--- title: Medical Marijuana: Family's Journey to Buy Illegal Pot for Their Kids description: A look inside the quasi-legal, science free world of medical marijuana for children from TIME's Red Border Films canonical: https://time.com/3554936/medical-marijuana-kids-pot-kids/ author: Diane Tsai article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-11-04T15:27:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T11:11:24.780Z article:section: Health og:title: One Family's Illegal Journey to Get Medical Marijuana for Their Child og:description: A look inside the quasi-legal, science free world of medical marijuana for children from TIME's Red Border Films og:url: https://time.com/3554936/medical-marijuana-kids-pot-kids/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9322f7a7332235d4/69876219cd68484ae30973d9/potkids_featured.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: potkids_featured og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: One Family's Illegal Journey to Get Medical Marijuana for Their Child twitter:description: A look inside the quasi-legal, science free world of medical marijuana for children from TIME's Red Border Films twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9322f7a7332235d4/69876219cd68484ae30973d9/potkids_featured.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # One Family's Illegal Journey to Get Medical Marijuana for Their Child  by [Diane Tsai](/author/diane-tsai/)  ## Diane Tsai Nov 4, 2014 3:27 PM CUT  Photograph by Therese + Joel for TIME  by [Diane Tsai](/author/diane-tsai/)  ## Diane Tsai Nov 4, 2014 3:27 PM CUT When you’re driving across the country with a stash of marijuana in your trunk, you follow the speed limit. You signal when changing lanes. You might even pick a route that skips Colorado, because ever since recreational pot was legalized there, police just over state lines have been on the lookout for anyone ferrying the drug from the area. But the Colorado-free route from California, where you bought your marijuana, to the Northeast, where you live, presents a curveball. Cruising along I-40 in Arizona, you encounter a border patrol checkpoint. “Good evening, officer,” you say. A German shepherd approaches your vehicle and somehow doesn’t detect the marijuana that’s under a pile of ice in a cooler. As you’re sent on your way, adrenaline pulses through your body. Tears pool in your eyes. You are, after all, committing at least several state and federal crimes, but when you get home a few days later, it’s business as usual. _Read the full TIME article by Kate Pickert_ [_here_](http://time.com/pot-kids/ "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3554936/medical-marijuana-kids-pot-kids/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3554936/medical-marijuana-kids-pot-kids/"},"headline":"One Family's Illegal Journey to Get Medical Marijuana for Their Child","datePublished":"2014-11-04T15:27:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T11:11:24.780Z","description":"A look inside the quasi-legal, science free world of medical marijuana for children, from TIME's Red Border Films","url":"https://time.com/3554936/medical-marijuana-kids-pot-kids/","keywords":["Drugs","Marijuana","Pot","Children","Oil","medical marijuana","Weed","epilepsy"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9322f7a7332235d4/69876219cd68484ae30973d9/potkids_featured.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Diane Tsai","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/diane-tsai/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9322f7a7332235d4/69876219cd68484ae30973d9/potkids_featured.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"potkids_featured","caption":"","creditText":"Photograph by Therese + Joel for TIME","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/drugs/","name":"Drugs"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3554936/medical-marijuana-kids-pot-kids/","name":"One Family's Illegal Journey to Get Medical Marijuana for Their Child"}}]}] ```