Pregnant women are consuming more and more marijuana: report

Pregnant women are consuming more and more marijuana, especially in the first quarter, as alcohol and smoking rates drop, according to a study released Monday.

About 5% of women aged 18 to 44 used marijuana during their pregnancy in 2016, compared to 2.85% in 2002. The latest figures come from an analysis conducted by Arpana Agrawal, a researcher at the Faculty of Medicine. Medicine of the University of Washington.

The findings were published as a research letter in the Journal of the American Medical Association Pediatrics and are based on federal data from the National Survey of Drug Use and Health.

"Unlike alcohol and cigarettes, prenatal cannabis use has not decreased, especially during the first trimester of pregnancy, which is a key phase in the neural development of the fetus," wrote Agrawal in her report. .

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warns that marijuana use during pregnancy can result in low birth weight for the baby and anemia for the mother. The agency also highlights research showing that children born to women who have used marijuana have more difficulty in paying attention and learning with difficulty.

Ms. Agrawal analyzed responses to more than 12,000 pregnant women, most of whom reported having used alcohol and drugs during the first trimester.

Of these, the use of cigarettes rose from 17.5% in 2002 to 10.34% in 2016. Similarly, consumption of alcohol during pregnancy decreased by 9.59% at 8.43%.

Ms. Agrawal noted that the decrease in alcohol consumption during pregnancy was mainly among women aged 18 to 25 years. The reduction in cigarette use was more common among white women, those aged 18 to 25 and those with a high school diploma or higher.

On the other hand, women who used marijuana during pregnancy were more likely to have graduated from high school.

Medical marijuana is available in 30 states and the District of Columbia, and recreational sale and use is permitted in nine states and the District.

The growing number of states legalizing marijuana has resulted in a shift in perception and increased use, according to a survey published in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology in January.

Marijuana use among adults is more common in states where cannabis is legal and more and more people, especially young people, consider the drug safe, the report said.

However, the main motivations of pregnant women are unclear.

The January report did not reveal any noticeable change in marijuana use among pregnant women in states where cannabis was legal compared to those where it was not legal.

In August, the Kaiser Permanente medical group published a study of more than 220,000 pregnant women in California and found that those who used marijuana reported self-treating with severe symptoms of nausea and vomiting.

"Our findings add important evidence to a small but growing body of research suggesting that some pregnant women might use marijuana to self-heal in the morning," said Kelly Young, lead author of the study, in a statement.

Despite warnings from the CDC, researchers are skeptical about long-term data reliability. The American Academy of Pediatrics said in a policy paper published in August that cannabis use during pregnancy was more likely to occur alongside illicit drug use and smoking, which did not allow scientists to draw conclusions independent on the marijuana association on health.

Nevertheless, the academy recommends to be cautious and indicates that a number of factors support the recommendation against the use of marijuana during pregnancy.

This includes the growing power of cannabis products and its unknown effects. The potency of marijuana rose by 10 percentage points between 1983 and 2008, according to the August report, especially in states where marijuana is legal.

Little control in the cultivation and production of marijuana exposes the user to the ingestion of pesticides, herbicides, rodenticides, fertilizers and other toxins, and the mother could pass them on to the newborn, warned the # 39, pediatric academy.

"The fact that marijuana is legal in many states may give the impression that the drug is harmless during pregnancy, especially when there is information on social media about its use for nausea with morning sickness," he said. Dr. Sheryl A. Ryan, senior author of the Academy's recommendation, said at the time.

"But in fact, it's still a big question. We do not have good safety data on prenatal exposure to marijuana. On the basis of the limited data that exists, as pediatricians, we believe that there is cause for concern about how the drug will affect the long-term development of children. "