Could Marijuana Use Impact Your Custody of Kids?

Most county employed mediators have standard provisions that parents should adhere from smoking in presence of children, or sometimes even when the kids are under the control of that specific parent. Further, even if smoking is allowed in certain areas, many mediators don't want kids near second hand smoke, period. EVEN if it's inside the house in another room...EVEN if it's anywhere near where the kids might be, play, or access? Like outside?

The "smoking" will generally cover most forms of tobacco and possibly edibles.... (cigar, cigarette, vape, medical MJ, etc...)  And many times, smoking by third parties in the home may not be a good idea due to secondhand smoke. VAPING is almost worst because it is becoming well known, that the nicotine involved, is fused with scents (i.e. cherry,etc) that the teens are running to buy/try?   https://vaping360.com/how-old-to-vape/

In Butte County, a jury has previously returned a guilty verdict over an issue of whether medical marijuana is a defense (to child endangerment charges)--- the long contested case of  Daisy Bram, where allegedly, the lesser count of misdemeanor child endangerment was found (as opposed to child endangerment likely to cause great bodily harm)... Judge Glusman ruled that no valid evidence was presented as to the certified use of medicinal marijuana and thus it was not available as a defense. Ms. Bram was not represented by counsel, which obviously hindered her defense.

http://reason.com/blog/2014/03/07/daisy-bram-a-witness-in-federal-case-aga

Child Endangerment in California...

Under Penal Code section 273a  there is a possibility of criminal prosecution whenever a child is under your care or custody and you:

• Willfully permit the child to suffer;
• Inflict unjustifiable physical or mental pain upon any child; or
• Willfully endanger the health of a child.

If the prosecuting agency in your county believes that you are “endangering the health of your child” by smoking marijuana or growing it in a home where your children reside, you may face criminal charges....

These charges may be filed as a misdemeanor or as a felony. Of course, if the court order stated that any type of smoking or use of same is not allowed while child is under your care, a violation might be a contempt charge potentially, if the other spouse or another was to bring that claim forward?

If convicted of felony child endangerment, you could be sentenced to up to six years in prison and ordered to pay a maximum $10,000 fine. A misdemeanor conviction is punishable by up to one year in county jail, up to a $1,000 fine, or both.

Why is Alcohol Allowed But Not MJ?

Generally, no courts like the idea of alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, edibles, cigarettes, cigars, etc. when it comes to kids. Although there are tons of rules regarding drunk driving, there are not tons of rules for intoxication at home due to getting high on drugs, including legal marijuana and the like. While the hearsay out there is that MJ will be used, consumed and grown by large business, including beer companies, and that the feds will be changing those laws, it is a possibility, but we wouldn't bet your life on it happening super soon. The banks and other super duty corporations always want to benefit themselves first. BUT if they manage to do it, we can be assured that they will have already thought of safer ways to tone down common marijuana so that it would be as common as alcohol, and treated closer to the way alcohol is regulated.  OTOH, the presence of nicotine in the vaping formulas which are targeting teens (and apparently succeeding)-- is something that relies on curiosity and being popular, because "everyone" is trying it. However one is supposed to be 21 to be "vaping"....well, we are sure that plenty of people are ignoring that there law?? LOL
Parents that are smoking or vaping, your kids are watching you.

Note:  //The courts generally do not favor the smoking of MJ, even if it is medically prescribed. People with chronic anxiety often resort to marijuana use, or prescription meds. The meds only do so much, the overly anxious client will still be overly anxious, but somewhat better than with no meds at all.//

Underwater Separate Property at Trial

If a couple has been in a relationship for over 20 years let's say, and substantial assets have been acquired but one party really doesn't know what the other party has done with all of the assets...or, both parties brought assets into the relationship to being with, then due to inheritance, improvements, and new business startups, or new investments acquired and sold or traded, the waters become quite muddied, and resorting out all of the transactions over many years can be very daunting.

Attorney herein used to be in an office in San Diego with a Special Master who was always working on forensic issues. Commonly, a CPA would be used but is not required unless complex tax transactions were seen for many issues. When coupled with non disclosure, these financial issues can generate some very high expenses. Many of the cases in the appeals courts can focus on the tracing of assets and division.

Example of Improper Division with Separate Property [not from Placer County]


Even though not an extremely high stakes case, (not in millions, but at least $100,000)---- attorney has seen one case locally where at the family law trial, which attorney was not involved with (both parties were pro se) ---- the "judge" [a Commissioner, not an actual judge] actually claimed to understand FL Code 2640, [see link below] but failed to generate the order after the trial which would explain how judge implemented his decision.  

    In the decision after trial, judge actually ignored the code, failed to award the one party (who had the 2640 claim) her $100,000 proven cash down payment --and simply gave the other party the wife's separate real property [which was then under water]. and there went the client's $100,000 cash down payment, AND the residence,  because Judge never allowed her the credit to begin with, or if he did, he avoided giving the wife the asset which was her own separate property to begin with? 
(Yes, attorney knows that usually the person with the underwater property should have been given the property with time to make some attempts on refi, etc.....she could have rented out 3 rooms and easily..)


http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=fam&group=02001-03000&file=2640-2641

Although CA case law appears to find that real property with a traceable FL2640 claim will usually go to the one who put down the separately property cash, especially if equity is lower than when acquired, and the community has not really made any headway in lowering the principle, this judge ignored the down payment cash by the one party and seemingly claimed that because there was no equity at trial, then he could just award it to the other party, because he has discretion???

Obviously IF this was true, then any judge could ignore FL2640 (as this judge seems to have done)  and just give away thousands of dollars of cash down payments, even though admittedly fully proven and traceable, and then award both the residence and any equity (even if little or none) to the other party, while ignoring the mandate that the traceable, proven cash that wife put down, SHALL be taken off the top FIRST,  because Judge wanted to exercise discretion (so he claims........)  Rather clearly, we don't think this was even discretionary, since when counsel on later motion queried "What about client's $100,000 proven cash down payment in separate property", Judge replied "That's a good question." Obviously the case was an appeals case that would have generated a better decision. The client had no funds and did not wish to do an appeal, unfortunately.
As can be seen, one needs to have a court reporter at a trial, especially if one has a lot of cash at stake. And hiring an attorney for the trial is a good idea especially when you stand to lose your $100,000 because Judge can't apply the code correctly?