Ohio mother faces charges for allegedly giving marijuana to her young children

By Staff Writer

The Cincinnati Enquirer reports that an Ohio woman has been arrested and charged for allegedly giving marijuana to her three young children. The children are ages seven, four and one.

According to the news provider, the alleged incident is similar to another Ohio case this past summer, when a video was captured of a two-year-old child smoking a marijuana cigarette at the behest of her mother.

Law enforcement officials in the most recent case say that the woman would regularly blow the smoke into the faces of her children. According to the prosecuting attorney, it became so routine that two of the children would smoke marijuana on their own.

Child welfare investigators learned about the case in late September when the seven-year-old told an adult about her cannabis use. The mother was arrested earlier this week on three counts of corrupting others with drugs.

Study results published in the American Journal of Epidemiology reveal that children and teenagers who smoke marijuana may have a heightened risk of depression in adulthood, according to Reuters. Researchers that studied 50,000 adults in 17 countries found that individuals who smoked before the age of 17 were 50 percent more likely to develop a depression "spell" as an adult.