Medical marijuana users should be able to adopt and foster

Most kids grow up eagerly looking forward to their birthday each year: the cake, the presents, the party — it’s a day when everything is supposed to revolve around you. Like any youngster, I always looked forward to celebrating my birthday, but there was a day that was even more important to me: my “Gotcha Day.”

Gotcha Day is a term used to refer to the time when a person joins a family through adoption. This day doesn’t just celebrate the individual, but rather celebrates the expansion and strength of the family unit.

I know very little about my birth parents — only that they left me wrapped in a blanket outside of a police station. Once I was found by the local authorities, I was taken to the orphanage, where I waited for over six months for my adoptive parents to find me.

My adoptive mom and dad spent hundreds of hours filling out paperwork and completing background checks, until they finally got the all clear. The two then spent over 20 hours traveling from rural Missouri, to Xiamen, China. We first met on December 22: my Gotcha Day.

My parents raised me in a loving and supportive home. This past May, I graduated from the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Pharmacy. I currently work full-time as a community pharmacist, and also serve as the director of clinical outreach at Missouri Cannabis Clinic. I help patients access medical marijuana safely and legally.

My mom is one of our patients. After trying different pain pill regimens and enduring surgical procedures that were ineffective, I finally persuaded her to give medical marijuana a try. Nothing has relieved her chronic shoulder pain better than cannabis, marijuana’s active ingredient. This medicine allows her to be more functional and alert, to be the best mother she can be.

Even though my parents are upstanding citizens, if they were to repeat the adoption process again at this point in time, I’m not sure if they would pass because of my mom’s medical marijuana use.

Background checks for parents looking to foster or adopt are thorough in Missouri, and they often include drug tests that screen for marijuana use. Even with a medical marijuana card, there is no guarantee that the potential parent will still be allowed to foster or adopt with a positive result.

Missouri House Bill 567, sponsored by state Rep. Ron Hicks, a Republican from Dardenne Prairie, could put clear protections into place for medical marijuana patients looking to foster or adopt in our state. The bill would ensure that the placement of a child in an adoptive home would not be affected by a prospective adoptive parent’s use of legal medical marijuana.

This month, my family will celebrate my 24th Gotcha Day. My family is stronger than ever, partly because of my mom’s medical marijuana use. Families shouldn’t be punished because of an adult’s legal use of medical marijuana.

Please call your state officials and express your support for House Bill 567, and make sure that all families in Missouri are protected.

Jana Lappin is a community pharmacist serving the Kansas City area, as well as the director of clinical outreach at Missouri Cannabis Clinic, a service that provides state-licensed medical marijuana doctors to certify and renew patients through Missouri’s medical marijuana program.

This story was originally published December 29, 2019 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Medical marijuana users should be able to adopt and foster."