By Ann Toney
So you have your Colorado registry (red) card and you are legal to possess medical marijuana and cultivate plants. All set; unless you have children in the home. There are some safeguards you must be concerned with if you are storing medical cannabis in your home, medicating or cultivating.
Age of the minor: You must consider the age of the child, or children, living in the home or regularly visiting your home when determining safeguards to implement. For example, while storage of medical marijuana out of the reach of a 3-year-old child may be satisfactory on a high closet shelf; the same storage when the child is 13 years old would not be adequate. As the age of the child changes, the level of security changes.
Storage of medicine: It is important to be able to secure medical marijuana safely from all children. Frequently for older children this necessitates placing the medicine under lock and key in a location hidden from the children. It is best to not disclose the location of the medicine to the children. There was a case in Colorado recently where a teenager was taking her parent’s medicine and giving it to friends. The District Attorney charged the parent with a felony and while the parent was ultimately found “not guilty” by a jury, it was an expensive lesson for the parent. Since medical marijuana is frequently cooked into various forms of edibles it is quite important these tempting foods are kept out of sight of children. In another Colorado criminal case a young child ate a sweet edible of the child’s parent and the parent was charged with child abuse for allowing the child to get possession of the medicine.
Medicating. It is important to not medicate around any child. You need to designate a medicating area which is separate from where a child is. Frequently parents opt to medicate out in their garage at night after their children are asleep. Often there is an “off-limits” area the parents use. You must take precautions to protect children from marijuana smoke, edibles or other forms of medicine delivery.
Cultivation. It is difficult to grow out in the open where children could have contact with the plants. A secluded place to grow (i.e. basement) would require the same guidelines as medicating and storage do above.
Ann Toney, P.C. is a Denver-based law firm that focuses on medical marijuana business law and marijuana defense; and defending people charged with driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs (DUI/DUID). Ann Toney can be contacted via phone or web at (303) 399-5556 and www.anntoneylaw.com.
