[ad_1]
By Brianna Bailey, The Frontier
Kay Information Cow reporter Sharon Rowen contributed to this report.
Amanda Aguilar’s ordeal appeared to be over.
The legal case in opposition to her started after she delivered her youngest little one in Ponca Metropolis, Oklahoma, a small city close to the Kansas border, in 2020, and the newborn examined constructive for marijuana. Aguilar had been taking the drug to deal with extreme morning illness throughout being pregnant. Medical marijuana is authorized in Oklahoma, and he or she had a doctor-approved state license to make use of it. Her son was wholesome at beginning. However the hospital reported her to little one welfare employees, who handed over her child’s drug check outcomes to police. Aguilar, whose case was featured in a 2022 story by The Marshall Undertaking and The Frontier, was charged with felony little one neglect.
In June, a decide in Kay County tossed out the costs in opposition to Aguilar, ruling there was no proof that she broke state legislation. And which may have been the tip of it.
However the native prosecutor was undeterred. He filed an enchantment to reinstate the costs, arguing that Aguilar broke the legislation as a result of the fetus rising inside her didn’t have its personal, separate license to make use of medical marijuana. The Oklahoma Courtroom of Prison Appeals is anticipated to listen to the arguments later this 12 months in a case that might set a brand new authorized precedent in Oklahoma on whether or not utilizing medical marijuana throughout being pregnant is a criminal offense — and probably opening the door for extra legal instances.
The lawyer for an additional girl charged with little one neglect for utilizing medical marijuana has requested for her trial to be delayed pending the Courtroom of Prison Appeals’ resolution. The Oklahoma Supreme Courtroom declined to listen to a problem to the costs in opposition to her. Her attorneys had argued that state legislation grants medical marijuana customers immunity from prosecution.
A state lawmaker has proposed laws to handle a rising variety of ladies in Oklahoma who face legal prices for substance use throughout being pregnant. The payments would arrange a brand new various courtroom program for pregnant and postpartum individuals, and supply extra authorities funding for remedy.
Whereas judges and lawmakers debate the legality of medical marijuana use throughout being pregnant, extra individuals in Oklahoma may discover themselves topic to prosecution.
Voters within the state authorised medical marijuana in 2018. Within the six years since, the variety of infants who examined constructive for marijuana at beginning climbed 78%, from 386 to 689 for the 12 months ending in June 2023, in keeping with information collected by state little one welfare officers.
Oklahoma has a historical past of criminally charging ladies for utilizing medicine throughout being pregnant. The Frontier reviewed a whole lot of pages of police and courtroom data to doc greater than 150 instances of girls who had been prosecuted in reference to drug use throughout their pregnancies over the previous decade. Girls have been charged even after giving beginning to wholesome infants.
Many of the instances The Frontier discovered concerned ladies who took unlawful medicine throughout their pregnancies. Nonetheless, 17 ladies had been prosecuted for marijuana, although they’d a state medical license to make use of it.
Almost all the ladies charged with felony little one neglect for medical marijuana accepted plea offers in trade for probation with the opportunity of having their instances finally dismissed.
However within the uncommon situations when ladies have challenged the costs in opposition to them, the instances have collapsed. Judges in Kay County — which has had probably the most prosecutions for marijuana use throughout being pregnant — dismissed instances of at the very least 5 ladies previously 12 months after protection attorneys argued that medical marijuana is authorized in Oklahoma and that the ladies hadn’t dedicated a criminal offense.
The legal professionals additionally argued that the drug assessments the legal prices hinged on had been inadmissible in courtroom as a result of testimony concerning the outcomes got here from a baby welfare employee as an alternative of an skilled from the toxicology laboratory that carried out them. The kid welfare employee who testified in Aguilar’s case couldn’t reply some primary questions concerning the check, similar to who gathered samples and the chain of custody for these samples.
The prosecutor, Kay County District Lawyer Brian Hermanson, didn’t reply to requests for remark. In courtroom, he has argued that Oklahoma legislation offers a fetus the identical rights as another particular person.
“Whilst you have a license to smoke marijuana, you don’t have a license to present marijuana to a 3rd particular person,” Hermanson stated at a listening to in Aguilar’s case in June. “This little one is a 3rd particular person.”
A detective from the native police division testified in Aguilar’s case in August 2022, although he had by no means questioned her. He received a press release from the kid welfare caseworker and regarded over the constructive drug check and a duplicate of the state medical marijuana license that she emailed him. However didn’t collect another proof, in keeping with his testimony in courtroom, as a result of he stated the data indicated that Aguilar had dedicated a criminal offense.
“I did not really feel there was a necessity,” he testified.
State legislation stipulates that well being care employees deal with each toddler uncovered to medicine within the womb as a case of potential abuse or neglect and report constructive drug assessments to little one welfare authorities.
In Aguilar’s case and three others that had been later dismissed, little one welfare employees closed their investigations with out eradicating kids from the house, in keeping with courtroom data. In two of the instances, the caseworkers additionally testified the kids had been discovered to be wholesome and never in peril. However they nonetheless reported the constructive drug assessments to legislation enforcement as a result of they believed the moms might have dedicated crimes by taking medicine throughout being pregnant, even when there was not a necessity for the kid welfare system to intervene.
Aguilar stored custody of her son. He has since grown into an lively, vibrant preschooler who argues along with his brothers and sisters over whose flip it’s to play video video games, she stated. Aguilar says he’s strong-willed like her.
The prosecutor in Aguilar’s case advised The Frontier and The Marshall Undertaking in earlier interviews that he needed to make use of legal prices to “cease the cycle” of drug use by means of court-ordered parenting courses and requiring moms to bear screenings for substance-use dysfunction.
However legal prices should not an efficient approach of connecting moms to drug remedy, and find yourself punishing the poorest moms, stated Wendy Bach, a legislation professor on the College of Tennessee, who has studied ladies who had been prosecuted for substance use throughout being pregnant.
“The concept is to scare individuals straight,” Bach stated. “However over and over and over, not solely does it fail, the system itself harms kids and households.”
As a result of most ladies plead responsible in trade for lighter sentences, the state not often has to show these neglect instances earlier than a decide or jury. Baby neglect carries a possible life sentence in Oklahoma. Girls charged for utilizing unlawful medicine like methamphetamine have been sentenced to jail time.
Many of the ladies who face legal prices are poor. In about 70% of the instances The Frontier examined, the ladies had been appointed a public defender as a result of they couldn’t afford a lawyer.
Girls who don’t settle for plea offers are taking a danger, stated Aguilar’s court-appointed lawyer, Thomas Griesedieck.
“I must sit down with anyone and say, ‘If this goes in entrance of a jury, they may sentence you to life in jail,’” he stated.
However Aguilar refused to again down. She stated she by no means thought of accepting a plea settlement and as an alternative requested Griesedieck to problem the cost.
“I will combat this just because I did not do something unsuitable,” she stated. “I did not hurt my son.”
In her small metropolis in largely rural northern Oklahoma, the native police division doesn’t accumulate its personal samples to ship to the state crime laboratory earlier than ladies are charged. The instances hinge on stool gathered from newborns by employees on the native hospital in Ponca Metropolis and despatched to a non-public toxicology laboratory in Minnesota. Traces of marijuana can present up in a new child’s first stool months after a mom’s final use.
It’s frequent for little one welfare employees to share new child drug check outcomes with the Ponca Metropolis Police Division, which frequently sends these reviews to the native district lawyer’s workplace with none further investigation by officers, stated Don Bohon, who was chief of police till mid-February, when he grew to become deputy metropolis supervisor.
The caseworkers typically additionally share info gathered from their interviews with moms, Bohon stated. Aguilar admitted to a baby welfare caseworker that she used medical marijuana throughout her being pregnant, and stated she was unaware that info can be utilized in a legal case in opposition to her.
Oklahoma Human Providers, the state’s little one welfare company, can refer instances to legislation enforcement however doesn’t have the authority to analyze crimes, the company stated in written responses to questions.
Hermanson, who has prosecuted dozens of girls in Kay County, needs to evaluation each report of a constructive drug check to find out whether or not legal prices are warranted, Bohon stated.
Medical specialists, together with the American Academy of Pediatrics, advise in opposition to utilizing marijuana throughout being pregnant. Analysis is proscribed, however some research have proven hyperlinks between hashish and low beginning weight and results on kids’s consideration span, reminiscence and problem-solving expertise later in life. Different research have discovered an absence of definitive proof that marijuana could cause improvement issues, as a result of ladies who use marijuana throughout being pregnant are additionally extra more likely to smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol.
Some docs say marijuana poses little danger to a fetus. Dr. Peter Sinton, a Kay County pediatrician, stated he believes Oklahoma’s obligatory reporting necessities for well being care suppliers are too broad and that ladies shouldn’t be prosecuted for utilizing marijuana throughout their pregnancies.
“I care for a lot of these little infants. A few of them are actually three years outdated since medical marijuana has been round, they usually’re all superb,” he stated. “There is no subject. It is all wasted money and time.”
A 2016 federal legislation, the Complete Dependancy and Restoration Act, directs states to make sure that well being care employees notify little one protecting companies about newborns affected by prenatal substance publicity, together with authorized medicine. The federal legislation requires states to develop plans to maintain the infants protected and join households to companies. However there is no such thing as a requirement for states to open little one abuse investigations in each case or report back to legislation enforcement, in keeping with federal officers.
Some states have wrongly interpreted the federal legislation to imply that well being care employees should report all drug-exposed newborns to little one protecting companies as abuse or neglect, stated Margaret Lloyd Sieger, professor of social work on the College of Connecticut.
“It’s inconsistent with the spirit of the coverage, which is de facto about supporting the well being and remedy wants of those households and never entangling them with the kid safety system if there’s no security subject,” she stated.
Caseworkers use the referrals from well being care employees to judge kids’s security and assist join dad and mom to remedy and different companies, Oklahoma Human Providers stated in response to questions.
The legal instances can impose heavy burdens on households. Aguilar is a single mother who cares for her 5 organic kids and her youngest son’s half-brother in a three-bedroom residence in Ponca Metropolis.
She stated the legal cost was emotionally devastating and made it onerous for her to search out work to assist her household.
Aguilar beforehand had a license to work as an authorized nursing assistant. She needed to return to high school to turn into a registered nurse, however the legal case put these plans on maintain, she stated.
She cleaned homes and finally discovered work at a medical marijuana dispensary.
She remains to be ready for an appeals courtroom to rule on her case.
“Not less than on the finish of the day, I’ll say that I fought this all the way in which,” Aguilar stated. “That’s the reason I am doing this. You do not get to name me a foul mother.”
[ad_2]
Source link
