Up until now, there have been have been no comprehensive studies covering marijuana’s effect on pregnancies. The studies that have included marijuana also included more destructive drugs like meth and heroin.
Pregnant women have to be very careful about what they consume as everything they consume have magnified effects on their unborn children.
It’s a taboo subject that begs study as marijuana gains recognition as a legitimate medicine.
It is understandably hard to find participants in the West. The studies that have been published did not isolate the effects of weed, including it with dangerous drugs like alcohol and meth.
As a result they reported birth defects. Melanie Dreher was chosen to lead a study in Jamaica, where the attitude towards weed is more positive and accepted. In Jamaica she studied forty four infants, twenty of which were exposed to marijuana prenatally.
The study was conducted in the 60’s. The children were monitored until they were five years old. The were no reported negative effects, if anything the children thrived.
Pregnant women would smoke to help combat nausea, keep their appetites steady and help them rest more deeply.
The funding for her research was cut when no negative results were reported. She was prompted by the National Institute on Drug Abuse to highlight any negative effects.
While foreign universities and institutes have found nothing negative to report on weed’s effects effects on infants, our government still propagates marijuana’s negative image.
No study conducted thus far have demonstrated any harmful effects of marijuana on the mothers or their children.
