“Under Stutts’ proposal (S.B. 324), medical marijuana dispensaries would “require a negative pregnancy test for women of childbearing age before allowing them to purchase medical cannabis,” per a legislative summary of the bill. Pregnant women on the marijuana patient registry would also be required to report pregnancies to the physician who approved their patient status.
Having to go to a doctor or medical lab and pay for a pregnancy test before every medical cannabis purchase would be not only invasive but inconvenient. In effect, it’s an added tax on young(ish) female patients.
The bill would also ban new moms who are breastfeeding from purchasing medical marijuana for themselves. It does not say how this ban would be enforced.
Alabama only recently legalized medical marijuana (and with a lot of caveats). Gov. Kay Ivey signed a medical marijuana legalization measure into law in May 2021, and the state has yet to license any dispensaries. The Alabama Cannabis Commission has until this upcoming September to creating a system for dispensary licensing, a patient registry system, and rules for cannabis packaging, labeling, and advertising.
The state already limits the number of dispensary licenses that can be issued to a mere four, and it bans dispensaries from being located within 1,000 feet of any “school, day care, or child care facility.” Stutts’ bill would further restrict where dispensaries could operate by stipulating that this rule includes home-based child care operations and colleges.
All these restrictions will probably discourage even many people who could qualify as patients from registering and purchasing through the state’s legal system. If Stutts’ bill passes, it will become yet another incentive for patients to bypass state dispensaries and keep buying on the black market.”