June: Alabama removes toddler from Michigan family found with marijuana

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Donny Ferguson Retweeted

Alabama police stop a family traveling through from Michigan, where cannabis is legal, and steal their child.

They are still fighting to get their child back, and don't know if they ever will.

The war on drugs is a war on people.

Link to tweet

Crime

Alabama removes toddler from Michigan family found with marijuana

Updated: Jun. 30, 2021, 7:12 a.m. | Published: Jun. 29, 2021, 7:00 a.m.

By Amy Yurkanin | [e-mail]

Erika Prock left Michigan at 10 p.m. on Wednesday, March 10, with a change of clothes and a set of pajamas for her and her son.

She drove all night while the 18-month-old slept in the car seat and then picked up her husband at her in-laws’ home in Hamilton, along the Mississippi border in north Alabama. After a two-hour visit, they started back toward Hillsdale, Mich., with plans to stop in Nashville for sleep.

The family only made it as far as Moulton, where someone reported a disturbance as they stopped at Jack’s for lunch. When police responded, Prock’s husband was smoking a cigarette outside the car. An officer smelled marijuana on his breath.

Todd Prock told police he had marijuana in the trunk of the car. Then they arrested both adults and placed the child in foster care – trapping the family inside a nightmare for possessing a substance that’s legal in their home state.

“If we could have taken our situation and transported it to Michigan, we would have been on our way,” Erika Prock said. “None of this would have happened. Nothing. Like absolutely nothing.”

{snip}

[wryter2000]

1. But, of course,

They leave children with parents who refuse to vaccinate them.

[Budi]

2. Shitty cruel situation.

But a warning that what's cool in your home state may be illegal in another.
I am surprised they were'nt more cautious & aware of these laws, expecially with transporting Marijuana across a State border.

That part surprises me. Their treatment by AL PD does not.

[pnwest]

3. I'm sure they were 100% aware of the laws, that's why it was in the trunk.

Odds are high they wouldn't have had any issues, it's a risk I'd have taken myself. I'd have buried the weed deep under the spare tire in my trunk and taken my chances. Being a good driver, not speeding, having valid tags and no taillights out - I'd have taken the chance. But EVERYONE living in a weed-legal state next to a NON weed-legal state is aware of the laws and risks of crossing those particular state lines. They took a chance and lost.

But don't confuse my assertion that they were aware of the risk with thinking they deserve to lose their child. I absolutely do not.

[Budi]

4. K & R

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

5. Police in NJ did something similar to Shaneen Allen

https://www.nj.com/atlantic/2014/08/philadelphia_mom_who_legally_purchased_gun_in_pa_arrested_in_new_jersey_faces_3_years_in_prison.html

Of course beating a woman in an elevator gets you the offer a diversion program for 1st-time offenders:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2014/08/10/ray-rice-shaneen-allen-gun-column/13862831/

Everyone is equal but some are more equal than others.