Pregnant Arizona woman charged for using marijuana could set precedent for future moms
Although medical marijuana is no longer illegal in Arizona, a mother is facing child neglect charges for using it while pregnant.
The case could set a precedent for future mothers who use marijuana during pregnancy, the Phoenix New Times reported.
Lindsay Ridgell gave birth to her son Silas in 2019 after battling hyperemesis gravidarum, a disorder that causes severe nausea and vomiting during pregnancy, according to The Lily. She had been hospitalized twice for the condition and required IV fluids to help with dehydration.
Ridgell had been using medical marijuana to treat her chronic irritable bowel syndrome since 2010, the year it was voted into Arizona law, according to The Lily.
Ridgell tried to wean off it after her OBGYN’s recommendation, but after developing hyperemesis gravidarum, she came back to marijuana because she knew it helped her, the outlet reported.
Soon after Silas was born, a social worker came to Ridgell’s hospital room and told her that she planned to report her to the Department of Child Safety, where Ridgell worked at the time, according to The Lily.
Ridgell’s name was put in Arizona’s child abuse Central Registry for the next 25 years, the outlet reported.
She was then fired from her job, according to The Lily. People who are on the list show up on background checks and can be disqualified from jobs working with children and vulnerable adults.
In February 2020, an administrative law judge found that the Department of Child Safety’s evidence was “double hearsay” and “was not the kind of evidence on which a reasonable person would rely,” the Phoenix New Times reported.
The judge told DCS to remove Ridgell’s name from the registry “because (she) used medical marijuana under her doctor’s care and according to their instructions during her pregnancy,” the outlet said.
But the agency did not comply, saying Ridgell had neglected her child by exposing him prematurely to cannabis that “was not the result of a medical treatment administered to the mother or the newborn infant by a health professional,” the outlet added. Maricopa County Superior Court upheld that decision.
Now Ridgell and her attorney, Julie Gunnigle, are appealing the agency’s child neglect verdict and trying to remove her name from the registry at the Arizona Court of Appeals on Wednesday, The Lily reported.
It is generally not recommended to use marijuana to treat severe nausea associated with pregnancy, and there is no research confirming that it’s safe to do so, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
As of now, there isn’t enough research on whether marijuana use during pregnancy could negatively “impact the health and development of infants,” the institute said.
Still, since marijuana may negatively affect the developing brain, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists warn that doctors “counsel women against using marijuana while trying to get pregnant, during pregnancy, and while they are breastfeeding.”
There is also no human research confirming the link between marijuana use and miscarriages, the National Institute on Drug Abuse said. Some animal studies, however, show that the risk of a miscarriage increases if cannabis is used early on in the pregnancy.
Cannabis research, according to the institute, has shown that:
There are some links between cannabis use during pregnancy and “future developmental and hyperactivity disorders in children.”
There are mixed opinions on whether marijuana is associated with low birth weight or premature birth — though chronic use may increase those risks.
Pregnant women who use marijuana have “have a 2.3 times greater risk of stillbirth.”
The Food and Drug Administration also recommends that pregnant women should not use vaping products that contain marijuana.
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