A videotape showing a 17-year-old helping his two and five-year-old nephews smoke pot has led to criminal charges.

"Unless you see it, you just don't believe it," Bruce Ure, director of public safety for the city of Watauga, Texas, told CTV Newsnet on Sunday.

"It shows the two children, a two-year-old and a five-year-old, being coached into smoking marijuana," he said. "The little guy, the two-year-old, he's coughing, he's falling down -- his pants are even falling down, he's so disoriented."

The accused is shown putting the marijuana cigarette to the toddler's mouth, and in a later part of the video, the older boy is shown smoking on his own. There are also scenes of marijuana smoke being blown in the children's faces.

"In 25 years in law enforcement, I've never seen anything like this, either on a local level or the national level."

Ure says it appears that the tots knew what they were doing.

"There's little question in our mind that these kids have done this before," Ure told Canada AM Monday.

"The small child, he has a horrible cough. He's got a smoker's cough. His voice is raspy which is indicative of a lot of tobacco smoke. It's horrible."

The video was uncovered as part of a joint effort between the Watauga and Fort Worth police departments, Ure said. Police had searched the house, while investigating burglaries.

"They seized some electronic equipment and they brought it back to the police station. They viewed the video -- quite often, some of the criminals videotape themselves doing things they shouldn't.

"They saw the video, they recognized the inside of the house as they had just come from that residence inside of our city. So they called us, and we took possession of the video and proceeded with the investigation."

The 17-year-old has been identified as Demetris McCoy; the 18-year-old as Vanswan Polty. They are charged with two counts each of causing bodily injury to a child.

Under the Texas penal code, the felony carries a minimum sentence of two years and a maximum of 10 years, Ure said. Since the suspects face two charges each, that minimum sentence could be doubled, he said.

The mother, sister of one of the accused, told police she was asleep in the house and hadn't been aware of what was happening.

The boys have been placed in protective custody, but the family wants them back.

With a report from CTV's Joy Malbon