The Math of Marijuana Dealing

If you think dealing marijuana in Alabama isn’t a serious crime, think again. An arrest last week shows how the math works.

On Friday, July 22, Victor Cooley was arrested with weed in his house. Apparently, it was his normal routine to have marijuana around and when Alabama Drug Task Force officers busted in (with a warrant, of course) they smelled “burning marijuana.” In many other States, this wouldn’t amount to much. But Mr. Cooley had kids around as well as 30 firearms. In Alabama, the guns aren’t a problem, but the kids and the marijuana are.

He was charged with six counts of endangering a child (yes, six kids) along with distribution and paraphernalia. Included in the distribution charge was one for possession as well. The killer, for Mr. Cooley isn’t the few ounces of marijuana seized, or the scale, but the charges for endangering the children. “Minors” would be more correct – one was 17.

Under our Chemical Endangerment of a Child laws, smoking marijuana in the presence of minors adds up. His bail is set at more than a million dollars.

The law was enacted because of meth labs, where toxic and explosive chemicals could put residents, including children, at risk. Since then, it’s been applied to pregnant women who are caught with drugs in their systems – exposing the unborn to toxic chemicals – and now, to marijuana smoke. It’s unknown if the charges will stick, but if this law is used to the fullest, you can expect harsher sentences to flow from it.

It is not necessary to prove that marijuana is harmful to children in the amount present, just that an illegal drug activity is exposing minors to the substance. It’s conceivable that anyone with drugs of any sort in the household (where there are children) could face the same penalties. Each conviction of Chemical Endangerment of a Child carries a sentence of up to 10 years.

So the math doesn’t look good here: a $1,600,000 bail and up to eighty years in the pen. Not worth a few ounces of weed and smoking at home.