In a pretty outrageous case of overreach, already tossed out by a judge, prosecutors are appealing the dismissal and rabidly want to try a woman who smoked medical marijuana.
A woman with a legal medical marijuana card in Oklahoma smoked marijuana while pregnant. Why Kay County prosecutors wanted to pursue her is beyond me, but a judge tossed the case out of court as there was no proof the woman had done anything against the law. Prosecutors are appealing because they somehow represent the rights of her unborn child not to have had a mother who chose to smoke pot while pregnant legally.
In June, a judge in Kay County tossed out the charges against Aguilar, ruling there was no evidence that she broke state law. And that might have been the end of it.
But the local prosecutor was undeterred. He filed an appeal to reinstate the charges, arguing that Aguilar broke the law because the fetus growing inside her did not have its own, separate license to use medical marijuana. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals is expected to hear the arguments later this year in a case that could set a new legal precedent in Oklahoma on whether using medical marijuana during pregnancy is a crime — and potentially opening the door for more criminal cases.
The attorney for another woman charged with child neglect for using medical marijuana has asked for her trial to be delayed pending the Court of Criminal Appeals' decision. The Oklahoma Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge to the charges against her. Her attorneys had argued that state law grants medical marijuana users immunity from prosecution.
The Marshall Project
