Bree Green has been terrorized by marijuana. Not by the plant itself, mind you. Nor by her two state-legal medical marijuana patient parents. No, Bree Green was terrorized by a senseless war on cannabis that had state officials in Michigan heartlessly tearing the baby away from her family back on Sept. 13 because of their personal health choices.
But this morning, Bree Green is back with her mom and dad just in time to go trick-or-treating.
Bree’s story became national news, mostly because of the absurdity of the whole thing. State officials didn’t have any proof that the parents were submitting the infant to anything harmful, but nevertheless state Protective Services took Bree out of her mother’s arms while police looked on.
While children being taken away from parents who use cannabis is common in this country and sadly legal due to the illegal status of cannabis in most states. But Michigan allows for medical cannabis. Not only that, but Michigan medical cannabis laws explicitly allow parents to be patients and say that their rights can’t be taken away simply for being a patient.
The outrageous story garnered a lot of attention, including online support groups like Free Baby Bree. The high-profile case eventually attracted legal support, with four attorneys volunteering their time to help reunite the Green family.
The attorneys agreed with the judge that her parents wouldn’t medicate around the child – something they’ve avoiding doing even before this ordeal.
“We said we’re going to let the parents medicate (with marijuana) but not around the children, just what they’ve been doing all along, and allow some type of regular testing of the baby, maybe a mouth swab,” Joshua Covert, one of the family’s attorneys, told USA Today.
Sadly, Green isn’t the first child to go through this in Michigan.
“The idea that medical marijuana patients can’t be good parents is just drug-war hysteria,” Charmie Gholson, founder of Michigan Moms United, told USA Today. “This has been going on almost since the [Michigan medical marijuana] law passed.”
Cops justify the raid on Bree Green by saying that other parents have abused the system in the past. Roseville Police Chief James Berlin says he sees it all the time.
“I’m sure there’s legitimate patients, but we spend a lot of time and effort investigating guys who have their (state registry) card and they’re raising plants and selling the drug to anyone who’ll buy from them,” Berlin said.
They clearly don’t spend enough time and effort investigating, or this infant child wouldn’t have had to have spent an entire month away from her mother and father.