Grandmother Gave 3-Year-Old Grandson Pot Cookies

Boy Rushed To Hospital After Grandmother Couldn't Wake Him Up

Alan Gathright, 7NEWS Content Producer

POSTED: 11:59 am MST December 23, 2009
UPDATED: 4:29 pm MST December 23, 2009

DENVER -- A Denver medical marijuana activist was under investigation after she gave her 3-year-old grandson at least one peanut butter cookie laced with pot and the boy couldn't wake up the next morning.

The toddler was rushed to the hospital Dec. 5. where he was treated in intensive care and fully recovered, according to a police report. Medical tests determined the child had THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, in his system.

In a tragic twist, the 44-year-old grandmother, Erin Marcove, took her own life Dec. 12, a week after the incident.

A relative told TheDenverChannel that Marcove "mentally had some issues for a long time in her life. She got in trouble (for giving the grandson the marijuana cookie) and maybe that's what pushed her over the edge."

Marcove described herself as an accredited Cannabis Medical Therapist Consultant on a Web site for her business, Cannabis Medical Therapeutics. She said she'd used medical marijuana for a variety of illnesses, including chronic back pain, for most of her life.

She had become an activist for the budding medical marijuana community in Colorado and wrote about educating law enforcement, social services, legislators, city leaders, dispensaries and patients on the issue.

"There is so much information on cannabis; we all need the right education that guides the public in the truth of cannabis," Marcove wrote on Westword.com. "Embrace cannabis as medicine. Compassionate medicine, Compassionate dispensaries!"

The boy's mother told police Marcove picked the toddler up on Friday, Dec. 4, to watch him at her house over the weekend, which was routine.

Marcove told police that she had a medical marijuana license and she made a batch of peanut butter cookies with a jar of "cannabis butter" that Friday night and gave one cookie to her grandson with a glass of milk about 10:30 p.m.

When police asked where the remaining cookies were, "Mrs. Marcove said all the cookies were gone," according to a detective's statement supporting a search warrant for the grandmother's home. Marcove lived with her husband and their three sons, including the 3-year-old's father.

The grandmother said when she woke up at noon on Saturday the boy "was still sleeping, which was odd and she couldn't get him to wake him up," according to the search warrant affidavit.

By 3 p.m., the boy was still in a stupor and the grandmother even tried putting him in the shower, but couldn't wake the child. Marcove then called the child's mother who summoned an ambulance.

During the search of the home, police seized a green jar of "suspected cannabis butter" in the refrigerator.

"Mrs. Marcove said she didn't call for the paramedics or take (the boy) to the hospital herself, because she doesn't have his Medicaid card," according to court records.

On a Web site for medical marijuana support groups, Marcove was mourned as a compassionate caregiver who created a special program for indigent medical marijuana patients.

"I am deeply saddened by Erin's death, yet her inspiration is amazing and uplifting," an Englewood activist called "Queen Sativa" wrote on Meetup.com. "Her compassionate care for patients was remarkable. She has accomplished SO MUCH for our medical cannabis movement."

From: http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/22046817/detail.html