A new to-be-conducted study is already being slammed on social media. This research by the University of Washington wants to see the effects that marijuana use has on pregnant moms. Does using weed help alleviate symptoms of morning sickness or is it not safe?
However, this Moms + Marijuana study is being criticized because it is offering money to expecting mothers for using the drug. People think that putting pregnant women under such risk despite it being known that pot use can cause psychotic symptoms in the babies that are born to marijuana using mothers is irresponsible.
The study wants to analyze the impact of prenatal use of marijuana on the development of the child for which investigators are looking for women willing to get urine drug tests done and answer questionnaires. The infants brain MRI scans will also be taken, and a psychologist would give feedback to the participating mothers regularly.
Visits to the lab are required to be made during the entire pregnancy as well as till 6 months after the baby is born. In exchange, participants are being offer $300 on the completion of the study. Twitterverse is against this and thinks that the study is going against the safety of these unborn babies.
However, the official webpage of the study says that “All study procedures are approved for confidentiality and safety by the National Institutes of Health and by the University of Washington Human Subjects Division.”
This study aims to study the sole effect of marijuana use as it says that most other researches have been done on pregnant women who are addicted to marijuana or use other drugs such as alcohol as well in addition to marijuana.
Therefore, marijuana use will be looked at exclusively in mothers who abstain from using other drugs. One twitter member also subtly added that the study was not going to make women who don’t normally use marijuana take the drug. In fact, it was looking for women who already used marijuana and plan to use it in their pregnant months as well.
So, if you’re doing it anyway, better get paid for it, no? While cannabis has shown to have several benefits such as it decreases pain, and has therapeutic benefits, it also contains THC which is a psychoactive compound that causes addiction and makes one high.
One woman participating in the Twitter debate also pointed out that endocannabinoids were necessary for brain development and THC could interfere in the process which is why using cannabis during pregnancy is a big non-no.
Some are also saying that by paying pregnant women to participate and use marijuana, researchers are encouraging marijuana use. One man chipped in that this move of the scientists was unethical, if nothing else. Some also noted that the use of marijuana was not dangerous for babies’ brain. What’s your take on the matter?
