Yet more bad news for weed-as-wellness advocates: The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) has joined the long line of experts pointing out that marijuana has nothing to do with health and now recommends universal screening for use of the drug during the pre-pregnancy, pregnancy, and postpartum periods.
Why? Well, ACOG put it plainly in its release of its new clinical consensus on weed use during pregnancy:
Despite the fact that cannabis use in pregnancy has been associated with spontaneous preterm birth, low birth weight, NICU admissions, and postnatal neurocognitive and behavioral dysfunction, there is a misperception in the general public that cannabis is safe for use during pregnancy due to its increasing availability, legalization, and social acceptability.
In other words, Big Weed’s commercialization and legalization pushes and normalization campaigns are putting women and their babies at risk.
ACOG was also quite clear about an issue the marijuana industry has spent a huge amount of time and money trying to obfuscate. Namely, that when it comes to conditions like “anxiety, depression, insomnia, and chronic pain” as well as “pregnancy-related symptoms such as nausea and vomiting,”
[T]here is no medical indication for cannabis use during pregnancy and the postpartum period.
That’s as clear as can be. Remember: this is the considered opinion of an entire, well-credentialed, utterly non-partisan medical field. (Side note: If weed doesn’t help those conditions for pregnant women, seems unlikely it helps them for anyone else.)
This latest from ACOG is beyond welcome news. The idea that marijuana, be it smoked, vaped, or eaten, could ever somehow improve maternal health—to say nothing of prenatal and neonatal health—never made sense to anyone actually acquainted with any of the best science around the drug.
Given the worrying number of women who use weed while pregnant, it couldn’t have come at a better time.
And the recommendation about pre-pregnancy screening cuts to the heart of another major issue. Specifically, the recent blockbuster study showing the weed can cause serious negative effects on female fertility through its association with chromosomal abnormalities. Researchers in Canada and Israel found that exposure to THC drives a significant increase in embryos having the wrong number of chromosomes and also can mess with the genetic transcription process.
That’s on top of everything we know about the general harms of the drug: Its association with horrific cardiac outcomes, its connection to severe mental illness, endocrine system damage, and more.
So major kudos to ACOG for taking a stand on this issue and fighting to make sure that actual science—not industry advocacy—dominates the narrative around marijuana and its public health dangers.