A Kentucky mother and daughter were arrested this week after a local store reported photos of small children appearing to smoke marijuana . Beth Hensley and daughter Tracy were approached by police after employees at a local Rite Aid notified officials when they saw the photos.
The film, which had been dropped off at Rite Aid for development, allegedly showed images of a baby and other small children handling marijuana.
“There were several children in pictures holding marijuana and had marijuana joints rolled up and was attempting to smoke them,” reports Leslie County Deputy Adrian Cornett.
The children, allegedly boys, were between 1 and 5 years old.
After the offending photos were developed, store employees informed police, who investigated. When authorities arrived at the Hensley home, they found 24 marijuana plants around her home. According to WLWT radio station, “police also found processed marijuana in a baggie.”
Beth Hensley reportedly admitted to posing her grandchildren for the pictures . She maintains it was just a joke, just something “to show them later on in a picture album how crazy their grandma was.”
Beth Hensley is now charged with trafficking, possession, and cultivating marijuana. Tracy Hensley, the children’s mother, is charged with endangering the welfare of a minor and unlawful transaction with a minor.
Cornett said he had never seen such a case in his 35 years as a police officer. “It’s beyond me,” he comments, adding, “That’s just deplorable to think that people would do something like that, like it’s no big deal to them and that’s just the demeanor they had about the whole situation. They just didn’t care.”
Five children between ages 1 and 7 years old were removed from the home. They remained with relatives at the time of the arrest.
