Smoking Pot While Pregnant is a No-No
Mom, Don’t Think Smoking Pot When Pregnant is Harmless for your Child
In a new article in Science, Jasmine Hurd reports on a large sample of mothers who smoked pot while pregnant. Their offspring were more anxious, hyperactive, and aggressive and had higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol in their hair at ages 3-6.
When Superstorm Sandy hit, mothers who were stressed and smoked pot while pregnant had children 31 times more like to have oppositional defiant disorder and 7 times more likely to have an anxiety disorder. Stress may interact negatively with the effects of pot.
In fetuses aborted after being exposed to pot while in utero had decreased dopamine receptors in the their amygdala and n. accumbens, a reward center in brain. In animal studies, pregnant mother rodents who were exposed to THC had offspring more likely to use heroin.
DADS’ BEHAVIOR COUNTS TOO. Dad’s exposure to THC as an adult also led to offspring who preferred opiates. This was based on epigenetic changes passed on in the sperm. To the extent that this also happens in humans, one could ask how much of the current opiate epidemic is based on parental use of marijuana. Mom’s and dad’s smoking pot could make their offspring more vulnerable to opiate addiction.
