Based on the info given here, I don't think the child should have been taken from her. It's plenty traumatic to a child to be taken away from its mother and familiar home, and in all likelihood a lot more damage is being done to the child by taking him, than would occur if he was left with his mother. She needs to learn to exercise better judgement in choosing her friends (and most likely will, if she's the sort of person who has no record of arrests, much less convictions), but the criminal here is the guy who left LSD laced candies lying around in an apartment with a child roaming around. If this had been a huge house, he might not have known that a child had been brought in, but it's just not plausible that he didn't know in an apartment.
The state taking a child from its parent(s) is a VERY serious matter, and should only be done in the most extreme situations. And for borderline cases, where the facts are really fuzzy and the parent(s) might be really dangerous but also might be perfectly innocent, the relevant agencies should be equipped to bring the parent(s) and child(ren) TOGETHER to a supervised living facility, to avoid separation trauma to the child(ren).
Sorry, can't agree.
It was her responsiblity to go into the apartment and check for hazards before letting "another adult" take her toddler inside. And the minute "Steven" told her of his suspicions about the missing candy, she should have taken the child to an ER or called 911...not gone home and pieced together a story. Thank God a friend called 911.
Since she failed to do these things...and until/unless she learns to do better...someone else needs to watch over the boy.
Let me guess, you work for Texas CPS.