Officers arrested an 18-year-old woman and a 19-year-old man in Bexar county recently for giving a blunt to a 3-year-old kid.
Officers arrested Thomas Rey Esquivel, 19, and Larissa Contreras, 18, Thursday, September 10, 2020, for being part of a viral video where a toddler was smoking marijuana. Contreras is the older sister of the young boy. Both individuals are facing endangering a child charges. Rightfully so.
Reporters filmed Contreras talking about the incident on the day of her arrest. Officers are using that same video as part of a confession on her part.
Contreras blames the event on her being high. She is blaming the cannabis itself for her own actions. The video at times feels like she hopes that she can say something that will keep her from getting in as much trouble. She does this by passing the blame on being intoxicated. The reality is that she has to be responsible for her own actions. Therefore, the public needs to be reminded that cannabis and alcohol do not work the same way, despite that responsibility is to be involved with both. That’s why both should likely be treated the same in regards to consuming around children.
Promoting personal responsibility, and promoting accountability on those that are irresponsible is a core pillar of the responsible cannabis reform movement. Irresponsible people that cause harm have to face consequences for their actions.
What is happening here?
Instead, Contreras tries to clear her name by saying it was the cannabis, she has an issue when consuming it, and sets up imagery that she would like to save character by “cleaning up.”
This damages the cannabis reform movement in so many ways, because the average citizen does not see it that way. They see cannabis as this plant that causes people to make highly poor decisions, rather than people making poor decisions before and while consuming cannabis. The cannabis did not amplify her poor decision making.
She’s 18. Every 18 year old makes poor decisions because they don’t have the life experience to make better ones at times. Those experiences will be a learning experience. Contreras made a poor decision to consume cannabis with a 3-year-old present. She made a poor decision to be with an individual that thinks it would be a fun idea to give 3-year-old a blunt. She made a poor decision to pressure a 3-year-old into smoking a blunt. These decisions started before she consumed cannabis. So, cannabis isn’t to blame.
Contreras also says in her video, “I was not even thinking at the moment. Because the way weed makes you feel, you don’t think in the moment. And that’s how I was. I wasn’t thinking in the moment.“
From this, it can be easy to imagine, that when she faces her day in court the judge or the prosecution will be asking her what she was thinking at the moment. Asking her what was going through her mind. Contreras stating nothing was going through her mind is obviously not going to cut it. She was arrested for that. The prosecutor can likely assert out loud that Contreras thought of it as funny.
Her response is just contradictory to what happened.
Contreras contradicts her actual actions when she says the following, “Because if I wasn’t high, and I was just, you know, sober, I would have never let it happen.”
Contreras made the choices that lead up to this. She decided when she was sober that she would consume around a toddler. Then, that leads to the video that went viral of her undesired actions. Cannabis is not the issue. Contreras was the issue.
That’s not an argument to keep cannabis illegal either. It’s the argument that we as a society should hold these people accountable, the same way we hold drunk drivers involved in car accidents responsible. They are arrested and they face charges for it.
We don’t outlaw alcohol because of DUI’s. Our state even allows alcohol to be consumed by minors under the supervision of an adult. Nobody in the responsible cannabis movement is pushing to have minors consume cannabis without a medical condition.
Contreras should face whatever punishment is appropriate for her actions. Because they were her actions and the cannabis was not the real reason for them.
