Cannabis use risks unborn babies' health: study

Australian Broadcasting Corporation ^ | 6 July 2006

[Aussie Dasher]

A new study has found that cannabis use by pregnant women has a significant negative effect on their babies' health.

The study was carried out by the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre.

In what it describes as the largest study of its kind, the research centre analysed more than 400,000 live births over a five-year period, studying the effects of cannabis, opiods and stimulants, on the developing foetus.

Dr Lucy Burns says it showed that cannabis smoking had a major effect.

"Cannabis use seemed to have quite a significant impact on the baby in terms of the baby's weight being lower and born more often prematurely," she said.

Dr Burns says it places those babies at a disadvantage.

"The research suggests that if babies are born early and underweight it is an indicator for long-term negative outcomes, so they are significant indicators of someone who could well have problems later in life," she said.

She says they were also more likely to have to be admitted to neonatal intensive care units.

Dr Burns says while any drug use during pregnancy can be harmful to the unborn child, the effect of cannabis smoking has previously been down-played.

"I guess it's a little surprising in that we found cannabis use seemed to have quite a significant impact on the baby," she said.

Dr Burns says those women who took illicit drugs during pregnancy were also heavy smokers.

[Aussie Dasher]

So much for this so-called "harmless, recreational" drug!

[thoughtomator]

You ever see what alcohol can do to a fetus?

[Mike Bates]

"I guess it's a little surprising in that we found cannabis use seemed to have quite a significant impact on the baby," she said.

I am shocked.

[Aussie Dasher]

I know what abortion does too, but not many seem to care about that!

[thoughtomator]

Roller coasters are also inadvisable, as are stab wounds to the stomach.

[RobRoy]

That was an amazing article. I honestly expected to find damning evidence, but I kept catching myself saying, where's the beef. Then I was at the end and even the "heavy smoker" line was added, to further downplay the "non-news" here. There was no beef - only a few bacon bits.

Not that cannabis is completely harmless, but what I gleaned from this article is that if I am about to be concieved and have a choice of one of four women to carry me to term and one was a chain smoker, another an alcoholic, another a pothead and another did none of them at all, my order of choice would be as follows:

1 "Clean" mom
2. Pot smoker
3. Chain smoker
4. Alcoholic.

What is interesting is that number 2 is illegal and numbers three and four are legal. Amazing...

Although it is clear that dope is not completely benign, if this is all they could come up with, I am not seeing much here. Most of the negative statements were just anecdotal remarks. The "facts" were weak

[RobRoy]

>>Dr Burns says while any drug use during pregnancy can be harmful to the unborn child, the effect of cannabis smoking has previously been down-played. <<

This article does a very good job of downplaying it further. Unless I am missing something here, the only negatives they found was the possibility of premature and lower birthrate but, even then, gave no statistics. Was it a 1% chance, a 90% chance? Who knows.

This article is the type of stuff I read in the 1970's. It is just poor. It is also sad because I simply cannot believe that grass is really that benign.

[RobRoy]

Oops. Birthrate=birth weight.

Well, at least it rhymed with birth weight.

[Ouderkirk]