Two Greenville men are facing felony charges after warrants accused them of exposing a 9-year-old child to marijuana inside a home on Davenport Street. Jonathan Johnson, 39, and Maurice Johnston, 60, were arrested Thursday, with Johnson held without bond and Johnston jailed on a $60,000 secured bond.
According to WITN, warrants say the two men exposed marijuana to a 9-year-old child inside the home. Court records reviewed by the station show Johnson and Johnston allegedly conspired to sell nearly 24 ounces of marijuana from the same Davenport Street residence.
Both men were charged with exposing a child to a controlled substance, along with possession of marijuana, possession with intent to sell or deliver marijuana, possession of marijuana paraphernalia, maintaining a vehicle, dwelling or place for a controlled substance, and felony conspiracy. The station's report notes that Johnston faces two additional charges: possession of a stolen firearm and possession of a firearm by a felon. Both men are being held in jail in Greenville.
A New Felony on the Books
The child-exposure charge stems from a law that only recently took effect in North Carolina. Lawmakers created the new offense of exposing a child to a controlled substance under G.S. 14-318.7, according to the UNC School of Government's North Carolina Criminal Law blog. The change took effect December 1, 2025, making the conduct a Class H felony in most circumstances, with the possibility of more serious penalties depending on the case.
The Greenville arrests come as at least one other North Carolina county has been tracking how often such cases actually reach criminal charges. In Carteret County, sheriff's office data cited by WCTI shows 11 potential child drug-exposure cases in 2024 and nine in 2025, with none reported so far in 2026. Officials there said they had not investigated a case in which a child's drug exposure actually resulted in criminal charges under the new law, underscoring how rarely these allegations move from a reported incident to a courtroom.
Not the First Such Case in the State
North Carolina has seen child marijuana-exposure allegations before, though under different circumstances and years before the new felony law existed. In 2018, a Raleigh mother was arrested after a video posted to Facebook appeared to show a baby smoking marijuana, according to ABC7 News. A separate report at the time, cited by ABC News, described a North Carolina mother accused of forcing her 1-year-old child to inhale marijuana. That earlier case predates the current statute, meaning it was prosecuted under different legal standards than the ones now facing Johnson and Johnston.
