Will pot hurt a fetus

Answer 1

According to a report from the Psychology Department of the University of Massachusetts Boston, "It is important to keep in mind that scientific data on the consequences of prenatal marijuana exposure is sparse and findings are subtle. The extent of marijuana use among pregnant and non-pregnant women of child-bearing age stresses the need for collecting data from well-controlled large sample studies." There is a developing body of research on prenatal marijuana exposure, almost all of which shows some negative effects on intellectual functions. The cogent question appears to be not whether this exposure affects unborn babies, but how serious the effects are. The US National Institutes of Health report a research series at the Carleton University Department of Psychology in Ontario indicating that prenatal cigarette exposure relates to lowered IQ and cognitive skills, while prenatal marijuana exposure seems more related to attention span issues. There was a Jamaican study that says that marijuana will not hurt a fetus , but the sample size was very small. On the other hand, researchers at the University of Pittsburg Medical Center, studying the performance of 648 six-year-olds on standarized intelligence tests, concluded that "prenatal marijuana exposure has a significant effect on school-age intellectual development". But in any case, it is hardly reasonable that one should inhale deeply from any smoke source into the lungs and expect positive health results; or that one should ingest any psychotropic drug and expect it not to affect the nervous system of a fetus who is sharing your blood supply.