"Health & Medical News"

The presence of illicit drugs in a household alone is not enough to make a case for child endangerment under Utah state law, the Utah Supreme Court has ruled.

The Deseret Morning News reported Oct. 27 that the court said that the child-endangerment statute can only be applied if a child has “reasonable” access to drugs. The ruling came in response to a pair of cases where women were charged with child endangerment after being arrested on drug and drug-paraphernalia charges.

In one case, drugs were found in an open purse on top of a dresser in a home where four young children lived. In another, evidence of a methamphetamine lab was found in a home where a 13-year-old girl lived.

The high court unanimously ruled that the child-endangerment law “requires a real, physical risk of harm to a child; the child must have the reasonable capacity to access the substance or paraphernalia or to be subject to its harmful effects, such as by inhalation.”

Assistant Utah Attorney General Laura Dupaix said that while the court narrowed the interpretation of the statute, “I believe the opinion still allows the state to prosecute parents who have their illegal substances, or meth labs, in a place where children can still access it.” Lawmakers also are working to amend the law to broaden the definition of child endangerment.

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