Sharif Mohr, MPH, PhD

As marijuana use becomes increasingly normalized in the US, more and more pregnant women are choosing to use marijuana to the detriment of their unborn infants. Approximately 10% of infants are prenatally exposed to THC despite the well-documented hazards. Significant effects of prenatal cannabis exposure have been found on children’s sleep, cognitive functions (memory and scholastic skills), as well as on executive (frontal lobe) functions (reasoning, attention, impulsivity, and motivation), and affective (depression) and anxiety symptoms throughout the stages of development. In a recent article published in Medical Hypotheses, researchers have proposed a ‘fetal cannabis spectrum disorder’ based on data from numerous studies documenting the harms of prenatal marijuana exposure.

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