Oklahoma court split on whether smoking marijuana while pregnant is child neglect

The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals ruled that pregnant mothers cannot be charged with child neglect if they use medical marijuana. Howe ver, two judges dissented from the July 18 decision.

The ruling followed the controversial arrest of Amanda Aguilar, 35, and concluded that prosecutors had no basis to charge the mother of five with child neglect for lawfully using medical marijuana while pregnant.

"The baby has no medical marijuana license," Judge Gary L. Lumpkin wrote in a dissenting opinion and noted that lab results showed Aguilar's baby tested positive for marijuana after birth.

Judge Scott Rowland, who wrote the majority opinion, called Lumpkin's argument an "attempt to get to a desirable result in this case." He added that many drugs prescribed to a mother would incriminate her "as soon as a molecule of such drug entered the body of her unborn child" because "all of these drugs are illegal to possess or use without a prescription."

Judge David Lewis also dissented and argued that neither the voters nor the Oklahoma legislature intended to legalize prenatal exposure to marijuana in legalizing medical marijuana.

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Rowland agreed with this assertion and said that while the court does not condone pregnant use of marijuana, it's left to lawmakers "to consider an addition to the law-making clear when, if ever, the licensed use of marijuana may constitute child neglect."

Pregnancy Justice , a left-leaning nonprofit organization, said at least eight w omen, including Aguilar, have been charged "under this theory" since 2019, adding that "Oklahoma is the only state we know of that has charged pregnant women with felony child neglect for using medical marijuana — a legal medication."