Search Results for: marijuana

Last week, the Arizona Court of Appeals reversed the Arizona Department of Child Safety’s decision to place Lindsay R. on its child abuse and neglect Central Registry for 25 years for using legally prescribed marijuana to treat her hyperemesis gravidarum (HG), a condition that causes severe nausea and vomiting and can endanger the life of the pregnant woman and her pregnancy.

Hyperemesis Gravidarum Is a Life-Threatening Pregnancy Condition For Immediate Release: July 6, 2021 On Friday, July 1, Pregnancy Justice, as lead amici, asked an Arizona Court of Appeals to accept their brief on behalf of 45 leading health organizations, doctors, ethicists, scientific and medical experts, and advocates, including Amy Schumer, in support of Lindsay R., a mother found guilty of civil child neglect and placed on Arizona’s Child Abuse Central Registry because she used medical marijuana while pregnant pursuant to a valid medical certification and suffered from acute hyperemesis gravidarum.

On May 8, 2020, Frontiers in Psychology published, Totality of the Evidence Suggests Prenatal Cannabis Exposure Does Not Lead to Cognitive Impairments: A Systematic and Critical Review, a peer-reviewed systematic review on the effects of prenatal exposure to marijuana. This serious and careful evaluation of 1,001 statistical comparisons between groups of participants exposed to cannabis prenatally and non-exposed controls debunks unsupported assumptions about negative cognitive effects of prenatal marijuana exposure.

MEDIA STATEMENT FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 22, 2015 Contact: Lynn Paltrow, Pregnancy Justice (212) 255-9252 info@advocatesforpregnantwomen.org Sara Arnold, media@flcalliance.org The American College of Obstetrician and Gynecologists (ACOG) Issues Committee Opinion on Marijuana Use During Pregnancy Pregnancy Justice & Family Law & Cannabis Alliance (FLCA) Call for Non-Punitive Responses to Pregnant Women Who Use Marijuana On June 22, 2015, ACOG released Committee Opinion 637, Marijuana Use During Pregnancy and Lactation recommending that health care providers encourage women who are pregnant or contemplating pregnancy to avoid marijuana use "[b]ecause the effects of marijuana may be as serious as those of cigarette smoking or alcohol consumption.

Pregnancy Justice has, for some time, been encouraging attorneys who represent mothers in civil child neglect proceedings ("family defense lawyers") to challenge neglect and abuse charges based on positive drug tests. These cases often involve women who give birth and have their newborns taken from them based on nothing more than an unconfirmed positive test for an illegal drug.

For immediate release (updated October 2022) Contact: media@pregnancyjusticeus.org NEW YORK — After Pregnancy Justice learned that the Etowah County, Alabama, District Attorney was imposing unconstitutional bond conditions on all pregnant women and new mothers charged with "chemical endangerment of a child" and filed habeas petitions on behalf of two clients, a new policy is now in effect that will result in fewer indefinite and unlawful detentions.

On January 24, 2022, Pregnancy Justice submitted written testimony in opposition to South Carolina’s proposed abortion ban, S.988. The so-called “Equal Protection for Unborn Babies Act” is a trigger ban, meaning it would go into effect immediately if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, in part or whole.

Every leading medical and public health organization to address the issue of pregnant women and drug use has taken a position opposing punitive approaches as dangerous to maternal, fetal and child health. Please read the information below or download this fact sheet providing summaries of and citations to these statements.

Referrals and Resources Note: We’ve compiled this list of the most common questions we receive in order to direct you to a resource that can better help you with your specific concern. The views of the referral organizations do not necessarily reflect the views of Pregnancy Justice, and Pregnancy Justice is not responsible for the advice or information given by other groups and service providers.

Pregnancy and Drug and Alcohol Use WHAT WE DO NEED TO KNOW CURRENT WORK Pregnancy Justice'S WORK WHAT WE DO Pregnancy Justice defends people who are pregnant and use alcohol or drugs. Pregnancy Justice is the leading organization providing pro bono (free) legal assistance to people who have been charged with a crime because they were pregnant and used alcohol or a criminalized drug, obtained or used drugs that are safe and effective in ending a pregnancy (see e.g. Plan C and SASS) or used treatment drugs such as methadone and buprenorphine and did so in a manner prescribed to them by a physician.