for you than cigarettes, which is why I think it should be legalized. That said, I think it's just as stupid and probably not much less dangerous to give your toddler a cigarette. Five years seems to me a pretty intense sentence for something that caused no lasting harm to the child, then again if someone is this stupid I'm pretty sure they have no business with kids anyway.
Oh, and kudos to the Billings Gazette for the "so-hayseed-they-think-Cheech-and-Chong-is-a-burrito" description and explanation of a bong.
legalize it, tax it, and put the dollars to use somewhere interesting - like space research. That'd encourage us all to 'have a hit for NASA'...
(or, in my case, 'have a brownie for NASA')
Posted by: ronaprhys on August 5, 2005 12:14 PM