OROVILLE — A mother and grandmother have been charged with child abuse after prosecutors said a 2-year-old girl ingested edible marijuana that “looked like gummy candies.”
The Butte County District Attorney’s Office said Maneeka Patterson, 21, and her mother-in-law Patricia Medina, 57, have each been charged with a felony count of child abuse likely to produce great bodily harm or death.
Oroville police on June 15 performed a welfare check on the 2-year-old after she was reportedly unresponsive, according to prosecutors. Officers found the child consumed edible marijuana, and she was taken to Oroville Hospital by ambulance.
Doctors found the child had a “high amount” of THC in her system, and she recovered after hospitalization, according to prosecutors.
Patterson is the girl’s mother, and Medina is the child’s grandmother, prosecutors said. Medina lived in the same home and allegedly had “marijuana edibles in various forms in her bedroom.”
Medina also allegedly provided to medical technicians edible marijuana in the form of candy strips as an example of the edible marijuana she had in her room, according to prosecutors. And officers allegedly found marijuana cookies in the home within reach of the children.
According to District Attorney Mike Ramsey, the June incident “was not the first time Patterson’s children have consumed edible marijuana and been hospitalized.”
Patterson was scheduled to be arraigned Friday, and Medina is scheduled to be arraigned July 25.
