A Colorado woman was arrested after giving her son a pot-laced brownie that most likely caused him to leap out the window, for trying to make witnesses lie about it afterwards, Fort Collins police have said.
Julieane Jablonski, 38, was booked for a class-4 felony count of tampering with a witness, the Fort Collins Police Department said in a statement.
“Providing marijuana to an underage person is normally handled through a citation and a class 1 drug misdemeanor,” the police added.
Emergency services found Austin Essig, 19, on the ground outside his mother’s home on Hobbit Street on April 14, with injuries described as both “serious” and “non-life-threatening.” The police investigation revealed that Essig had consumed one “edible marijuana brownie” and nothing else before or after he “started acting strangely.”
“According to witnesses Essig ran toward the living room window and jumped out of it without hesitation,” the police statement said.
Mother charged with giving #pot brownie to son who jumped from window http://t.co/6LZ9WtSLmlpic.twitter.com/zfqiW2CSRg
— The Denver Post (@denverpost) April 24, 2015
Colorado voters approved recreational use of marijuana in 2012, but set the legal age for consumption at 21. Since Essig is over 18, Jablonski would have normally received a misdemeanor citation, Fort Collins Deputy Police Chief Cory Christensen told the local newspaper.
“She allegedly attempted to get other witnesses to change their stories,” Christensen said, noting that’s what got her arrested. She was booked at the Larimer County jail, and the county’s district attorney is preparing formal charges, the Fort Collins Coloradoan reported.
A Fort Collins PD Facebook post about the incident has a comment from an “Austin Essig” saying that “It was quite the trip for a brownie, I can tell you that much.”
"I can say I followed dosage instructions," he added, "but can't honestly comment on how I got ahold (sic) of it."
Marijuana edibles have been blamed for at least three deaths over the past year. Last month, an Oklahoma tourist killed himself at the Colorado ski resort of Keystone, after witnesses said he ate a large amount of pot candy. Another man in Denver faces first-degree murder charges, for fatally shooting his wife after eating marijuana candy last year.
READ MORE: Marijuana cookies blamed for suspected suicide in Colorado
In March 2014, a Congolese student jumped to his death from a Denver hotel, after consuming six times the recommended amount of marijuana-laced cookies. The medical examiner’s officer listed “marijuana intoxication” as a “significant contributing factor” in his death, the AP reported.
Colorado lawmakers have agreed that marijuana-laced edibles, while legal, must not look like regular food. The debate over how to safely and practically label the pot-enriched comestibles is still ongoing.