There is a case in Michigan that captures what many parents complain is a child protective system that strips away basic due process rights and at times defies both logic and controlling authority. There may be no better example than the treatment of Gordon “Steve” and Maria Green after their 6-month-old baby girl, Bree, was taken away from them. The reason is the determination that the parents have marijuana in the house. It was not hard for the case worker to find: the Greens have a right to medical marijuana protected under state law. That did not matter to the Department of Human Services however and their baby was taken away from their Lancing home.
You may recall the last time we encountered child protective services in Michigan when a professor lost his son and was banned from his house because the boy mistakenly picked a hard lemonade drink thinking it was just regular lemonade.
It appears that the Green case is one of dozens where caseworkers have said that parents can have medical marijuana under state law but must surrender their children. It is the type of problem discussed in a recent column on the rise of the administrative state.
When the caseworkers went to the home, they demanded to see the grow room, which the family refused (citing state law that only one person at a time could have access to such rooms). The DHS then moved to remove the child.
The state law expressly states
Sec. 8. (a) Except as provided in section 7(b), a patient and a patient’s primary caregiver, if any, may assert the medical purpose for using marijuana as a defense to any prosecution involving [marijuana], and this defense shall be presumed valid where the evidence shows that:
(1) A physician has stated that, in the physician’s professional opinion, after having completed a full assessment of the patient’s medical history and current medical condition made in the course of a bona fide physician-patient relationship, the patient is likely to receive therapeutic or palliative benefit from the medical use of [marijuana] to treat or alleviate the patient’s serious or debilitating medical condition or symptoms of the patient’s serious or debilitating medical condition;
(2) The patient and the patient’s primary caregiver, if any, were collectively in possession of a quantity of [marijuana] that was not more than was reasonably necessary to ensure the uninterrupted availability of marijuana for the purpose of treating or alleviating the patient’s serious or debilitating medical condition or symptoms of the patient’s serious or debilitating medical condition; and
(3) The patient and the patient’s primary caregiver, if any, were engaged in the acquisition, possession, cultivation, manufacture, use, delivery, transfer, or transportation of [marijuana] or paraphernalia relating to the use of [marijuana] to treat or alleviate the patient’s serious or debilitating medical condition or symptoms of the patient’s serious or debilitating medical condition.
What is particularly alarming is that the petition from the Children’s Protective Services was granted by Ingham County Family Court referee to remove the child due to the marijuana in the home. These reviews are often perfunctory and judges often rubber stamp the demands of agencies. Steven Green says that the referee granted the petition on the grounds that “someone with a gun could break in.”
While not discussing the specific case, Dave Akerly, acting communications director for DHS, said that they must consider “what kind of choices (parents are) making that impact their kids.” In this case, the parents are presumably using medical marijuana to relieve pain. Notably, they would not be in any difficulty if they had a full-sized bar with hundreds of intoxicants in the home. Likewise, you could have an arsenal of legal weapons in the home without fear of the loss of custody. Clearly, if Green’s account of the preliminary hearing is correct, the family court judge could claim that people with guns could also break in from booze or guns or cash.
The article below reports that almost two dozen medical marijuana cases are being tracked by public interest organizations.
Source: Lansing Journal
St. Clair County DHS is worse! Babies are being taken from mothers whom are on prescribed medications. We fought a case in Janruary 9, 2013 and Referree Burliegh agreed with three doctors saying that the baby should be home. All 3 doctors stated that a mother whom is on suboxone would not have any effect on the care of a baby.(She was way down to 2mg a day and less). But, in his next statement Burleigh ruled for DHS. Money talks, and believe me the father is disabled so more money for the DHS Dept…No family could get the baby, even though we qualified, none of us were licesened for foster care, DHS won;t get any money unless we were licesned! Sick Ha. 8 months later, both parents have passed all tests, counseling, FRP, evenone who has been involved states that DHS has something out for us…They don’t understand…I do..$$$$$$$$$$$
This is going on all over the country, and the family courts are the hub and enablers of it all. They are supposed to be the stopgap measure that prevents the official abuse as well as private abuse. But they don’t, because they are complicit in it. The foxes guarding the henhouse.
See this article on Family Court judges and their violations of all constitutional rights:
http://www.tinyurl.com/1stAmendcourts
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If FIA can take my kids they can take anyones.My family moved to Lansing because I was accepted to Law School there.I had been a Child Abuse Investigator for 7 years and a Therapeutic Foster Parent for 16 years.They knocked on my door one night because one of our kids got one spanking.The school nurse made that 11 year old sit on a hot heating pad all day then called FIA and said we left those marks. The school nurse told our kids that she was going to adopt them and we only adopted them for the adoption subsidy.We had fostered 60 kids before without a complaint but now we were called child abusers.I wanted to go to Law School to fight for Children’s Rights.Now FIA said we would never be allowed to work around kids again. They took all 9 of our adopted kids and placed with teachers and friends. Not in foster homes.I fought that .So they put them in foster homes.They are 2 sibling groups.FIA wouldnt investigate our kids claims of all forms of abuse in Michigan Foster Homes .They just said our kids lie.After 5 minutes into the ” Investigation ” of our family of this one child getting one light spanking for running down the street instead of getting on the school bus that morning;the worker told us she was taking permanant custody of all 9.She lied in her case notes saying we had visits when we never and that we called our kids names at those imaginary visits.This was a nightmare for our entire family.I canceld my seat at the Law School and my husband quit work do we could fight this monster called FIA. The worker brought a photo of someone elses kid to court and said it was our daughter.That kid had bruses down her back and legs.She made up lies to the “Judge” (court case worker)that we beat our daughter severely and all of our kids! Our kids never said any of this. We got them back in 2 months and the court case workers admitted that we never abused any of our kids but said we couldnt move back home because we had to do services.Our psychological reports all said we rated a O.Meaning we needed 0 help/services in raising our kids.When we learned how workers get a bonus for each child they remove and the agency gets alot of money for each child they get permanent custody of;We finally understood why this was happening to us.They caused the harm to our children and they wanted money for our kids/not us.Finally our lawyer filed contept of court on them and they had to let us all go home.But the night before we were to go home ; that first worker came in the middle of the night with the police and raided our home.They woke our kids up /flaslights in their eyes and said if any of them want to go with them they can.The next morning that worker made up more lies and filed for permanent custody of all 9.When she lost she was found in the womans bathroom kicking screaming and crying.Even after we left she still wrote false reports on us and found all forms of abuse just to ruin our records.The agency refused to do anything about any of this.We contacted every government official we could think of from the first day of removal and for years after.They say these workers are immune and so are the agencies. But my family wasnt immune /we was never the same.This happened 12 6 02 and we still havent revovered.
https://www.facebook.com/lawlessamerica2
SOME INSIGHT INTO HIS PAST CASES
Mike S Thank You that was something i did not know.
Gary T maybe you should contact bill windsor. he runs a site named lawless america and is doing a documentary on corrupt leo’s ,judges, das, agencies etc he is also fighting for the rights of those wrongly hurt,destroyed, and just beat down by the rampart corruption in the system also
http://www.lawlessamerica.org
i have other links for you to get the help you need. i will post them soon as i can find them again, i promise i will try to help you all i can. but i must ask what exactly is your lawyer during all of this?
if he/she isn’t fighting tooth and nail for you. then i would suggest you contact bronx defenders. they dont only work in the bronx you can ask for larry williams or keith baumann both are excellent and pulled out all stops to help me in my fight against acs..
i googled your site and it broke my heart but also bought out the fighter in my at that injustice done to you. and there is a reason behind it all im gonna link you to the sites that will make the reason very clear. i will tell you this. in many of the stories i read similar to yours one of the main ways the parent was able to get justice from the family courts was to go to the news media. if main stream wont help. then contact the alternative which actually might be better since most people now read news online and many are beginning to turn away from main stream to alternative.
the reasoning behind acs now is to tear families apart and keep them apart. and it not only has to do with the agency it is what they are told to do from high up aka the screwilionaires who feel they own the world. these are the same people who are actively advocating for pedophilia to be legal. and for our kids to be taught sex ed beginning in kindergarten…
GOD wants families and harmony
satan wants chaos and misery
Mike:
That video is a kind of a train wreck that, although awful, is addictive to look at.
Thank you for your kind words; I am in a battle for custody of my child, and such battles are bad enough on their own, but when govt agencies take an active and discriminatory role in such a battle, it makes it even worse.
You can be sure that they have done this to many more than just myself, and others have had to eat it and suffer.
I am a fighter, idealist and an activist, and I was not going to just let them do what I knew was incredibly illegal without some pushback.
So, the article and this video was a couple salvos back to them. My lawsuit was another, as will some more videos and activism.
My behavior no doubt is something they are just not used to.
Gary,
I didn’t have a chance to view your video over the weekend so I looked at it this morning. Honestly, I had to shut it off at 5:58 in because not only had I seen enough to understand what was going on, but also I felt a growing anxiety in my gut from watching it. We only know each-other from our exchanges on this blog so I can’t comment on what is going on between you and your wife. However, the “interrogation” of you by the worker was so completely unprofessional and confrontational that it literally made me feel sick. I’ve literally done this hundreds of times in my work and I’ve trained workers in it. A CPS worker should not start out by not only believing, but endorsing the allegations they have before them. That is why it is an investigation process. By the time I stopped it, only 6 minutes into the interview she was already accusing you and lecturing you based on her interpretations of the allegations. She was interrupting you as you were presenting your narrative of the story, rather than letting you fully explain yourself and then raising what she might deem inconsistencies in your story. The object should have been to let you explain your side freely and then discuss it with you.
Like much else in our country the CPS systems are rife with overworked, under trained and underpaid workers. The systems are run by political appointees It is really set up to deal with the underclasses and it feeds into a string of “non-profits” that mostly fail to do what they’re paid to do. Many “experts” in the system don’t get what it’s all about and are frankly interested more in their own careers than doing the job right. The family courts are generally awful as well and the “judgeships” are usually sinecures.
The recording gives me a clearer understanding of the hell you are going through and as well gives me insight into your politics. I wish you and your daughter well.
Gary,
I rescued your comment, but picked the one sans address. WP doesn’t like that URL for some reason.