Rachelle Braaten, of Centralia in Washington State had been smoking marijuana with her friends when she was filmed alledgedly allowing her young son to put his face over a smoking bong.
The police were subsequently tipped off to the footage and Braaten was question and subsequently charged with the unlawful delivery of a controlled substance to a minor, as well as a charge of manufacturing marijuana.
The 24-year old mother of two at least had the werewithal to be a bit shamefaced about the whole situation, reportedly saying to police “I guess it was a joke and a stupid mistake that wasn’t really funny.”
She also claimed that she felt “terrible” about the whole incident.
“He’s two and he shouldn’t have known about that”, Braaten said. “He shouldn’t have that in his body.”
In what is a particularly delicious quirk of the story, when police went to Braaten’s home to check on her child they found her fiancee, Tyler Lee’s collection of unlawful firearms and 40 marijuana plants.
While possession of up to an ounce of marijuana is considered legal in Washington State it remains (bizarrely) illegal to grow marijuana for recreational purposes.
On the plus side though, Tyler, the father of the abused toddler was arrested alongside his fiancee on unlawful firearms charges as well as charges of manufacturing marijuana.
Mr Lee, who claims to be a medicinal marijuana user was not present during the incident which sparked the lawful search and seizure of his robust crop of Mary Jane but he did apparently admit to selling it.
The couple’s children (yes they somehow have a five year old as well as a baby) have been taking into foster care while their parents deal with their legal woes.
One might be tempted to think the kids would be better off as wards of the state… At least that way they wouldn’t be forced into taking drugs until they were at least in their mid teens.
Image: Getty
