A Butte County mother faces a preliminary hearing today to determine whether she should stand trial for what she characterizes as breastfeeding her children while on pot.
Medical marijuana advocates have rallied around the case of Daisy Bram, 30, contending that she faces excessive prosecution on charges of felony child abuse and misdemeanor child endangerment stemming from a raid by Butte County authorities on a pot garden.
The defense has portrayed the case as about a mother breastfeeding her children while using marijuana for medical purposes. Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey says Bram faces charges for having a house strewn with marijuana buds.
The case attracted attention after an audio tape, capturing Bram crying hysterically as child welfare workers removed her 14-month old toddler and newborn infant during the pot raid, went viral. Her children were put in foster care for four months after the raid.
Bram and her husband, Jayme Walsh, were charged with felony marijuana possession and possession of pot for sale after officers raided their 38-plant garden and seized another 56 plants inside their home, authorities said.
After a preliminary hearing last November, a Butte County judge upheld the drug charges but threw out counts of felony child abuse against both parents. But Ramsey refiled child counts against the mother, saying hair samples on her toddler tested positive for marijuana.
Bram's new preliminary hearing comes after Butte County voters last week rejected a county ordinance that sought to ban marijuana cultivation on properties of one-half acre or less and set planting limits on larger acre parcels.
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