I'm Confused, N Y Times, do you think parents should smoke pot or not?

       In August of last year, The New York Times published an article by Mosi Secret entitled No Cause for Marijuana Case, but Enough for Child Neglect.  It described the case of a single mother in the Bronx who temporarily lost custody of her son and, for an entire year, lost custody of the niece she was raising because a small amount of marijuana belonging to her boyfriend was found in her home.  The amount of weed was less than even the minimum amount for a misdemeanor account. Even if it had been enough to actually break the law, it would have only been punishable much like a speeding ticket is punished, with a $100 fine.  Nevertheless, Child Protective Services got involved, and her children were taken away.  The article goes on to describe the story of a young, black father who occasionally lived in homeless shelters and who lost custody of his daughter when a $5 bag of marijuana was found in his possession, among other alleged reasons.  He was smoking it, he claimed, because of the pain of a recent tooth extraction.
       The basic premise of the article is that even though marijuana smoking is really only a parking ticket offense in New York City, small amounts that wouldn't even be considered enough for a fine can be enough to find someone to be an unfit parent.  The article quoted Michael Fagan, a spokesman for the Administration for Children's Services, "Drug use itself is not child abuse or neglect, but it can put children in danger of neglect or abuse . . . use of cocaine, heroin, or marijuana by a parent of a young child should not be looked into or should simply be ignored is just plain wrong."
       Ok, fair enough.  No mary jane around small children.
       Oh wait!  No!  Apparently if you're a chic, married, white, and an art dealer - pot makes you a better parent.  In an Op-Ed entitled Pot for Parents, art dealer Mark Wolfe described how he can only handle communicating with his three small children after he swapped his previous drug of choice, soda and bourbon, for the pot brownies he talked a doctor into prescribing him for his back pain.  Why does he need to be stoned to be a good parent?  Because he simply couldn't handle teaching his daughter to draw a Q or taking his children on an airplane if he wasn't baked.  He tells us how marijuana makes him a better father:

Deeply embedded voices of authority in my head do still caution that I may be hurting my kids in ways I can’t see. But I just can’t imagine how it could possibly be worse for them than the consequences of their father’s former stress-fueled frustration and withdrawal. When I’m rolling around the floor with my giggling daughters, clicking into an easy dynamic of goofy happiness and love, I feel it’s just what the doctor ordered. 

       Soooo - let me get this.  Wolfe is telling us how weed makes him a better parent?  Ok.  But that single mom in The Bronx, Penelope Harris said, "I felt like less of a parent, like I had failed my children. It tore me up.” So, Administration for Children's Services - will you be looking into Mark Wolfe's parenting?  Will you be putting him in lockup this weekend or taking his children away until he passes a drug test?  No, of course not.  Because he found a doctor and a legal loophole.
       Now, one could say that loophole or not, he didn't break the law, and the other parents did.  But bet's not forget, that Ms. Harris didn't actually break any laws either.  The amount of pot she had was below the minimum for a crime.  The laws work for people like Mark Wolfe.  He found a legal way to ingest the same substance, and he gets to flaunt it loud and proud across the Op-Ed page of The New York Times.  No, there won't be any visits from the Administration for Children's Services at his apartment.  Wolfe claims he needs weed to function because he only has a wife, not a team of cooks and nannies, has three whole children, they live on two modest incomes, and choose to live in an expensive city, and it's tricky to fly.  Well, Wolfe, you find it stressful to fly with three small children?  You can clearly afford 5 airplane tickets, you're married, and you and your wife are employed - so cry me a freakin' river.
       Take it away for us, Mosi Secret of August 2011, "Over all, the rate of marijuana use among whites is twice as high as among blacks and Hispanics in the city, the data show, but defense lawyers said these cases were rarely if ever filed against white parents."