In a single Alabama county, ladies who admit to utilizing marijuana throughout being pregnant usually discover themselves charged with a felony. Etowah County—in northeastern Alabama—costs extra ladies with “chemical endangerment” than every other county within the state. Till lately, these ladies have been usually solely granted launch from jail on the situation that they enter rehab, regardless of not being hooked on medication.
In 2006, Alabama enacted a “chemical endangerment” regulation designed to punish dad and mom who permit their kids close to meth labs. Nonetheless, within the years for the reason that regulation’s passage, Etowah County regulation enforcement officers have used it to throw ladies in jail for months over minor drug offenses.
Girls who aren’t even hooked on medication have usually discovered themselves trapped in jail, unable to be launched except they go to rehab but denied entry by drug therapy services due to their lack of habit.
Amanda Bradley was arrested in 2021 after she examined optimistic for THC after giving start. Bradley says she had been utilizing CBD oil to deal with continual ache and had no thought the oil might trigger a optimistic drug take a look at.
“The CBD oil they offered on the retailer, I did not know it will make me fail for marijuana,” Bradley advised AL.com. “It appeared like a pure, secure possibility. That is why I did it. I did not know you could possibly get in bother for stuff you acquire from the shop.”
Bradley could not be launched except she entered a rehab facility. However Bradley’s CBD oil use did not depend as drug habit, so habit therapy services would not take her.
“I went again and ended up redoing the evaluation and telling them I shoot up and every kind of stuff to get to rehab and it labored,” she stated. In the end, she spent two months in jail and 6 months at a drug therapy middle.
One other lady, Chelsea Stewart, was arrested on a misdemeanor marijuana cost in 2019. She advised AL.com that she stopped smoking after this arrest. Nonetheless, she nonetheless examined optimistic throughout a random drug take a look at a number of weeks later. By that time, Stewart had discovered she was pregnant.
Stewart was taken to jail, and after a month, she was launched to a midway home crammed with ladies with histories of heavy addictions to opioids and meth. She advised AL.com that she had by no means used a substance stronger than marijuana, but she was compelled to pay for an pointless keep within the midway home.
“I spent greater than $3,000 on that,” she stated. “I might have been saving for my daughter. I might have been saving for something, and I wasn’t.”
In complete, 257 pregnant ladies and new moms have been arrested for chemical endangerment between 2015 and January 2023 in Etowah County. In accordance to Al.com, three-quarters of the individuals arrested for chemical endangerment (of which 93 p.c are ladies) have been too poor to rent an legal professional.
Nonetheless, the state of affairs does appear to be enhancing barely. Following reporting final yr, Etowah County not requires pregnant ladies to attend—and pay for—rehab with the intention to get out of jail.
Even with out mandated rehab, Etowah County regulation enforcement are nonetheless utilizing the state’s chemical endangerment regulation to unnecessarily punish ladies for minor drug offenses.
“They’re essentially the most zealous prosecutors and sheriff’s division now we have encountered anyplace throughout the nation,” one legal professional advised Al.com, “and the info backs that up.”
