Buds and babies

Is there any consensus based on scientific data or professional opinion regarding the need for pregnant women to stop smoking cannabis? Also, how about just before becoming pregnant for both the future mother and father? While my first question refers to the health of the fetus, my second question refers to the condition of the egg and sperm.

—Sacto Mike

Consensus? Hah! We are talking about cannabis. There is no such thing as “consensus.” Everyone has an agenda. That being said, the studies that were done in the ’60s and ’70s showed that cannabis use was not harmful to fetuses. In fact, when Melanie Dreher studied Rastafarian women in Jamaica, she found that the babies of cannabis users were in better shape than the babies of nonusers of cannabis (http://cannabisclinicians.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Dreher-Pediatrics.pdf). Everyone knows that cannabis is great for nausea and emesis (fancy words for feeling like you are gonna vomit, and actually vomiting). As to the health of the egg and sperm, there seem to be no deleterious effects. For a while, cannabis use was thought to affect the motility of the spermatozoa (I am full of big words today. Must be all the coffee), but, and this is anecdotal, my dad sired five smart, healthy, awesome kids while puffing a yang of weed the whole time. My kids are also awesome, and my (now ex-) wife and I had no problem getting pregnant. I AM NOT A DOCTOR, so I am not giving out medical advice, but I would say that cannabis use during pregnancy is a personal decision, and counsel moderation in all things. Have fun trying!

I’ve always disagreed with the amount of cannabis one should be “allowed” to possess: No one has EVER proposed a set amount of alcohol you can buy at one time or possess. So, why should we propose any “limit” to the amount of cannabis one can buy and possess? Alcohol is a dangerous drug. And the more one drinks, the more dangerous it is. If there’s no limit to either purchase or consumption of that, and cannabis is infinitely safer, what’s the reasoning to limitations about cannabis? I think I know why: To make the ostensibly bitter pill easier to swallow for purposes of public and governmental acceptance, we’re soft-selling cannabis. Sure, it needs to be legalized everywhere, but conflating arcane American moralistic ethos with our demand for legalization is completely absurd. We don’t need to suck on the asshole of draconian fucks who promulgate outright hypocrisy, i.e. alcohol is “good” because it’s “legal” but cannabis is illegal because we say so, scientific evidence to the contrary. I know that you know this already but, really, this bullshit of soft-sell does us a disservice. I’d like to think that, by this point in time, we’d have the fortitude to tell it and sell it like it really is.

—LB

Strong words. You answered your own question. As it stands now, medical cannabis patients are allowed to possess up to 8 ounces. I feel like a half-pound of weed is a pretty good stash. No need to get the squares all riled up.