Pubdate: Fri, 26 Sep 2014
Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
Copyright: 2014 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.utsandiego.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/386
Note: Seldom prints LTEs from outside it's circulation area.
Author: David Murray
Note: Murray is a former White House chief scientist and currently a 
senior fellow at the Center for Substance Abuse Policy at Hudson 
Institute in Washington, D.C.

WHY PREGNANCY AND POT DON'T MIX

The fall of the Roman Empire is the subject of much debate, and 
includes attention to the possible role of their aqueducts, lined 
with lead. More likely, the decline was the result of lead poisoning 
caused by the consumption of grape juice boiled in lead cooking pots. 
The aristocracy of Rome consumed as much as two liters of wine a day 
- - almost three bottles - adding alcoholism to the risk of lead poisoning.

Lead poisoning has an impact on intelligence, even at concentrations 
as low as 10 micrograms per deciliter. In the New England Journal of 
Medicine on April 17, 2003, Richard L. Canfield writes that children 
between the ages of 3 and 5 suffer a decline of 7.4 IQ points from 
environmental lead exposure.

That figure represents a substantial loss of intellectual capacity. 
There is no effective treatment for children so exposed. One can be 
grateful for a dedicated public health campaign to mitigate this 
powerful yet avoidable toxin in the lives of children.

That said, no one is advocating that pregnant woman splash lead-based 
paint in their nursery. Unlike another substance that also holds high 
risk during the prenatal period. Incredibly, it is a substance that 
for pregnant women is more than permitted, it is encouraged by some advocates.

That substance is marijuana. In the life of the developing 
adolescent, heavy marijuana exposure is associated with brain 
abnormalities, emotional disruption, memory decline, and yes, loss of 
IQ; a decline of an estimated 8 points into adulthood, according to 
research by M. Meier in the Proceedings of the National Academy of 
Sciences in October, 2012. But what of prenatal exposure, from 
maternal marijuana use?

The website Cannabis Culture provides an answer in a 1998 article. 
The opening graphic is of a dreamy, topless woman who is in the 
late-term of her pregnancy. She is curled around a hookah.

Under advice from a "Dr. Kate," she is told that smoking marijuana 
while pregnant is not only safe, but that "cannabis can be a special 
friend to pregnant women in times of need." It is said to mellow out 
those periods of morning sickness and to reduce anxiety.

The potential impact of such misinformation is widespread. According 
to the 2012 National Survey of Drug Use and Health, the rate of 
illicit drug use in 2012 was 18.3 percent among pregnant women aged 
15 to 17. The drug being used is overwhelmingly marijuana.

An article by L. Goldschmidt in Neurotoxical Teratology in April/May 
2000 concluded "Prenatal marijuana use was significantly related to 
increased hyperactivity, impulsivity and inattention syndrome (as 
well as) increased delinquency." The marijuana used by pregnant women 
in this study would almost certainly be seen today as low-potency.

Recent research is even more specific concerning the damage. For 
instance, Xinyu Wang published on Dec. 15, 2004 in Biological 
Psychiatry results from examination of fetal brains. It noted, 
"Marijuana is the illicit drug most used by pregnant women, and 
behavioral and cognitive impairments have been documented in 
cannabis-exposed offspring."

Their results showed "specific alterations of gene expression in 
distinct neuronal populations of the fetal brain as a consequence of 
maternal cannabis use." The reduction was correlated with the amount 
of maternal marijuana intake during pregnancy, and particularly 
affected male fetuses.

The THC "readily crosses the placenta and can thus affect the fetus," 
while "longitudinal human studies have shown motor, social, and 
cognitive disturbances in offspring who were exposed to cannabis 
prenatally." Finally, "school children exposed in utero to marijuana 
were also weak in planning, integration and judgment skills."

The authors also note "Depending on the community, 3 percent to 41 
percent of neonates born in North America are exposed in utero to marijuana."

Marijuana, the president has assured us in an interview with David 
Remnick (The New Yorker, Jan. 27, 2014), is "no more dangerous than 
alcohol." To which he could now add, "and for the newly born, only 
marginally more dangerous than lead." With this president, you take 
your assurances where you may.

In Colorado today, marijuana is treated as a legal recreational 
indulgence and is hawked as a medicine. Moreover, adolescent use of 
this substance, in the form of the new, highly potent industrial dope 
now being produced, is soaring. Included in that population of 
adolescent users are young females, some of whom are, or shortly will 
be, pregnant.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom