Page 33 - Spring 2019 Journal

CNCP.”57
Dr. Ken Finn, a pain medicine expert in
Colorado, has stated, “The public has embraced that marijuana can treat all pain conditions and state governments have followed suit, without scientific evidence, and have allowed an indus- try to prosper on the thin ice of what is currently and scientifically available.”58 Dr. Finn sees many new patients who come to him already
using high doses of opiates plus marijuana. He explains, “In most cases, the patients admit cannabis does nothing for the pain.” Because opioids and cannabinoids have synergistic effects, Finn counsels his patients that it is dangerous to use them together. A 2018 Australian study published in Lancet Public Health found that most patients using opioids who added cannabis were unsuccessful in reducing pain or weaning off opioids.59
CANNABIS AND CANCER
Does cannabis use protect against cancer, or does it cause cancer?
DON’T FEED YOUR BABIES PSYCHOACTIVE DRUGS
PREGNANCY
The use of marijuana during pregnancy is contraindicated, and leading health institutions point to a sizeable body of
scientific evidence to substantiate such warnings for both mother and child. Unfortunately, many unsuspecting women hear that marijuana is a more “natural” way to deal with the normal symptoms of pregnancy. Marijuana-toking mommies are found in chat groups describing their use of marijuana for morning sickness as preferable to using pharmaceutical drugs. But are there better options? Maureen Diaz, a Weston A. Price Foundation (WAPF) nutrition activist who has given birth nine times, explains how WAPF recommends handling morning sickness: “Lots of high-quality protein, such as grass-fed meat, raw milk and juice from fermented foods and sauerkraut.”
Because THC passes through the placenta into the child, it can interfere with brain development and set a child up for addiction later in life. A study of maternity ward data from thirty-eight states found that over thirty thousand newborns had extended neonatal hospital stays related to maternal substance use in 2012.83 Most of the babies were going through drug withdrawal.
Proponents of marijuana for morning sickness often cite a Jamaican ethnographic study,84 but the study has been refuted by a blogger who is staunchly against any drugs during pregnancy.85 According to the blogger, the Jamaican study was flawed because the researchers did not follow the children long enough; recognizing the cognitive damage done to “marijuana babies” requires observing children in the early primary grades. The blogger goes on to outline her reasons why not to be a “stoner with child.”
BREASTFEEDING
A mother’s milk is naturally high in fat, and this fat is critical for the baby’s brain development. Out of concern for
avoiding contamination of breast milk with THC, hospitals counsel women not to smoke pot while breastfeeding. Since THC is fat-soluble, it accumulates in the breast milk (and organs of the body) and is slow to exit, interfering with brain development.86
BIRTHWEIGHT
Like alcohol and tobacco, marijuana can increase the risk of adverse pregnancy and birth outcomes.87 Marijuana-
smoking mothers are 77 percent more likely to have an underweight baby.88 Low birthweight can compromise babies’ ability to breastfeed by affecting their ability to suckle and is a significant risk factor for infant mortality. Low birthweight also can have longer-term health consequences. The Aboriginal Cohort Study, a decades-long research project that is monitoring the health of Aborigines who were born low-birthweight, has noted the disproportionate emergence of chronic diseases such as diabetes and obesity in the participants by their mid-to-late twenties.89 British researchers likewise have found that chronic health problems later in life (as well as premature mortality) are associated with un- derweight at birth.90 Pam McColl, a Canadian doula and coauthor of Baby & Me Tobacco Free,91 has stated, “The other harms to children (as they grow) observed by scientific researchers are in these areas: brain maturity, cognitive abilities, executive functioning, short-term memory, verbal outcomes, attention problems, hyperactivity, impulsivity, abstract visual skills, visual reasoning, abstract reasoning, goal setting, planning.”
PARENTS-TO-BE
The best thing that female marijuana users who want to conceive can do is to stop using the drug, seeking profes-
sional help if needed. Prospective fathers also need to consider the risks of marijuana use to their future offspring. The government of Canada says that men who wish to start a family should not use marijuana for any purpose, citing increased risks of testicular cancer and abnormal sperm morphology as well as other reproductive problems.92 Damage to sperm can result in possible birth defects and an increased risk of childhood cancer.
SPRING 2019
Wise Traditions 31