The mother of a teenager who jumped out of a third-story window after eating a pot brownie was convicted in Colorado on Wednesday of a misdemeanor drug charge.
Julieane Jablonski, 39, was found guilty of illegally transferring marijuana concentrate in connection with an April 2015 incident that sent her teenage son to the hospital.
Austin Essig, then 19, suffered non-life-threatening injuries when he jumped out of the third-story window of an Fort Collins, Colorado, apartment complex last year after eating a weed-infused edible.
Police said the teen had consumed some of a marijuana brownie on April 15, 2015 and soon after began acting strangely.
“According to witnesses, Essig ran toward the living room window and jumped out of it without hesitation. The fall three stories seriously injured Essig. It was determined through the investigation that Julieane Jablonski, Essig’s mother, provided the edible marijuana brownie consumed by Austin Essig,” police reported at the time.
The teen’s mother was arrested shortly after and charged with two crimes — illegally distributing marijuana and witness tampering.
Although Coloradans voted in 2012 to pass the nation’s first state-wide recreational marijuana law, Amendment 64 only allows adults over the age of 21 to use or posses pot for nonmedicinal purposes.
Authorities argued that the mother told her son’s 19-year-old roommate that he “needed to recant his statement to the police and lie about where the marijuana came from,” a local CBS News affiliate reported.
“She allegedly attempted to get other witnesses to change their stories,” Deputy Police Chief Cory Christensen said previously.
While a jury this week convicted the mom of the misdemeanor drug charge, Jablonski was found not guilty of witness tampering, clearing her of a possible felony conviction. She’ll face a maximum of 18 months in prison when she’s sentenced for the drug crime on June 1.
In 2014, a college student from the Republic of Congo died after he fell from a fourth-floor hotel balcony in Denver after consuming six-times the recommended dosage of marijuana edibles. Last year, a 22-year-old Colorado man fatally shot himself shortly after consuming a large amount of edibles.
Regulations that went into effect in January now limit the amount of edibles that can be purchased in a single transaction from Colorado’s licensed retailers. Another measure taking hold in October will require manufactures to include no more than 10 mg of THC, marijuana’s high-inducing ingredient, per package.
SEE ALSO: EPA slammed after refusing to cover Colorado county’s costs from toxic spill
“Ultimately, the imposition of sensible regulations on the cannabis industry, coupled with better public safety information and greater consumer/seller responsibility and accountability, are the best strategies to address cannabis-specific health concerns and to prevent future rises in hospital admissions due to cannabis ingestion from taking place,” Paul Armentano, deputy director for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, told The Washington Times earlier this month.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.