False “New Law” Meme Spreading Across Alabama – But It’s Not True

Guest Opinion by Terri LaPoint, Investigative Journalist

I got the first text Saturday evening about a new law that goes into effect this fall requiring teachers and mandatory reporters to report parents to DHR if a child smells of marijuana. By Monday morning, the meme notices were all over Facebook. The news has spread like wildfire. Teachers, school boards, police departments, county governments, “What’s Happening in …” groups, even SNAP and SSI groups are posting the notice. 

School boards, judges, and sheriff’s departments are holding meetings all over the state to talk about the “new law” ahead of the new school year. Mandatory reporters are being trained in the provisions of the law, instructing them that they absolutely must report any parent to the Department of Human Resources (DHR) if a child smells of marijuana. According to one source, “the Alabama Department of Public Health is releasing statewide education materials to help families understand the new law.”

The thing is – no such law exists.

HB72 was introduced in the spring of this year by Representative Patrick Sellers (D-Birmingham). Companion bill SB285 was introduced in the Senate by Senator Bobby Singleton (D-Greensboro). It passed the House but failed in the Senate. Therefore, it is not law. 

I learned about the bill as soon as it raced through the House and immediately recognized that it could have serious consequences. It didn’t take more than 30 seconds for me to see scenarios where innocent parents could be falsely accused, and children could be ripped away from their families. The loopholes are so massive one could drive a Mack truck through them.

Smoking in a car with children is illegal. Alabama is not a pot-legal state, except in limited medical uses, and it shouldn’t be used around children. Teenagers are minors, yet they can and do access marijuana – often despite the best efforts of parents. 

But make no mistake. This is not about marijuana use. This is about a massive governmental agency – with tremendous, largely-unchecked power – gaining another foothold into families. DHR has a history of getting things wrong, taking children they shouldn’t and leaving kids truly in need of protection in bad situations. This bill simply hands them another key to gain access to more of Alabama’s children. 

This is not a case of “you don’t have to worry if you aren’t doing anything wrong.” After more than a decade of investigating and talking with thousands of families all over the state and the nation, I know that nothing could be further from the truth. Innocent parents who have never abused or neglected their children have their children taken from them every single day.

Once children are in the system, they are far more likely to be abused, molested, raped, or killed in foster care than in their own home. They are also at a greatly increased risk of being trafficked. Last year HHS Secretary RFK Jr. identified the Department of Health and Human Services (which includes Child Protective Services) as “the principal vector in this country for child trafficking."

The memes and notices about Alabama’s “new law” have gone viral on social media. Several departments and pages have posted that this is not actually a law, but the posts sharing the truth have not gone viral. The public deserves accurate information. 

There are consequences to teachers, law enforcement, social workers, and judges around the state believing this thing is a law. Innocent families can get caught up in the confusion and children are at greater risk of being harmed as a result of this fake news.

Where did this misinformation originate? This all seems too coordinated, appearing in too many places in a short period of time, to be a coincidence or a mistake. Someone, or some agency, is clearly behind this. Who is it?  

Alabama families deserve the truth.

Editor’s note: several copies of the “new law” meme — for a law that DOES NOT EXIST — gathered from social media, are attached below.

Terri LaPoint is the President of the Republican Women of Trussville and the author of “Voices That Will Not Be Silenced”, an exposé of the dark underbelly of agencies that are supposed to protect children. An award-winning investigative journalist who has covered hundreds of cases of medical kidnapping, she is passionate about speaking out in support of unjustly separated families. She lives in Odenville, and is on Facebook.

Recently, LaPoint was a candidate for Congress in Alabama’s Third District.

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