Mother Fights Charges Of Giving Injured Son Marijuana
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A mother charged with giving her son medical marijuana months before it becomes legal in Minnesota wants her case to be dismissed.
Angela Brown went back to court Wednesday. She is facing jail time for treating her 15-year-old son with cannabis oil after he suffered a traumatic brain injury in a baseball game.
She says he's suffered chronic pain and muscle spasms ever since the accident.
The hearing only lasted about 20 minutes in a Lac qui Parle County courtroom. Brown's attorney, Michael Hughes from Oregon, asked that his client's charges be dropped.
"He flat out said, 'I don't want to live, I can't deal with this pain anymore.' What do you do?" Brown said.
When teachers discovered what was making a dramatic difference in Trey, deputies were called.
Lac qui Parle County Attorney Rick Stulz could have charged Brown with possession, instead of leveling two more serious charges of child endangerment.
"When you have a child endangerment charge leveled against a mom that's helping her child, that's the absurdity of this whole thing," Hughes said.
Now in Madison's Main Street Cafe, cameras from across the country capture her story. The courts are left in a bit of a legal limbo as 33 states have approved marijuana for medical use.
The state has until Jan. 2 to argue why the case should move forward. Then a judge has 90 days to decide if it should be dismissed.
Time wise, it moves much closer to the time a law in Minnesota takes effect.
Patrick McClellan is a patient advocate from Minnesotans for Compassionate Care. He was one of a dozen supporters that stood outside the courthouse holding signs in support of Angela Brown.
"Come July it's going to be legal, so how can something be prosecuted that's going to be legal in seven months?" McClellan said.
Supporters maintain what Brown did should be commended and not criminalized.
"Until someone can say how preventing pain is wrong, then I'm going to continue to say 'not guilty' because I'm not," Brown said.
Nine-thousand people from around the world signed a petition asking Stulz to drop the charges against Brown. Stulz's office told WCCO he is not commenting on the case.
The Browns are planning to relocate to Colorado. Under the law that goes into effect in July, it's possible Trey may not qualify to receive cannabis oil in Minnesota.
The law is considered to be one of the most restrictive in the country.
