Police Say Kidnapping Medical Marijuana Activist’s 11-Year-Old Son Is for ‘the Child’s Well-Being’
Yesterday Shona Banda, the Kansas medical marijuana activist whose home was searched after her 11-year-old son challenged anti-pot propaganda at school, failed to regain custody of the boy, who is now under the control of Child Protective Services (CPS). “I am not giving up,” Banda said after yesterday’s family court hearing. “I will get him, and I am not going to stop until I do.”
The Garden City Police Department, which conducted the search of Banda’s home, insists that the state-sanctioned kidnapping is in the boy’s best interest. “The most important thing here is the child’s well-being,” said Capt. Randy Ralston. “That is why it is a priority for us, just because of the danger to the child.”
Ralston elaborated on that rationale in a press release posted yesterday. After Banda’s son “reported to school officials that his mother and other adults in his residence were avid drug users,” Ralston says, the officials called CPS, which in turn contacted the police. The search, based on a warrant obtained that evening, discovered “approximately 1¼ pounds of suspected marijuana,” along with “a lab for manufacturing cannabis oil on the kitchen table and kitchen counters.”
