{"id":54085,"date":"2021-09-20T15:49:49","date_gmt":"2021-09-20T15:49:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/merryjane.com\/arizona-puts-mother-on-child-abuse-registry-for-using-medical-marijuana-while-pregnant\/"},"modified":"2021-09-20T15:49:49","modified_gmt":"2021-09-20T15:49:49","slug":"arizona-puts-mother-on-child-abuse-registry-for-using-medical-marijuana-while-pregnant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/merryjane.com\/news\/arizona-puts-mother-on-child-abuse-registry-for-using-medical-marijuana-while-pregnant\/","title":{"rendered":"Arizona Puts Mother on Child Abuse Registry for Using Medical Marijuana While Pregnant"},"content":{"rendered":"

Image <\/em>via<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Last week, an Arizona court heard the opening arguments in a court case that could challenge<\/u><\/a> the state’s medical marijuana and child welfare laws. <\/p>\n

In 2019, the Arizona Department of Child Safety (DCS) placed Lindsay Ridgell on the state’s child abuse Central Registry for using medical marijuana while she was pregnant. Ridgell was legally using medical pot to treat the symptoms of hyperemesis gravidarum (HG), a rare but serious condition that can cause extreme nausea, constant vomiting, dehydration, and even miscarriage.<\/p>\n

Ridgell had initially started using cannabis to help with irritable bowel syndrome in 2010, the year that Arizona legalized medical marijuana. Once she learned that she was pregnant, Ridgell started weaning herself off of this medicine. But once she lowered her dose, she began vomiting several times a day. <\/p>\n

\u201cI just could not keep food down,\u201d she told <\/u>The Washington Post<\/em><\/u><\/a>. \u201cI was so, so sick.\u201d The vomiting became so extreme that she was hospitalized twice for dehydration. Doctors prescribed various prescription anti-nausea medications, but none of them helped. Eventually, Ridgell returned to using cannabis, which finally helped ease her nausea. <\/p>\n