Idaho Medical Marijuana Advocate Lindsey Rinehart Got Her Kids Back From the State

"OUR BOYS ARE HOME!!!!!!"

Facebook

"OUR BOYS ARE HOME!!!!!! OUR BOYS ARE HOME!!!! OUR BOYS ARE HOME!!!"

Lindsey Rinehart shared that message with Facebook friends on Friday. It was long overdue.

On April 23rd, the Boise-based medical marijuana advocate (and user--Rinehart has multiple sclerosis) had her kids put in foster care when Boise police searched Rinehart's home and found marijuana "in locations…accessible to the children"; the freezer and the bedroom Lindsey shared with husband Josh. 

Rinehart wasn't home that day. She, Josh, and their friend Sarah Caldwell had been on a hiking trip. Their sons and Caldwell's sons--ranging in age from 5 to 11--stayed at the Rinehart home with a babysitter.

The same day all three parents were slated to return from their hike, Boise police received a report from a local school that a friend of the Rineharts' oldest son had swallowed marijuana and become ill. The marijuana allegedly came from the Rineharts house. Police showed up to investigate, found the pot, and called Idaho Health and Welfare, which placed all four children in foster care. 

While Caldwell got her sons back just a few days later, the Rineharts spent a torturous two and a half weeks separated from Elijah, 5, and Laustin, 10. A week after their kids had been taken, Lindsey and Josh were allowed a single supervised visit. Then they were allowed to have the kids at home between the time they got out of school and 6 p.m., when they were returned to foster care. During those few weeks, Rinehart stopped treating her M.S. with medical marijuana. Early last week Rinehart announced she was willing to suffer "muscle spasms and 'sagging' around [the] right side of [her] mouth," if it meant getting the kids back. Friday, her boys came home. 

"ORDER TO VACATE!!! OUR BOYS ARE HOME!!!!!! OUR BOYS ARE HOME!!!! OUR BOYS ARE HOME!!! CASE DISMISSED!!!!!" Rinehart posted on Facebook. She's been deprived of a familiar and effective treatment for her M.S., and may still face criminal charges, but for the moment, her family's together. 

Comments

[Matrix]

God bless CPS for helping get this drug crazed fiend off the devil's weed!

[sarcasmic]

Finally.

[Dweebston]

Even a happy resolution to this sordid story feels like a nut punch.

[Brett L]

Yeah. I'm glad these people have their children, whom they obviously love very much, back in their home. The rest of it makes me want to firebomb the local police station.

[Episiarch]

The fact that they had to essentially beg for their children back is just repulsive.

[Dweebston]

That and the fact that anyone earnestly championing the state over this couple must suspend any indulgence of compassion or empathy to embrace the schadenfreude in seeing enemy combatants stripped of their children. I want to believe episodes like this rock the prohibitionist mindset, but I suspect that most drug warriors believe these two had it coming for questioning the status quo.

[HazelMeade]

Yeah, I honestly can't comprehend how stories like this don't make national news.

What kind of heartless piece of shit do you have to be to not care if people are having their children unjustly taken away?

[Fist of Etiquette]

SOFT. ON. CRIME.

[Jack the Reaper]

Very happy the kids are back home with their parents where they belong. It was probably very traumatic for them to have to spend 2.5 weeks with strangers and to be interrogated by the state.

Fuck CPS...

[A Serious Man]

She's been deprived of a familiar and effective treatment for her M.S., and may still face criminal charges, but for the moment, her family's together.

So things are still pretty shitty then.

[Some call me Tim?]

When this was first reported I thought we decided that there was a good chance the search wasn't legal and that the criminal charges would eventually be thrown out.

[A Serious Man]

During those few weeks, Rinehart stopped treating her M.S. with medical marijuana. Early last week Rinehart announced she was willing to suffer "muscle spasms and 'sagging' around [the] right side of [her] mouth," if it meant getting the kids back. Friday, her boys came home.

My heart broke when I read this. That's a mother who loves her children and all because the fuckers at CPS and the police are now watching her and her husband for any illegal activity that would allow them to charge them again.

[Raston Bot]

pack shit/leave Idaho

[Rich]

*** crosses Idaho of list of "hopefuls" *** 8-(

[Rich]

*off*

[Loki]

pack shit/leave Idaho

Move to CO or WA.

[deified]

Even Oregon or CA or New Mexico would be fine. The states to watch out for are ID, Utah (duh!), and Arizona. I'm a little unsure about Nevada but I believe they're MMJ.

[Aloysious]

Idaho is great; if you can tolerate blue laws, a population heavy on religious fundamentalism, and an income tax.

On the plus side, we don't [yet] have helmet laws...

[Fatty Bolger]

She's been deprived of a familiar and effective treatment for her M.S.

The system worked.

[HazelMeade]

Thanks for the update. Good to hear they got their kids back.

I look forward to hearing what happens with the Hakkens case. maybe something will come out that will prove the Hakkens really were complete nutjobs planning some sort of group suicide. But maybe they were just a normal couple who were caught smoking weed by the wrong cop, had the wrong judge reviewing their case, and were traumatized enough by losing their kids to do anything to get them back.

If so, I'd hate to see their story get swpt under the rug.

[WomSom]

This makes a lot of sense dude.

http://www.Secure-Web.tk

[Malcolm Kyle]

Prohibitionism is intensely, rabidly, frantically, frenetically, hysterically anti-freedom.

An important feature of prohibitionism (which it closely shares with fascism) is totalitarianism. That means:
A police state apparatus; widespread surveillance, arbitrary imprisonment or even murder of political opponents, mass-incarceration, torture, etc.

Like despicable, playground bullies, prohibitionists are vicious one moment, then full of self-pity the next. They whine and whinge like lying, spoilt brats, claiming they just want to "save the little children", but the moment they feel it safe to do so, they used brute force and savage brutality against those they claim to be defending.

Prohibitionists actually believe that they can transcend human nature and produce a better world. They allow only one doctrine, an impossible-to-obtain drug-free world. All forms of dissent, be they common-sense, scientific, constitutional, or democratic, are simply ignored, and their proponents vehemently persecuted.

During alcohol prohibition (1919-1933), all profits went to enrich thugs and criminals. While battling over turf, young men died every day on inner-city streets. A fortune was wasted on enforcement that could have been far more wisely allocated. On top of the budget-busting prosecution and incarceration costs, billions in taxes were lost. Finally, in 1929, the economy collapsed. Does that sound familiar?

[Old Hippie Ent]

Amazing. I was quick-scrolling down the comments, read this one, and said to myself, "Wow, this guy has so many rational facts, he sounds like Malcolm Kyle"!

You're awesome, friend. Thanks for being you! Nugs and hugs!