Dr. Sanjay Gupta Says Medical Cannabis Is on the Rise for Women: Associated with All Kinds of Harms, Low Birth Weight, Preeclampsia

RUSH EXCERPT:
GUPTA: "Well. Let me just preface before I answer this question by saying, I think this was perhaps the most surprising, even shocking part of our investigation. The idea that women would be using cannabis, marijuana while pregnant or breastfeeding. But, you know, looking at these studies, I mean, it can be pretty significant anywhere between 7 to 20% in some studies of women who are doing this. And there‘s obviously concerns, a couple of big headlines, cannabis does cross the placenta. It does cross placenta. That was a big question. Studies have confirmed that cannabis does get concentrated in breast milk. So the dose in breast milk can even be higher than the dose in the bloodstream. And it‘s associated with all kinds of harms. I mean, preterm labor, low birth weight, preeclampsia. These studies are hard to do. Admittedly, people aren‘t forthright about their cannabis use. Oftentimes they are. They are co-mingling this with other substances alcohol, tobacco. So it can be tough to figure out what exactly is causing what. But this is happening out there. Typically, it‘s a woman who was using cannabis before they got pregnant, maybe for a specific reason, like depression or anxiety. And they continue using it. So this was surprising, if not shocking."