There are a lot of bad parents in this world who make terrible, terrible choices for their children.
Most of these parents don"t record their terrible behavior and broadcast it to the entire internet. But … some do.
Which is how authorities came to see this video, below, featuring the outrageous sight of a 1-year-old baby smoking marijuana.
Brianna Ashanti Lofton is a twenty year old Raleigh woman, and she was arrested.
Her initial charges were for two counts of felony child abuse, contributing to delinquency, and possession of marijuana.
However, it was later determined that her initial felony charges were in error.
Upon her Lofton"s first court appearance, she was instead charged with a lesser felony.
It"s still a big deal.
And what she allegedly did is still unconscionable.
Police are crediting the public with directing them to this video.
The alleged incidents of this baby, who is now 16 months old, smoking marijuana (though it was initially believed to be a cigarette by some viewers) took place around December or January.
Shocked and outraged viewers who saw the video made it go viral — and many of them reached out to police.
That, authorities say, is how they were able to investigate this horrifying crime.
Lofton is being held at the Wake County Detention Center on $ 100,000 bond. Even if she is released, she is ordered to stay away from her baby.
The baby, who of course has not been named, is in the custody of Wake County Child Protective Services.
There was a time, of course, when parents considered it "normal" to expose their children and even babies to drugs.
We"ve all heard old stories about parents rubbing liquor on a teething baby"s gums, when there are of course much safer numbing agents.
For generations, bad parents have dosed their children with alcohol in order to get them to sleep — a despicable act that is damaging as well as dependency-forming.
Even just a few decades ago, doctors were advising parents to give their young children medications like Benadryl, which can cause drowsiness, for no other reason than to "help" the child to sleep at night.
While marijuana itself is not particularly dangerous, exposing a child or baby"s lungs to smoke can be so dangerous and damaging.
Beyond that, while marijuana is considered safe for adults, a child"s mind and body are still developing, and with very rare exceptions such as epileptic children or pediatric cancer patients, kids just do not need any marijuana in their systems.
And, again, we"re talking about a one-year-old baby.
On Wednesday, the Raleigh Police Department posted their gratitude to the public on Facebook:
"Big thanks to everyone who posted information about the smoking mother and baby. Thanks to your willingness to get involved, the child is now safe and the mother is in police custody."
If convicted, Lofton could face up to 17 years in prison.
This may strike some as odd, as abusive parents often face much shorter sentences for unforgivable acts of violence.
We should note, however, that most parents who willfully endanger and harm their children don"t … film it and then share the video of it on social media.
Here is the video that may keep Lofton behind bars until her baby is an adult.
