New State Profile: Texas
Family Law & Cannabis Alliance (FLCA) has a new state profile: the Lone Star state of Texas! Our most extensive profile yet, the Texas state profile makes sense of the especially complicated laws, administrative rules, and DFPS policies that govern CPS and family court as pertains to cannabis use. We welcome your feedback! Our Washington State profile has also been the recipient of a major update this week! More new state profiles coming...
read moreNew State Profile: Georgia
As of this morning, Family Law & Cannabis Alliance (FLCA) is pleased to announce we have a new state profile on our website: the peach state of Georgia! Thanks to Peachtree NORML for all the love directed our way today.
read moreBree Green is Home!
On Friday, November 22, eight-month-old Brielle “Bree” Green was returned to the home of her loving parents, Steve and Maria Green. Bree was removed from her family home in Lansing six weeks earlier by Michigan DHS for the ” danger” of her parents’ medical marijuana use. The Greens were (and are) legal medical cannabis patients for Steve’s epilepsy and Maria’s multiple sclerosis, and Maria was a legally registered caregiver allowed to cultivate at home for her husband and five cancer patients. Maria was still breastfeeding her baby girl. In Michigan, a parent who is also a patient cannot be denied custody of their children “unless the person’s behavior is such that it creates an unreasonable danger to the minor that can be clearly articulated and substantiated.” According to state attorney referee Rob Porter, any marijuana in the home is dangerous to children. He emoted, “It is reasonable to assume that marijuana is being grown in that home with children being present, and that is dangerous for children to be involved in that situation. We have homes being robbed at gunpoint – by individuals who know that children are at home.” Mr. Porter did not mention nor comment on the parent-protective provision in the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act nor that homes are also robbed at gunpoint for flat-screen televisions, computers, and fine jewelry. Steve and Maria Green have been through a traumatic ordeal that was arguably illegal under state law. They have faced criminal charges for legal cultivation activity, dirty tricks and lies over their medical marijuana use in a custody battle regarding an older child that led to Bree being taken into state custody, late notice of family court proceedings, court-required cessation of their legal medication resulting in the symptomatic return of their medical conditions including requiring Maria to need the use of a walker, and the high cost of both criminal and civil court. This family did nothing wrong, and as such, all criminal charges were dropped on October 3. In a special hearing on October 22nd, the Greens agreed to attend parenting classes for thirty days and allow both themselves and Bree to be drug tested at regular intervals for the next month in return for Bree coming home with them. If they meet all the parts of their agreement, some of which was not disclosed, Bree will be able to remain permanently in her family home. They can also resume cultivating marijuana for patient use. Michigan did not prove there was a “danger” to Bree Green because such a danger never existed. “I would die for Bree, but I don’t think I should have to choose that,” said Steve Green in an interview after court on October 22nd. Nor should he. The Green family is understandably just glad to have their daughter home, but under Michigan law — and simply what is right and just — Bree Green should have never been removed from her parents in the first place. Let’s hope Michigan has learned from what they needlessly put the Green family...
read moreNORML Partners with Family Law & Cannabis Alliance (FLCA)
Press release originally posted October 24, 2013 on the NORML Blog. Written by Sabrina Fendrick, NORML Director of Women’s Outreach. Thank you, Sabrina! It’s no secret that there has been a proliferation government agencies across the country removing minors and infants from their home, based solely on the fact that a parent is a cannabis consumer, and the false presumption that the presence of marijuana poses a danger. This even occurs in states with a legal medical marijuana program, or where marijuana possession is no longer a criminal offense. Some of these experiences can be incredibly traumatic to the child, as well as the parents, as officers have a tendency to use aggressive and sometimes militaristic tactics while engaging with these families. NORML receives dozens of calls and emails every month from devastated parents who have lost custody of their children to state agencies, and we remain committed to providing support and resources to those forced into these unfortunate circumstances. In light of such efforts, we are pleased to announce that NORML has recently partnered with the newly formed Family Law and Cannabis Alliance (FLCA), founded by longtime drug reform activists Jess Cochrane and Sara Arnold. The FLCA is an informational clearinghouse that provides educational resources, advocacy information and legal referrals geared toward reformers & affected families on the crossover of marijuana laws & the child protection system. Sabrina Fendrick, Director of Women’s Outreach said, she is “looking forward to working with the Family Law and Cannabis Alliance to raise awareness about the devastating effects, and sometimes dangerous practice, of child services in removing children from their safe and loving homes for the mere fact a parent is a cannabis consumer. It is time to end this destructive policy, and put an end to marijuana prohibition once and for all.” Click here for more information on the Family Law and Cannabis...
read moreSee you in Denver!
Co-founders Sara Arnold aka Sahra Kant & Jess Cochrane will be in Denver from this Wednesday, October 23rd until Sunday, October 27th for the Drug Policy Alliance Reform Conference. Come say hello and talk to us about FLCA! Please also attend our panel on Saturday, October 26th from 3-4:30pm in room Governor’s Square 15. From our facilitator, Lynn Paltrow of National Advocates for Pregnant Women (NAPW): Recognizing How Child Welfare Systems Promotes and Expands the “War on Drugs” While extensive attention has been paid to the ways in which the criminal punishment system is used to advance the war on drugs, virtually no attention has been paid to the civil child welfare system — an equally insidious and destructive mechanism for expanding the war on drugs and undermining low-income and families of color. To learn more about this vital issue and what can be done about it please join us on Saturday, October 26th from 3-4:30pm for a Roundtable discussion. From the conference Program Book, available to all attendees: “Overlooked Punishment: The Drug War’s Insidious Reach Beyond the Criminal Justice System” This session will explore the history and expansion of civil laws and policies that act as a vector for drug prohibition and address the following questions: In what ways are child welfare laws a mechanism for the war on drugs? How has drug war propaganda been used in the child welfare system? How do Family Drug Courts reinforce myths about drug use and parenting? After legalization in Colorado & Washington, in what ways will abstinence-only ideology be used to punish people? What drives racial disparities in the child welfare system? In addition to these questions, the session will highlight successful challenges to the expansion of drug war policies in the child welfare system. Facilitator: Lynn Paltrow, Executive Director, National Advocates for Pregnant Women, New York, NY Co-Panelists: Sara Arnold Co-Founder, Family Law & Cannabis Alliance, Clinton, MA; Jess Cochrane: JD/MPH Candidate, Family Law & Cannabis Alliance, Boston, MA; Carl Hart, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Columbia University, author of High Price; Emma Ketteringham: Managing Attorney, Bronx Defenders; M. Kay Teel, PhD, LCSW, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Colorado School of Medicine. See you...
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