Caught Smoking Pot? You Could Lose Your Kids (Unless You're White)

Anybody seen my kids?

Every year, hundreds of NYC parents busted for pot possession—the vast majority of them recreational smokers—get caught in bitter legal battles with the city to keep their children. Parents with no criminal records routinely lose custody of their children after a small level marijuana bust, even in cases where the police didn't press charges. In an excellent article in today's Times, one Penelope Harris talks about how her son and niece were taken away after police searched her home and found a quantity of marijuana so small they couldn't even charge her with a misdemeanor.

"I felt like less of a parent, like I had failed my children," Harris tells the Times. "It tore me up." Her 10-year-old son spent a week in foster care, and her niece, who was living with her as a foster child, spent more than a year in another home as Harris underwent a lengthy child neglect inquiry. Police had searched her Bronx home because they suspected she was dealing drugs, but she says the small amount of pot they found belonged to her boyfriend, and that she didn't smoke marijuana. A drug test proved her right. Harris has no criminal record and wasn't charged for pot possession, but the Administration for Children’s Services has been holding parents to a different standard than the criminal justice system.

Lauren Shapiro, director of the Brooklyn Family Defense Project, says the case workers breaking up these families are just trying to justify their salaries. "There is not the same use of crack cocaine as there used to be, so they are filing these cases instead," she tells the Times. Other defense lawyers point out—and this may not shock you—that these custody cases are "rarely if ever" filed against white parents.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By John Del Signore in News on August 18, 2011 2:34 PM

Comments [rss]

Emmily_Litella

OBEY

REAL6

Truly sad and shocking but people have to realize one lie. Whites are the minorities in the world, not the other way around.

celmira9

Where is Al Sharpton when you need him?

whiteiris

Don't worry, Bloomberg will rescue the minorities with his new program. White kids, never.

23, kid, homeless shelter.

Ms. Jacobs cited the case of a former client, Jose Gunnell, 23, of
Harlem, who lost custody of his 1-year-old daughter in March after an
employee at a homeless shelter where he was staying found a $5 bag of
marijuana in his room during an inspection.

Mr. Gunnell said in an interview that he stopped smoking marijuana in
2010 but that he used it again in March after having an infected tooth
pulled. “The wound wouldn’t close,” he said. “I was getting hungry, but I
couldn’t eat. I bought weed.”

The neglect petition that the Administration for Children’s Services
filed against Mr. Gunnell shows that he admitted to smoking marijuana to
develop an appetite.

The agency’s petition also said that his daughter did not always have
adequate clothing, that shelter workers once smelled alcohol on Mr.
Gunnell’s breath and that his room was dirty and had an odor."

nomadnewyork

Infected tooth = odor. I can't believe that they are taking kids away for this shit. If you were a parent and tried to get sole custody of your child in a divorce based on the smell of alcohol and a dirty room (assuming that it was dirty and not a hazard), you would probably NOT get sole custody and rightly so, since it is a general belief that a child needs both parents particularly when both parents want said child.

It looks to me as though this does not apply to the children of the poor and downtrodden who clearly do not need any parents at all.

nicemarmot

So when are they going to start going after alcoholics and pillheads, both of whom are more dangerous to children than potheads? Oh that's right, never.

imadick

it's your constitutional right to drink. or something.

R R

no silly, it's your constitutional right to free drinking against the speech of armed bears.

FU Boy

Man, where were you on that Ron Paul thread?

nccpr

F U Boy’s got it exactly right: In addition to the harm done to the children needlessly traumatized by child abuse investigations or worse, thrown into foster care, all the time money and effort spent on these cases is being stolen from finding children in real danger.

ACS’ “reefer madness” is only part of the *real* legacy of John Mattingly, who led a full scale retreat from reform and left ACS far worse than he found it.
Details are on our child welfare blog here: http://bit.ly/p2tlAK

Richard Wexler
Executive Director
National Coalition for Child Protection Reform
www.nccpr.org

ANGRYGOD11

Her fridge could have been filled with beer and vodka and it all would be just as legal as a bathroom cabinet filled with prescripted meds.

SHHHHH

From the Times article:

Over all, the rate of marijuana use among whites is twice as high as among blacks and Hispanics in the city, the data show, but defense lawyers said these cases were rarely if ever filed against white parents.

R R

DAD?! How'd they get this picture... he's gonna be pissed.

AzzTech

I AM SHOCKED, but not surprised.

Wait, can you be shocked and not surprised?
ACS is a joke.

rabbi@thebloggernet

haha...the picture looks awesome...he is looking like a joker

TakeThePledge

Police had searched her Bronx home because they suspected she was dealing drugs, but she says the small amount of pot they found belonged to her boyfriend, and that she didn't smoke marijuana. A drug test proved her right.
-
Ok, so a judge signed off on a search warrant meaning the courts thought there was probable cause that she was DEALING drugs, not using.

SHHHHH

"Ok, so a judge signed off on a search warrant meaning the courts thought there was probable cause that she was DEALING drugs, not using."
The Police found NO evidence of drug dealing (zero, zip, nada), only a small amount of personal use weed.

So that search warrant was bullshit, like so many others, based on lies told to or by the police to judges who rubberstamp anything you put in front of them.

But rest assured, if you're white, you've got nothing to worry about!

Love this quote from the Times article:

Over all, the rate of marijuana use among whites is twice as high as among blacks and Hispanics in the city, the data show, but defense lawyers said these cases were rarely if ever filed against white parents.

celmira9

It is things like this that drive people to kill themselves atop New York City buildings. The double standard that exists, the lies about minorities. Yes minorities are bad and whites are just great human beings who never smoke, commit crimes, etc. We heard it all and continue to hear this message.

petey2

re: the rate
http://oas.samhsa.gov/2k2/race...
http://oas.samhsa.gov/NHSDA/Et... (table 4.5)

says otherwise, or the times is intentionally misrepresenting stats. The rate is around 1.5 for black youths, 0.85 for hispanic youths, and 0.89 for white youths. or the 2nd link puts the % of use by population for non hispanic whites & blacks at 8.9 vs 10.6%.

I understand that the article is citing city data, but there's also no reference other than calling it "data." I also understand that its a newspaper article, and not a professional research journal article.