If you listen to the police audio tape of mom Daisy Bram crying in agony when child protective services took her children away from her, it's truly heart-wrenching. "My babies! My babies!" she screamed when they removed her 28-day-old son Zeus from her arms along with her 15-month-old son Thor back in September. Her crime? Possession of marijuana. But in Butte County, California, it is legal to grow pot. And Bram, along with husband Jayme Walsh, both have legal documentation allowing them to use marijuana for pain management. The county also allows them to grow it.
Three weeks prior to their arrest and seizure of their children who were placed in a foster home, police investigated the family's cannabis garden and gave it the okay. An officer even reportedly wished them luck with the baby. But then the unthinkable happened. You can hear the tape next, but be warned. It's very emotional and there is some language at the end.
Embedded content: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPbrbPkCFg4&feature=player_embedded
You can hear the pain in her voice and no mother — no parent — should ever have to go through that. Yes, it was CPS, an agency that is put together to help save children's lives. But at the same time, this is seemingly a family who lived within the law, and whose babies weren't in danger. Of course, that depends on your stance on medical marijuana. Still, the people at CPS are strangers to this mother and father. Their babies were taken from them to live with strangers. For four months. I can't even imagine not being able to be with my children for four months. Bram calls it a witch hunt and the family has set up a website Free My Babies with details.
Fresh in the news the other day, however, was the story of a 19-year-old mom who left her infant on the hood of her car as she drove away, drunk and high. I feel this is much different than a mother who legally smokes a little pot at home for the pain in her arm. Even if she is breastfeeding.
Bram recently spoke to ABC News 10 about how she feels her kids were taken away because she was breastfeeding and smoking pot. She talked about how she doesn't believe enough THC can pass through breastmilk to cause any harm to the children. Tests revealed that there was trace THC in the hair from Thor, her older son, but the baby didn't have enough hair to test. Daisy also mentions how mothers drink, smoke cigarettes, eat genetically modified foods, and this is all seen as okay for a nursing mom. But a mom who smokes medical marijuana can have her children taken from her for months.
Bram and Walsh were charged with felony marijuana possession with intent to sell. Police found a 38-plant garden and 56 plants inside the home. Remember this is all legal in Butte County … as long as their intent was to smoke it themselves and not sell it. The child abuse charges were dropped.
At the end of the audio, you can hear Daisy saying how she followed the law and asked those taking her babies away if they felt good about what they were doing. I can't imagine that they did. In this case, I don't think anyone "wins" — and those children, having to be away from their parents for four long months … all the milestones missed, the precious time a mother and father should have with their children … gone. And for what? All because this seemingly peaceful family had some pot, which was within the law? Was it the fact that Daisy was breastfeeding?
They will never get that time back, but I hope they never have to go through something so horrifying again.
What do you think of Daisy Bram's story? Should they have taken the children from the home? Do you believe smoking pot while breastfeeding is enough of a "crime" to have children go to CPS?
