Oklahoma Court: Cannabis Patients Who Consume Cannabis While Pregnant Cannot Be Prosecuted for Child Neglect

The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals last week ruled that women with state-issued medical cannabis cards who consume cannabis while pregnant cannot be prosecuted for child neglect, The Frontier reports. The ruling came in the case of Amanda Aguilar who was charged with felony child neglect in 2020 after her son tested positive for cannabis at birth. 

Aguilar was registered as a medical cannabis patient at the time to treat severe morning sickness caused by her pregnancy. Her son was born healthy, but the hospital reported her to child welfare workers who turned over her son’s drug test results to police.   

“I might have actually laid down if this had been a fight over any other thing else. But because it was over my kids, that was the reason I didn’t give up.”  — Aguilar to The Frontier 

The court’s decision sets a new legal precedent in Oklahoma. In the ruling, the court noted that it does not condone cannabis use for pregnant women, but the treatment is legal in the state. In the court’s majority opinion, Presiding Judge Scott Rowland noted that were the court to rule against Aguilar it would require the justices “to rewrite the statutes in a way we simply do not think is appropriate for courts to do.” It did urge lawmakers to change state law to allow women to be charged for using medical cannabis while pregnant.     

Two judges dissented, arguing that Aguilar’s unborn son did not have his own medical cannabis card and that neither voters nor the Legislature intended to allow unborn children to be exposed to cannabis when they passed medical cannabis laws.