Jefferson City, Mo. - The American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri and Stinson LLP filed a lawsuit on behalf of Sharon Stewart against the State of Missouri, the Director of the Missouri Department of Corrections, and the Dallas County Prosecuting Attorney for using probationary terms to violate her constitutional right to use marijuana, and specifically the medical marijuana prescribed by her physician. The plaintiff seeks injunctive and declaratory relief to prevent the state from penalizing her and denying probationers their constitutional right to access prescribed medical treatment as well as the right to be free from probation violations related to any use of marijuana.
“The people of Missouri voted not once, but twice, to add protections that prohibit the state from applying lawful marijuana use as a basis for a violation of parole, probation, or any type of supervised release,” said Gillian Wilcox, Director of Litigation at the ACLU of Missouri. “The state is trampling the constitutional rights of the plaintiff and others on probation while interfering with medical treatments that have been prescribed by state-licensed physicians.”
In 2018, Missourians overwhelmingly voted to legalize medical marijuana. The constitutional amendment established legal parameters for the production, sale, and use of medical marijuana, including that “[r]egistered qualifying patients on bond for pre-trial release, on probation, or further supervised release shall not be prohibited from legally using a lawful marijuana product as terms of condition or release, probation, or parole.”
Furthermore, in 2022, Missourians voted to legalize recreational use of marijuana through a constitutional amendment. The amendment includes a section that reinforced previously passed protections stating, “[l]awful marijuana related activities cannot be the basis for a violation of parole, probation, or any type of supervised release.”
In April of 2022, a state-licensed physician issued Stewart a medical marijuana card for diagnosed health conditions. On two separate occasions in 2023, following scheduled urinalyses, the state issued her Notices of Citation for allegedly violating a probationary condition for drug use on the grounds that she tested positive for THC even though both notices acknowledged that she "was not to use or possess drugs of any kind unless it is prescribed for her use by a medical doctor who is licensed as such in the state of Missouri.”
The Dallas Country Prosecutor filed motions attempting to revoke Stewart’s probation status each time. The first hearing ended without the court determining if a violation occurred and a continuance of her probation. At the second hearing, although the alleged violation was specifically for “drug use,” the court found that when Stewart tested positive, she violated a separate condition of her probation - “obey all laws and ordinances” - because it was a violation of federal law. The court ordered her to complete two days of “shock incarceration” in the Dallas County Jail, which she served in May 2024.
“The unconstitutional application of probationary terms has not only violated Stewart’s rights but has led to her serving two days of ‘shock incarceration’ as punishment for merely attempting to exercise those rights as contemplated by the Missouri Constitution,” said Jonathan Schmid, Policy Counsel for the ACLU of Missouri.
Read the full petition.