Nevada legislators have submitted a bill that will remove the restriction that prevents people from becoming foster parents or working for a foster home if they are convicted of marijuana possession more than five year ago.
Nevada voters approved cannabis use for adults in 2016. However, state law prevents adult offenders who have convictions for drugs, such as marijuana, from being able to own, work at, or reside at a Foster Home. Assemblymember Tracy Brown May (D)’s AB107 would fix this.
The measure—which unanimously passed the Assembly last month and cleared the Senate last week in a 19-2 vote—would amend existing statue to carve out an exemption for foster parents and workers who were convicted of low-level cannabis possession at the state or local level “within the immediately preceding five years” of seeking a license. The restriction would apply to convictions of selling cannabis.
A foster care license can be suspended or revoked if the background check, conducted at least every five years by regulators, reveals a cannabis history.
A legislative digest states that “this bill authorizes any person convicted of such a violation to be employed, live in, or even be present at a foster care home.”
Paul Armentano NORML Deputy director said Nevada’s foster care law “no liaises with current public attitudes about marijuana nor with surrounding state laws that regulate marijuana use.”
“As cannabis laws change, it is imperative that lawmakers also target and amend these ‘holdover’ policies so that consumers no longer face discrimination for behaviors that are state-legal,” he said.
Ashley Kennedy is a Clark County Lobbyist who requested the fix in the legislature. She told legislators earlier this month, “Over the years, we’ve lost caring, qualified people due to their criminal records. Especially, marijuana possession convictions over twenty years old.” These convictions are “nolonger aligned with Nevada’s current laws.”
The bipartisan bill now heads to Gov. Joe Lombardo has approved previous cannabis and psychoactive drug reform bills.
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After three years following the legalization of medical marijuana, 2023 found states with the highest percentage of foster children who were placed in care because of parental drug use. Similarly, the legalization of marijuana for adult consumption was not linked to any statistically meaningful change in foster child admissions.
A separate 2022 study found a link between legalizing adult use and drug abuse in foster care. Researchers at the University of Mississippi found that recreational legalization was associated with at least a 10 percent decrease in foster care admissions on average, including reductions in placements due to physical abuse, neglect, parental incarceration and misuse of alcohol and other drugs.
Meanwhile in Nevada, the state Assembly recently amended and advanced a Senate-passed joint resolution calling on Congress to reschedule certain psychedelics, streamline research and provide protections for people using the substances in compliance with state law.
Last month, meanwhile, a Nevada Assembly committee passed a psychedelic pilot program bill that would allow some patients with certain medical conditions to legally access substances such as psilocybin, DMT, ibogaine and mescaline.
Ohio is more than doubling the amount of marijuana that adults can legally buy per day
Philip Steffan is the photographer.
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