Cannabis is sending twice as many pregnant “people” to the hospital, says a new study on cannabis use during pregnancy published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. (And yes, the study calls pregnant women “people” in an attempt to be “inclusive” by insulting women and rejecting biological facts.) The researchers looked at over 950,000 pregnancies between January 2015 and July 2021. They found the rate of ER and hospital visits related to cannabis use during pregnancy doubled. Ergo, legalization has […]
According to data published in the journal Hospital Pediatrics, patients selected to undergo drug screening during the labor and delivery process for cannabis are disproportionately Hispanic or African American and were also more likely to be on subsidized health insurance plans.
The team of researchers from the American Academy of Pediatrics looked to describe the characteristics of people undergoing toxicology testing at delivery solely for the indication of cannabis use along with evaluating the rate of unexpected positive testing results among the cohort to identify additional social risk factors and clinical outcomes.
The Disproportionate Impact of Perinatal Drug Testing
The retrospective cohort study included dyads with a maternal history of cannabis use who were given peripartum toxicology testing between 2016 and 2020 at five Massachusetts birthing hospitals.
Researchers reviewed a total of 60,608 live births, of which 1,924 dyads underwent toxicology testing. Of that group, 614 (31.9%) were tested for the sole indication of cannabis use. The data revealed that significantly greater patients in the cannabis cohort were less than 25 years old, non-Hispanic Black, Hispanic or Latino and publicly insured.
Specifically, Hispanic patients were twice as likely to be mandated to undergo testing (30.5% vs. 15.5% of the birthing population) and Black patients were four times as likely (32.4% vs. 8.1%). Patients under 25 were more than five times as likely to be mandated for testing (32.4% vs. 6.1%), and those on public healthcare plans were more than twice as likely to be tested for past cannabis exposure (39.9% vs. 15.6%).
Regarding positive results, eight of the 614 dyads (1.3%) had an unexpected positive toxicology test result, including two (0.3%) who unexpectedly tested positive for opioids. Seven dyads (1.1%) also had false positive test results for unexpected substances.
Doctors also rarely took any follow up actions or made changes to the clinical management of patients after they tested positive for cannabis, as just a single test result changed clinical management: monitoring and no medication for neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome.
“Toxicology testing of patients for a sole indication of cannabis use, without other risk factors, may be of limited utility in elucidating other substance use and may exacerbate existing disparities in perinatal outcomes,” the study’s authors concluded.
Echoes of Previous Research
The findings are consistent with previous studies. Namely, one study released just last month published in Academic Pediatrics similarly found that younger individuals and people of color were more likely to be tested for cannabis use or maternal medical complications compared to white, non-Hispanic individuals. This study found the disproportionality ratios were greater than 1.0 for individuals under 25 years old (3.8), Hispanic individuals (1.6), non-Hispanic Black individuals (1.8) individuals of other races (1.8) and those with public insurance (Medicaid 2.6; Medicare 10.6).
While this is one of the most recent studies investigating the topic, a number of studies from years past have found similar figures. One study published in the Journal of Women’s Health reported that Black women and their newborns were 1.5 times more likely to be tested for illicit drugs than non-Black women.
Another published in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that, even though Black and White women had similar rates of illicit drug consumption during pregnancy, Black women were “reported [to health authorities] at approximately 10 times the rate of white women.”
Drug Use, Drug Testing and Childbirth: A Complex Issue
False positive test results of THC are generally uncommon in adults, they can be fairly prevalent among newborns. For example, a 2012 study found that commonly used soap and wash products used for newborn and infant care, like Johnson’s Head-to-Toe Baby Wash and CVS Baby Wash, often cross-react with the immunoassay test and can cause false positive results for carboxy THC.
“[The] addition of Head-to-Toe Baby Wash to drug-free urine produced a dose dependent measurable response in the THC immunoassay,” the investigators concluded. “Addition of other commercially available baby soaps gave similar results, and subsequent testing identified specific chemical surfactants that reacted with the THC immunoassay. … Given these consequences, it is important for laboratories and providers to be aware of this potential source for false positive screening results and to consider confirmation before initiating interventions.”
Even though the Hospital Pediatrics study had few follow up actions after positive testing, that’s not always the case. Another study from 2018 notes the importance of considering a number of technical, medical, ethical, legal and social issues when screening pregnant people for drug use.
Specifically, it cites that birthing people “can and have been arrested for positive drug screens with even preliminary results used to remove children from custody, before rigorous confirmatory testing is completed. Balancing the scientific, medical, public health, legal, and ethical aspects of screening tests for drugs in pregnancy is critical for helping to address this crisis at all levels.”
The study concludes that the medical field largely lacks a good understanding of the pharmacokinetics of drugs in pregnancy. While there is a clear need for testing, authors note that there is a lack of pharmacological knowledge, compounded by a “general misunderstanding of addiction and substance use/misuse within the medical profession” that is further complicated when working with pregnant people and their children.
A Reddit post in the popular subreddit r/Am I the Asshole? community is beginning to go viral after it ignited a fierce debate: Should concertgoers at a clearly stoner-friendly concert refrain from smoking if a pregnant woman is in the crowd, or should the pregnant woman not be there in the first place if secondhand smoke is inevitable? The responses and opinions about acceptable behavior may surprise you.
“Yesterday I went out to see a concert,” Redditor u/Vegetable_River_255 posted on Sunday. “The band I was seeing has a very heavy drug scene associated with it. I was in an assigned seat section and made small talk with the couple next to me while waiting.”
The user continued, “About 10 minutes into the first set I light up a joint, and about five minutes after the husband complains to me about his wife being pregnant. I told them both it’s a show. You came here, you can choose to leave. He tried to cause a scene but nothing happened since I just ignored them both and danced.”
Apparently, the user’s roommates took the side of the pregnant woman. “I told my roommates this earlier today and they said I was being an asshole for smoking next to the pregnant lady.”
“AITA [Am I the asshole] here?” the Redditor asked.
Most mothers in the thread agreed, and appeared stunned to even be presented with such a loaded question. However, even some pregnant women in the subreddit took the side of the Redditor who wrote the original post, saying the mother should’ve known better than to go to that type of concert.
Chaos Ensues on Reddit
The user’s responses were quite different, highlighting how differently people view our responsibilities as smokers.
“YES YTA [you’re the asshole],” WaywardPrincess1025 replied, gaining over 35,000 upvotes at the time of writing. “You shouldn’t be smoking in your seat like that. … Double YTA for doing it next to a pregnant woman. However, if I were her, I would have left or called security to move you. Her and her baby’s health is more important than the concert.”
Others suggested simply walking away from the woman first before lighting up, so there’s no issue.
“I smoke weed and cigarettes and I honestly don’t care what the rules are, it’s about consent,” replied Temporary-Tie-233. “Secondhand smoke is harmful and noxious. The decent thing to do is walk away from everyone when you smoke anything. People who choose to expose themselves can follow.”
However, others took the side of the original poster.
“I’m going to be down voted but whatever,” semmama, who is pregnant, replied. “As a pregnant woman I know better than to go to a concert and expect people not to be blazing up on stuff. There hasn’t been a concert I’ve been to where that wasn’t a thing, even shitty music. She made the choice to go there. She could have moved somewhere else if she didn’t like it but where do you go at a concert that doesn’t have pot or worse? You were asked, you refused, that’s the end of it.” In other words, is it OK for a pregnant woman to attend a concert strongly associated with pot (think Phish)?
Others appeared to agree with semmama.
“NTA [Not the Asshole] I’m assuming it’s like a Phish/Grateful Dead sort of band. It’s basically a guarantee people will be smoking all around the venue so if the woman was concerned about smoke, she should not be going to that sort of show,” portalsoflight replied.
Others took a neutral stance and suggested consuming edibles or vaping in the parking lot beforehand. This, they say, is fairly easy and allows you to be stoned at the show without bothering anyone. That way—everyone’s happy.
“Take an edible, smoke before you come in, bring a vape and hit it outside if you must. So many options these days besides forcing someone else and their unborn fetus to inhale it too.”
A string of recent media reports has brought attention to a troubling development out of Alabama: for months, pregnant women in the state have been jailed for smoking cannabis.
Most of the coverage has centered around Ashley Banks, a 23-year-old Alabama woman who was arrested in late May “with a small amount of marijuana and a pistol without a permit to carry,” according to AL.com.
“Under normal circumstances, the 23-year-old from Gadsden would have been able to post bond and leave jail until her criminal trial,” the outlet reported. “But Banks admitted to smoking pot on the same day she found out she was pregnant – two days before her arrest. In Etowah County, that meant she couldn’t leave jail unless she entered drug rehab, leaving her in limbo for three months.”
According to The Washington Post, that is a result of a law in Etowah, where nearly all “pregnant or postpartum women who are charged with endangering their fetus via drugs have to remain in jail until they complete a drug-treatment program, without an assessment of whether that condition is appropriate for them.”
So, Banks languished in the county detention center for three months “while she endured severe vaginal bleeding and two emergency room visits that left her fearful for her high-risk pregnancy,” The Washington Post reported, adding that a “court-contracted substance abuse agency twice told her that she didn’t qualify for treatment because she wasn’t addicted to drugs, leaving her in limbo until a judge granted her release Aug. 25 on conditions that did not include drug treatment.”
Banks is apparently not the only one to be subject to such treatment.
The Guardian reports on another woman, Hali Burns, who “was taken to the Etowah county jail just six days after giving birth to her son, with police saying that she had tested positive for a drug used by pregnant women with opioid addictions to help manage cravings and withdrawal.”
“When she was thrown in jail, Burns was still physically recovering from giving birth. But the jail had no facilities for her to pump or tend to her wounds. Her partner tried to bring pads and underwear to her, so that she wouldn’t have to bleed into her clothes, but Etowah county authorities wouldn’t let her have them. The risk for infection was great – the indignity was even greater,” The Guardianreported.
The National Advocates for Pregnant Women, a legal nonprofit organization, describes Etowah County “ground zero of pregnancy criminalization,” according to The Washington Post, with more than 150 such cases in the past decade.
“The prosecution’s alleged justification for this is that this is needed to protect the women’s ‘unborn’ and born children,” said Emma Roth, a staff attorney at National Advocates for Pregnant Women, as quoted by The Washington Post. “When the reality is: This puts the health and well-being of these women at risk, and their pregnancies and their children at risk.”
According to The Guardian, the Supreme Court’s decision earlier this summer to overturn Roe v. Wade “didn’t create this state of affairs, but it’s likely to worsen it.”
“The policy in place in Etowah county and elsewhere reveals the warped logic and hateful absurdities of the anti-choice worldview,” the outlet said. “The movement claims to see embryos and fetuses as persons, and in practice they speak as if these “persons” are not women’s equals, but their superiors: the fetus is conceived of as more important than the woman, more worthy, less tainted by those things that make a pregnant woman so unappealing – her femaleness, her sexuality, her tendency to have human desires and human struggles, like irritation or addiction or anger. In the service of protecting and advancing this superior being of the fetus, the anti-choice movement claims, it is justifiable, even necessary, to steal the freedom of those lesser women.”
An Arizona mother recently won a Court of Appeals case that determined she was not guilty of child neglect because she consumed medical cannabis to treat extreme morning sickness, and her child tested positive for cannabis shortly after being born.
The Arizona Court of Appeals judges ruled that it is not neglect if a mother gives birth to a child that has cannabis in its system, as long as she has permission from a doctor to use it as a medical treatment under the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act (AMMA).
The case, Lindsay Ridgell v. Arizona Department of Child Safety, involved mother and medical cannabis card holder Lindsay Ridgell, whose child was born in May 2019. Due to the presence of cannabis in her child’s system, the hospital notified the Department of Child Safety and she was placed on the Central Registry. Her child wasn’t taken from her, but her name would remain on the Central Registry for 25 years, which could possibly interfere with getting a job. According to Yahoo! News, there are over 81,000 names on the Central Registry, as of 2018 (the most recent data currently available).
Three judges, Judge Randall M. Howe, Brian Y. Furuya and Michael J. Brown, ruled on March 31. “The Director [of the Department of Child Serves] erred in placing Ridgell on the Central Registry. A person may be placed on the Central Registry if her newborn infant has been exposed to certain drugs, including marijuana, but only if that exposure did not result from medical treatment administered by a health professional,” Judge Howe wrote in his opinion.
“The evidence shows that Ridgell was certified under AMMA to use marijuana medically to treat chronic nausea. The doctor who certified Ridgell’s eligibility for using medical marijuana knew that she was pregnant. Because the use of marijuana under AMMA ‘must be considered the equivalent of the use of any other medication under the direction of a physician,’ A.R.S. § 36-2813(C), the exposure of Ridgell’s infant to marijuana resulted from medical treatment and did not constitute neglect under A.R.S. § 8-201(25)(c).”
Ridgell’s legal representation, Julie Gunnigle, worked pro bono on her case. “It basically says Lindsay was right all along,” Gunnigle said.
After numerous years have passed, Ridgell told the Phoenix New Times that she was relieved that the judges ruled in support of her case. “I feel so happy. A weight has lifted from my shoulders and I feel free,” Ridgell said. “This means a lot to myself and my family. I can finally go back into social work and hopefully earn a higher wage than I have been the past couple years, as well as find more fulfillment in work. I miss helping people, especially kids.”
Ridgell received a medical cannabis card 10 years ago to help treat irritable bowel syndrome. In 2018, when she confirmed she was pregnant, she was diagnosed with hyperemesis gravidarum, otherwise known as extreme morning sickness. The condition led her to return to the emergency room numerous times in order to seek treatment.
The court’s “facts and procedural history” notes that her child stopped breathing and needed to be resuscitated after birth. After nurses witnessed the baby’s “jitteriness,” he was transferred to the Phoenix Children’s Hospital for further evaluation. “The hospital performed a drug test, which was positive for marijuana, Buspar, caffeine, and Benadryl, and [they] diagnosed him with intrauterine addictive drug exposure,” the case record states.
Ridgell’s case garnered support from the National Advocates for Pregnant Women, the Academy of Perinatal Harm Reduction, and comedian Amy Schumer among many other doctors and advocates. Schumer in particular also suffered from hyperemesis gravidarum, the symptoms of which are seen in an HBO Max series called Expecting Amy.
Some pregnant and breastfeeding women aren’t listening. Despite health professionals’ warnings, the number of pregnant women using cannabis at least once a month doubled over the last decade to seven percent of women surveyed, according to one recent study. Though this upwards trend is partially a result of healthcare professionals’ reluctance to talk about weed with their patients, researchers from Washington State University’s College of Nursing identified another culprit: budtenders.
In interviews with ten healthcare professionals, the researchers noted universal opposition to using cannabis while pregnant or breastfeeding—the same advice given about drinking alcohol or smoking tobacco, though the issue isn’t as black-and-white as one would think. But when the researchers asked ten people who worked the sales counter at the local dispensary, they discovered “much more positive” attitudes around cannabis. In fact, a cannabis study revealed states where marijuana is legal had a higher birth rate when compared to other states.
PHOTO Lightfield Studios
Though the budtenders tended to recommend products lower in THC and identified (correctly) that tobacco and alcohol were much more harmful than weed, this was still problematic. According to one budtender, most advice given at the dispensary counter amounted to anecdotal and unverified “stoner science” or quickly Googled tidbits. One takeaway, as the researchers wrote in a recent study published in The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, is that America needs better budtenders.
Workers at the counter ought to trained “on cannabis products” and “how to best serve perinatal customers” before dispensing medical advice, they said.
For an understanding of why they aren’t—and why, under current circumstances, this is a reasonable expectation—you could take a quick trip to Denver, where Andrew Mieure broke into the cannabis industry as a budtender during Colorado’s medical-cannabis era.
Better off flipping burgers than selling buds
Driving around the city during a visit in early 2020, Mieure noticed a sign outside a fast-food shop looking for workers: Now Hiring, $15 an hour, the sign said. He then compared that to job listings for budtender positions. The average pay for an entry-level counter worker at a cannabis dispensary was $13 to $14 an hour, he recalled.
“You can literally flip burgers for better pay than selling an intoxicating drug that’s still federally illegal,” said Mieure, who became co-founder of Top Shelf Budtending, an organization that curates sommelier-level cannabis experiences, but is still incredulous at the memory.
For Mieure, complaints about budtending boil down to the simple cruelty of cold economic logic. “I believe that when you’re not paid properly, you’re only going to do the work you’re paid for,” he said. And neither increased demand for cannabis during the COVID-19 pandemic nor budtenders’ classification as “essential workers” has done anything to change this disparity.
Though advanced certification and worker training courses do exist, there’s little economic incentive, since the skills learned during a weeklong, $3,000 intensive training course don’t translate into higher hourly wages. At some high-volume dispensaries with strict sales quotas, answering questions from a curious patron may actually be discouraged in favor of quickly ringing up a sale and moving onto the next customer.
Low pay coupled with a lack of health and retirement benefits—one former dispensary worker recalls being offered “medical weed” when she inquired about her employers’ healthcare plan—ensures worker turnover is high. Thus, experienced workers—and knowledgeable budtenders—are a rarity. And so, after a cordial greeting and a recitation of whatever’s on sale or on special, comes the same warmed-over “stoner science” passing for medical advice, followed by critiques from researchers complaining that budtenders are contributing to the delinquency of pregnant women.
PHOTO Gracie Malley for Cannabis Now
How to break this troubling cycle? A good start would be better-paid budtenders and a re-evaluation of the role of the counter help at dispensaries, which today is understood as little more sophisticated than a mere retail clerk. But demanding medical advice from an underpaid retail clerk may require an evolution in the dispensary model itself. Instead of convenience stores, liquor stores or even Apple stores, dispensaries should act more like lounges or clinics. And that will require a reevaluation of the entire dispensary retail model, starting with government regulations.
Budtender, reimagined
Budtender jobs pay poorly in part because—like driving for Uber or Lyft or waiting tables at the local Applebee’s—it’s a job almost anyone can get. Still viewed as a “cool” job, dispensaries report being flooded with applications for every opening. In this market—and in a tough environment where every dispensary owner is trying to find efficiencies wherever possible—dispensaries can afford to skimp on the labor (or so they believe).
Few states require much in the way of qualifications (aside from, counterintuitively, a criminal record free of certain drug-related crimes). Just 56 percent of budtenders surveyed during a 2016 review received training of any kind before taking the job. What training there is doesn’t have to meet any “vetted or certified” standards,” said Mieure, who observed that other job sectors are held to much higher standards that the supposedly tightly regulated cannabis industry.
“I always like to say that the people who do your nails or your hair go through more training,” he said, when budtenders are far “beyond retail. We’re part pharmacist, part psychologist, in some cases.”
A state-certified minimum training course might help. So would worker rights won by labor unions, which have notched wins against employers who have tried to walk back certain basic rights. But so would a re-imagining of the dispensary experience. Instead of a five-minute “in-and-out,” what if a dispensary was a social gathering space—what if, instead of like a corner liquor store, it operated more like a bar?
Some cannabis aficionados bristle at comparisons to the alcohol industry. After all, Colorado legalized cannabis in 2012 on the strength of an advertising campaign that juxtaposed cannabis as a safer alternative. But with its tasting notes hinging on the finer points of climate and terroir, high-end cannabis begs comparisons to nothing more so much as fine wine.
That said, it’s wishful thinking to expect a sommelier to appear at your corner liquor store to help you choose between a jug of Gallo or a box of Franzia. However, the time and space for a discriminating selection and an in-depth conversation is a perfect fit for dispensaries that are social-consumption lounges—a concept seen during the medical-cannabis era that hasn’t quite transitioned to adult-use. “I think we’re going to see the specialty budtender come into play with consumption lounges,” Mieure predicted. Fair pay for a position like that could command as much as $55,000 a year, with management scraping the six-figure mark. And in an industry supposedly worth tens of billions, why not? The cost of not doing so, as the Washington State researchers found, is bad advice that carries an even steeper bill.
Research from three Ontario universities sheds new light on the risks associated with cannabis use during pregnancy, finding the psychoactive component of the drug restricts oxygen and nutrients from crossing through the placenta. The study from researchers at Queen’s, Western and McMaster universities, published in the journal Scientific Reports on Friday, found exposure to low […]
If cannabis gets you in the mood, you’re not alone — science says so. A study whose findings were recently released by the University of Connecticut and Georgia State University found that in states where medical marijuana was legalized, the rate of sexual activity went up.
The study’s co-author, University of Connecticut assistant professor David Simon, told Yahoo News that he wasn’t ready to comment on whether this finding was a good or bad thing but, “Regardless, we believe it should be something society/policy makers consider as part of the conversation on legalization.”
But wait, there’s more! In those same states with medical cannabis regulation, there was an uptick in birth rates by a mean of two percent, and a drop in the use of contraceptives while having sex.
Also — attention, please! — medical marijuana legalization may be associated with a year one uptick in a state’s gonorrhea rates.
Does Legal Bud Lead to Babies?
The states that were studied had regulated medicinal cannabis between 2005 and 2014, and the study specifically analyzed the sexual and reproductive behavior of people in their 20s and 30s.
The increase in babies being born was enough to counteract what has sometimes been identified as a negative correlation between cannabis usage and the ability for couples to get pregnant and have a healthy neonatal period.
The study’s co-author, University of Connecticut assistant professor David Simon, told Yahoo News that the surge in baby-making could be due to weed’s positive effects on people’s lives. The academic said that cannabis “treats chronic pain, improves life satisfaction, and decreases opioid abuse, it could result in heightened libidos/improved sex life.”
These findings would point to cannabis influencing birth rates positively through behavioral effects. But the jury is still out on whether biologically, marijuana has a positive or negative impact on fertility. Some studies have suggested that using marijuana causes a drop in sperm count (though some have indicated the reverse) and can be a hurdle for couples that are already experiencing challenges with being able to have a baby. Some investigations have concluded that cannabis can make it difficult for people with uteruses to produce certain hormones that aid in the baby-making process. Others have found that CBD can be helpful to pregnant people.
Lack of scientific consensus aside, the US government has decided where it stands, at least when it comes to pregnant people. Last August, Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams cautioned those with a bun in the oven to avoid using cannabis at a press conference. Joining him was Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex M. Azar II, who told reporters, “This is a dangerous drug. No amount of marijuana use during pregnancy or adolescence is safe.”
But Simon has a slightly different take on cannabis and your reproductive health, particularly when it comes to recent market innovations in the area of marijuana-based lubricants and other sexual aids. “With the liberalization of marijuana laws there has been an increase in cannabis-based products designed to improve sexual wellness, including products that help remove anxiety or pain associated with sex,” he commented.
If cannabis gets you in the mood, you’re not alone — science says so. A study whose findings were recently released by the University of Connecticut and Georgia State University found that in states where medical marijuana was legalized, the rate of sexual activity went up.
The study’s co-author, University of Connecticut assistant professor David Simon, told Yahoo News that he wasn’t ready to comment on whether this finding was a good or bad thing but, “Regardless, we believe it should be something society/policy makers consider as part of the conversation on legalization.”
But wait, there’s more! In those same states with medical cannabis regulation, there was an uptick in birth rates by a mean of two percent, and a drop in the use of contraceptives while having sex.
Also — attention, please! — medical marijuana legalization may be associated with a year one uptick in a state’s gonorrhea rates.
Does Legal Bud Lead to Babies?
The states that were studied had regulated medicinal cannabis between 2005 and 2014, and the study specifically analyzed the sexual and reproductive behavior of people in their 20s and 30s.
The increase in babies being born was enough to counteract what has sometimes been identified as a negative correlation between cannabis usage and the ability for couples to get pregnant and have a healthy neonatal period.
The study’s co-author, University of Connecticut assistant professor David Simon, told Yahoo News that the surge in baby-making could be due to weed’s positive effects on people’s lives. The academic said that cannabis “treats chronic pain, improves life satisfaction, and decreases opioid abuse, it could result in heightened libidos/improved sex life.”
These findings would point to cannabis influencing birth rates positively through behavioral effects. But the jury is still out on whether biologically, marijuana has a positive or negative impact on fertility. Some studies have suggested that using marijuana causes a drop in sperm count (though some have indicated the reverse) and can be a hurdle for couples that are already experiencing challenges with being able to have a baby. Some investigations have concluded that cannabis can make it difficult for people with uteruses to produce certain hormones that aid in the baby-making process. Others have found that CBD can be helpful to pregnant people.
Lack of scientific consensus aside, the US government has decided where it stands, at least when it comes to pregnant people. Last August, Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams cautioned those with a bun in the oven to avoid using cannabis at a press conference. Joining him was Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex M. Azar II, who told reporters, “This is a dangerous drug. No amount of marijuana use during pregnancy or adolescence is safe.”
But Simon has a slightly different take on cannabis and your reproductive health, particularly when it comes to recent market innovations in the area of marijuana-based lubricants and other sexual aids. “With the liberalization of marijuana laws there has been an increase in cannabis-based products designed to improve sexual wellness, including products that help remove anxiety or pain associated with sex,” he commented.
Legal weed has been available in Colorado for years, but the law will add a new component in 2020.
Starting January 1, cannabis stores in the state will be required to post warning signs urging caution to pregnant customers about the risks of marijuana to newborns.
The law is a sign of weed’s ubiquity; what was once a taboo in a number circles is now an everyday routine for many, including those who are with child. Weed has long been considered as verboten to children as other drugs, including alcohol. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends that doctors should encourage pregnant women to discontinue marijuana use. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says plainly: “No amount of marijuana has been proven safe to use during pregnancy or while breastfeeding.”
But the prevalence and changing attitudes toward marijuana has prompted some to wonder if that is indeed the case.
Researchers at the University of Denver are trying to bring clarity to that question. The school announced in October that Pilyoung Kim, a psychology professor at the University of Denver, is leading a team that is studying the effects of cannabis on pregnant mothers and their babies.
Kim said she was inspired to get to the bottom of the matter when she was working on a separate research project on poverty and pregnancy. While working on that study, Kim was confronted with a recurring question: “It’s OK to use cannabis while you’re pregnant, right?”
“We were baffled about what to say to these women,” Kim said in a press release. “There is a limited understanding of the effect of cannabis use on themselves and their babies if they are exposed to cannabis inside the womb.”
Some cannabis shops in Colorado have hailed pot as a useful remedy for pregnant women. A study last year on recommendations given to pregnant women at dispensaries in Colorado, one of the first states to legalize recreational pot, found that 69 percent offered the products as a remedy for morning sickness, and that 36 percent said marijuana is safe to use during pregnancy.
In order to help the nearly 800 Colorado businesses comply with the new law ahead of January 1, the nonprofit Smart Colorado has sent out warning signs to all of the stores throughout the state.
“We determined that the state was not providing signage to help Colorado’s marijuana businesses comply with the new law requiring the warning signs so we took the initiative to mail out signs at no cost to the dispensaries,” said Henny Lasley, executive director of Smart Colorado, as quoted by news station KKCO. “It’s important that these fact-based warning messages be prominently placed to counter widespread misinformation that puts the littlest Coloradans at risk.”
