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Advocacy group says pregnant women shouldn't be prosecuted for medical marijuana

A doctor performs an ultrasound scan on a pregnant woman at a hospital in Chicago.
Teresa Crawford
/
AP
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Medical marijuana has been legal in Oklahoma since the passage of State Question 788 in 2018, but multiple women in the state have been prosecuted for using it since then — because they were pregnant.

Pregnancy Justice, an advocacy group based in New York, filed an application with the Oklahoma Supreme Court on Thursday asking it to put a stop to the prosecution of women who use medical marijuana during their pregnancies.

In a press release, the group said Oklahoma’s Medical Marijuana and Patient Protection Act, which went into effect in 2019, legalized medical marijuana for all adults with valid licenses from the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority.

Despite this, reporting from The Frontier found at least eight Oklahoma women with state-issued medical marijuana cards have been charged with felony child neglect for using marijuana during their pregnancies since 2019.

This charge comes with the potential of a life sentence.

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Hannah France joined KGOU as a reporter in 2021, shortly after earning a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri. In 2023, Hannah was the first place recipient of the Oklahoma Society of Professional Journalists' Radio Outstanding Reporter Portfolio award. Hannah reports on a variety of topics including criminal justice, housing, and labor rights and is dedicated to educating and empowering Oklahomans through community storytelling.
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