New Medical Marijuana Law Said to Target Pregnant Women

There is no question that support for medical marijuana is growing across the Untied States. As of this year, nearly half of all states have some type of medical marijuana legislation, and some states have gone to full legalization of marijuana even for recreational use, such as Colorado and Washington.

However, despite the ever-increasing public support for the legalization of medical marijuana, there are others who oppose legalization. They will do whatever they can to prevent it from happening.

In some cases, those opposed to legalization are public officials. In these cases, the public officials will attempt to pass laws that make it exceedingly difficult to obtain and use medical marijuana. This is after voters of the state approved the sale and purchase of medical marijuana in 2010. There are currently just less than 100,000 medical marijuana patients in the state of Utah.

In what appears to be an attempt at limiting rights of medical marijuana users, the state legislative body in Arizona is trying to pass a law that would require warnings at medical dispensaries similar to those on the front of a pack of cigarettes. This is according to a recent news feature form AZ Central.

These proposed warnings would be aimed at women who may be pregnant or breastfeeding. The warnings would indicate that using marijuana poses dangers to unborn children and infants who are breastfeeding. If the bill passed, this warning would be required to be placed in a prominent location at the dispensaries. Dispensaries would also be required to pay for the signs as well as displaying them.

At first, the sponsoring legislator was trying to ban pregnant women from using marijuana. This is in addition to the fact that all newborn babies are tested for drug use. If the babies test positive, the mother can be criminally charged with child endangerment. This actually happens all the time.

While it may seem that odd that pregnant women would be using medical marijuana, many pregnant women who have medical marijuana prescriptions or cards use the marijuana to deal with the symptoms of being pregnant, such as nausea. Those who support medical marijuana programs, including for women who are or may be pregnant, want to educate them as to the consequences of a child testing positive at the hospital.

While that is an important message, one of the more challenging aspects of the proposed medical marijuana legislation is that there is very little scientific evidence that marijuana is danger to anyone. The reason for this is that there have been very few studies about the effects of marijuana, including the effects medical marijuana, on the human body. It is hard for public universities and any other program that receive federal funding to conduct these experiments because doing so would be a violation of federal law.

However, there are clearly many medical benefits to using cannabis products, but politicians refuse to vote in in favor of legalizing medical cannabis. Even in Los Angeles, where medical marijuana is much more accepted, there are those working to limited people’s access.

The Los Angeles CANNABIS LAW Group represents growers, dispensaries, collectives, patients and those facing marijuana charges. Call us at 949-375-4734.

Additional Resources:
Latest Arizona medical-pot law targets pregnant women, February 17, 2016, AZ Central, By Yvonne Wingett Sanchez
More Blog Entries:
Kosher Medical Marijuana for Orthodox Patients Available, Jan. 23, 2016, Los Angeles Marijuana Lawyer Blog