A Minnesota mother faces jail time for treating her son’s seizures with medicinal cannabis oil, a treatment option that will be legal in the state in 2015.
Angela Brown’s teenage son Trey suffers severe pain and spasms from a traumatic brain injury. The 38-year-old mom said she tried other prescription medications but to no avail.
“No mother should have to hold their child so they don’t hurt themselves,” she told Valley News Live. “He didn’t want to live.”
It got so bad the teenager couldn’t go to school and started to punch and cut himself.
Brown traveled to Colorado to purchase some cannabis oil regulated under Colorado law. Within an hour of giving her son the medicinal cannabis oil his condition was relieved.
“I felt better, the pain went away,” Trey told the local news.
But when his school wondered what was helping him, school officials weren’t pleased to hear the answer and called the police on Angela.
She was charged with possession of a controlled illegal substance and child endangerment. A conviction on both counts could result in up to two years in prison and a $6,000 fine.
“The prosecutor’s version of this is that a good mom allows her child to be in pain, to self-harm, and attempt to take his life,” she told Valley News Live. “I guess that’s a good mom in his eyes.”
Brown appeared in court Tuesday and the case is headed to trial. Brown told the Minneapolis City Pages that she’s open to pleading guilty to lesser charges, but won’t plead guilty to child endangerment.
“I will agree to having had a product with THC in it in my possession, but I refuse to agree to child endangerment,” she said. “That’s not endangering him. Yes, if I had gone to a back alley and bought pot from some guy I didn’t know and then rolled a joint and made him smoke it, then fine, I did, but that’s a fairly dumbass thing to do because you don’t know what’s in it.”
The lawsuit is further complicated by the fact that Minnesota has approved the use of cannabis oil in the state, but the law is not scheduled to take effect until July 1, 2015.
The Brown family has told local news outlets that it will stay in Minnesota for the trial, but will then relocate to Colorado. Until then, Trey waits without treatment.
