GARDINER WOMAN HANDED FIVE YEARS FOR LETTING TODDLER SMOKE POT

A Gardiner woman previously convicted of encouraging her 18-month-old
daughter to smoke marijuana was sentenced Wednesday to five years in prison.

A federal judge in U.S. District Court in Billings also handed 24-year-old
Jessica Lynne Durham four years probation. The ruling came almost eight
months after she was found guilty of distributing marijuana to a person
under the age of 18.

That ruling, reached by U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull, was a result of
a one-day trial before the judge, who heard the case without a jury. At the
time, Cebull told the Associated Press, "I haven't seen a case like this."

According to court records, Durham told her friend, Brandi Nichols, also of
Gardiner, to take photographs of her toddler smoking pot out of a bong,
saying it would be "cool" to send the pictures to High Times, a marijuana
magazine.

Nichols also testified at trial that Durham let her daughter smoke
marijuana because the little girl wasn't eating or sleeping enough.

Because there is no parole in the federal system, Durham will at least
serve 85 percent of her five-year sentence.