Cruel marijuana laws make pregnancy a crime

The Haymaker is Leafly Senior Editor Bruce Barcott’s opinion column on cannabis politics and culture.

I am often asked about Congress and the legalization of cannabis. “When will it happen?” people want to know. They treat it like a switch waiting to be flipped. Pass the bill, end the ban, solve the problem – great success!

It won’t be that easy. The more I write about cannabis laws, the more I see how deep the roots of power, discrimination, and cruelty lie in American soil.

If you hold a joint while pregnant, you will be indefinitely detained in this district – to protect the fetus.

In the past week, one of these roots was uncovered. And damn it was ugly.

Late last week, Amy Yurkanin, a reporter for AL.com, published an article exposing the practices of police, prosecutors and judges in Etowah County, Alabama. You may also have seen the coverage of the Moira Donegan story in The Guardian. In this small rural borough about an hour’s drive from Birmingham, local rulers have arrested pregnant women for marijuana and other drugs — and then jailed them indefinitely.

The policy, they say, is designed to protect the fetus from harm.

“Several pregnant women and new mothers accused of exposing their fetuses to drugs have been held for weeks or months at the Etowah County Detention Center,” Yurkanin wrote, “in special conditions requiring rehab and $10,000 in cash.” ”

To the rescue: $10,000 and inpatient rehab

Etowah County isn’t the kind of place where most people have $10,000 in cash lying around. And in many cases, local rehabilitation centers cannot or do not want to accept the incarcerated women.

Some women are caught in a Catch-22: Prosecutors and judges assume those arrested for minor offenses like marijuana possession are drug addicts, so they order them into rehab. But rehab facilities only accept patients with actual substance abuse disorders — not adults who were accidentally caught with a little weed. Chris Retan, chief executive of Aletheia House, a treatment facility, told Yurkanin, “Inpatient treatment is for people with a serious medical condition,” not healthy adults who got busted for holding a joint.

And so, day after day, these women suffer in prison for using or possessing a substance that nearly half the American population can legally purchase and enjoy.

Cruelty is at the forefront of these laws

Apparently it’s been like this for years. Officials with the National Advocates for Pregnant Women told Yurkanin they have records of more than 150 “chemical hazard” cases in Etowah County since 2010.

Good God. That makes my hair stand on end. And yet I’m not surprised. When it comes to criminalizing cannabis, it’s about cruelty.

Prohibition is a hammer to be wielded by the powerful against the powerless. When friends express their shock at WNBA star Brittney Griner’s 10-year sentence for having two vape pens, I tell them this is why draconian cannabis laws are being introduced. Griner is a black woman who is married to another woman and is an open speaker on LGBTQ+ rights. She’s the very one these laws are meant to catch.

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350,000 Americans with no name Brittney Griner ‘wrongly jailed’ for cannabis.

It also happens in constitutional states

Pregnant women and parents of young children are particularly vulnerable to these vile laws. Even in states where cannabis has been made legal for all adults, archaic policies continue to penalize law-abiding adults for exercising their right to relax and enjoy a little cannabis. Or worse – they are punished for using cannabis as medicine just to survive and get through their day.

Alexa Peters, a longtime Leafly contributor, revealed the enduring damage these laws are doing in an extraordinary feature we released four months ago. Her research, “The Parent Trap: How Old Drug Laws Punish Families in Legal Cannabis States,” illustrated how state and county child welfare agencies penalize pregnant women and mothers of young children for perfectly legal and responsible cannabis use.

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The Parent Trap: How Old Drug Laws Punish Families in Legal Cannabis States

Peters wrote, “23 states and the District of Columbia specifically identify exposure to controlled substances as child abuse or neglect. All but seven of these states also have medical or recreational cannabis programs, which state that it is legal for adults age 21 and older to purchase and use cannabis with proper identification, regardless of pregnancy or parenthood.”

In her paper, Peters noted that an Alabama state legislature had recently proposed legislation requiring all medical marijuana patients under the age of 50 to present a negative pregnancy test from a physician in order to purchase medical cannabis. His bill would also ban breastfeeding women from access to medical marijuana.

Beyond the programmatic horrors of such a law – how up-to-date would the pregnancy test need to be? Who tests breastfeeding and how? – there is a clear message behind it: We, the powerful, will control what you powerless are allowed to do with your own body. Alabama’s cannabis laws, like everywhere else, are a convenient means of exercising this control.

Read research on cannabis and pregnancy

Lest you think we’re flouting the issue of pregnancy and cannabis use, let me add this. Here at Leafly, we’ve been following the emerging research on this topic for years. Alexa Peters wrote one of our essential reviews back in 2018.

We will continue to report on research on cannabis and pregnancy. It’s one of the most challenging and compelling questions surrounding cannabis use that remains unresolved. Just last month, a study in BMJ found no link between cannabis exposure in utero and ADHD diagnoses in children. Earlier this week, JAMA Pediatrics published a research letter that found a correlation between in-utero cannabis exposure and mental health outcomes that persist into adolescence. Other studies have found mixed results. Science is far from over.

This is why patients are not honest with doctors

We’ve also written about how the criminalization of cannabis use is seeping into our medical system, harming patients – especially women of color – in subtle and profound ways. A harmless question about cannabis use during pregnancy can lead a doctor to treat a patient as a suspected addict and child abuser.

Alexa Peters wrote about the case of Lindsay Ridgell, an Arizona social worker, whose child was taken away by the state for using medicinal cannabis to treat a condition that threatened the life of her fetus. Yes. You read that right. The treatment, which allowed Ridgell to carry and give birth, resulted in the removal of the child, whose life was saved.

Cases like Ridgell’s have rightfully made some women think twice before opening up to medical professionals. You can skip appointments or refuse blood tests. A pregnant woman in America risks imprisonment or the loss of her children if she says the wrong thing during a routine medical exam. A pregnant woman of color, doubly so. Janessa Bailey, Editor of Leafly Culture, has written about the challenge of being a person of color openly discussing cannabis with a medical provider. “Many women are dismissed by their doctors after they turn to them for help,” Bailey wrote. “People of color, especially black people, often harbor a deep distrust of physicians because of a legacy of abuse.”

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How to show up for women and minorities in cannabis

Make your state legislature work for you

When you feel your blood boil over injustice in Alabama or Arizona, don’t bang on the table. Sit down and write to your local legislature. You have the power to change these things.

Congress moves slowly, but dozens of state laws are changed during each local legislature. Demand that your state representative introduce a bill to uproot this cruel archaic policy. Start the change process at home – your home.

Read more about cannabis and pregnancy

Bruce Barcott

Leafly senior editor Bruce Barcott oversees news, investigations and feature projects. He is a Guggenheim Fellow and the author of Weed the People: The Future of Legal Marijuana in America.

Check out Bruce Barcott’s articles

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