Recreational Drug Use > The Dangers and the Questions about Cannabis use by Pregnant Women

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Cannabis use sending more pregnant Canadians to hospital, new study finds

Severe morning sickness the biggest risk factor, researcher says

Bethany Lindsay, Lauren Pelley · CBC News · 

Posted: May 23, 2023 6:29 PM PDT |

A new study suggests nearly twice as many pregnant women are being hospitalized due to cannabis use since pot was legalized in Canada. Though numbers are low, it's still raising concerns.

Researchers behind a new study suggesting an increase in hospital visits by pregnant people related to cannabis use say they're concerned about the potential risks, including premature births and low birth weights.

The research paper, published Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, tracked data from close to one million pregnancies in Ontario between January 2015 and July 2021. 

A new study shows a small increase in emergency room visits and hospitalizations related to cannabis use

by pregnant people. (Serhii Bobyk/Shutterstock)

Is 80% considered a small increase? Pregnant 'People'? Good grief!

Of those, a small fraction — 540 pregnant people — visited an emergency room or were hospitalized for cannabis use, according to health administrative data compiled by the researchers. Most of those cases, 390, were emergency room visits.

But the rate of acute care hospital visits rose after cannabis was legalized for recreational use in October 2018, from 11 out of every 100,000 pregnancies to 20 per 100,000, the study says.

The lead author, family physician and public health researcher Dr. Daniel Myran, said that while these incidents are rare, they are also serious, and the rising rate is particularly worrying.

"The concern that I have is, these are very severe presentations, and does the increase in these severe presentations represent a much larger increase in general cannabis use during pregnancy?" he told CBC News.

The study notes the most common reason for needing emergency care related to cannabis was harmful substance use, according to the codes used by hospital staff. That was followed by cannabis dependence or withdrawal, and acute intoxication.

Myran, a fellow at the Bruyère Research Institute and The Ottawa Hospital, said the babies born to these patients were more likely to have lower birth weights, premature births or require admission to a neonatal intensive care unit.

"Given the unknown risks of cannabis at this time, the safest course of action is to not use cannabis during pregnancy," he said.

'We don't have the answers yet'

But other researchers caution that more evidence is needed before making any broad recommendations.

Interesting - they use the word "caution" relevant to the continued use of cannabis, rather than out of concern for pregnant women and babies.

The biggest risk factor for cannabis use during pregnancy

was severe morning sickness

The study suggests the biggest risk factor for cannabis use during pregnancy was severe morning sickness, and Myran said women might be self-medicating to relieve their nausea.

Marlena Fejzo, a researcher at the University of Southern California, pointed out that severe forms of nausea and vomiting can also lead to low birth weights and premature births, making it unclear whether cannabis use or an underlying health condition is responsible for the negative outcomes in the Ontario study.

Fejzo is also the science advisor of the Hyperemesis Education and Research Foundation, a non-profit that focuses on a condition of extreme nausea and persistent vomiting called hyperemesis gravidarum, experienced in about one per cent of pregnancies.

"We don't have the answers yet as to whether it's safer to take cannabis than to leave your hyperemesis untreated in pregnancy," she said.

The most common risk factor for pregnant people who used cannabis was severe morning sickness,

according to a new study. (David Donnelly/CBC)

She experienced the debilitating condition during pregnancy, and said she was so sick she was unable to eat or drink.

Her research, conducted in the U.S., shows that many pregnant people have reported using cannabis because other treatments aren't effective for their nausea and vomiting. They say cannabis is the only thing that allows them to eat.

"People are taking cannabis, so you can't just ignore that fact," Fejzo said. "They deserve answers as to the safety of cannabis use in pregnancy."

The Madness of Recreational Drug Use > Far-left town paying the price of 'progressive' Washington State

'Left in the lurch'

Dr. Dominique Morisano, an adjunct professor in public health at the University of Toronto, added that people dealing with mental health concerns during pregnancy may also turn to cannabis to self-medicate.

"A lot of women are left in the lurch during and after pregnancy in terms of their mental health care," she said.

Hormonal swings and the major life changes that can come with a baby can bring new psychological challenges, meanwhile some — but not all — pharmaceutical drugs are off limits during pregnancy and therapy is expensive, Morisano pointed out. 

"We should be doing better for pregnant women and postpartum care in our society," she said.

"If we don't, people are going to look for their own ways to take care of themselves."

According to Health Canada, the safest option is to stop using cannabis during pregnancy. The federal agency recommends that medicinal cannabis users speak to their doctors about safer alternatives.

The Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada says there is strong evidence that cannabis use during pregnancy poses risk of lifelong harm to a developing fetus related to memory function, hyperactive behaviour, anxiety and depression.

There is strong evidence that cannabis use during pregnancy poses risk of lifelong harm to a
developing fetus related to memory function, hyperactive behaviour, anxiety and depression.

The Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada

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Is Fluoride in our water making us dumber and dumber?

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Bombshell Study Confirms This Daily Drink Lowers IQ

BY JOSEPH MERCOLA 

SEPTEMBER 21, 2022 

These study findings were so controversial, they had to undergo additional peer-review and scrutiny before being published. Their publication even warranted a special editor’s note justifying the journal’s decision to publish the story. Will the findings be taken seriously?

STORY AT-A-GLANCE

A U.S. and Canadian government-funded observational study found that drinking fluoridated water during pregnancy lowers children’s IQ; a 2022 study by the same team will assess the neurotoxicity of early-life exposure to fluoride

In the earlier study, a 1 milligram per liter increase in concentration of fluoride in mothers’ urine was associated with a 4.49-point decrease in IQ among boys only, while a 1-mg higher daily intake of fluoride was associated with a 3.66 lower IQ score in both genders between ages 3 and 4

The findings were hotly criticized by pro-fluoride agents, including the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) and the Science Media Centre (SMC), two well-known front groups for the chemical industry

As of January 2022, there are at least 74 studies showing fluoride exposure damages children’s brains and lowers IQ; there are at least 60 that found that fluoride exposure impairs the learning and/or memory capacity of animals

There are also more than 2,000 other studies detailing other health effects

Research published in 2017 found that, compared to a mother who drinks fluoride-free water, a child of a mother who drinks water with 1 part per million of fluoride can be predicted to have an IQ that is 5 to 6 points lower. They also found there was no threshold below which fluoride did not affect IQ

“[Fluoride exposure] during pregnancy will lower the IQ of their children. Only if you think a child’s tooth is more important than a child’s brain would you not be disturbed by that,” Connett says. “You can repair a child’s tooth. You cannot repair a child’s brain once it’s been impacted during fetal development.”

“If you shift the entire population over by 3 or 4 IQ points, you would almost halve the number of geniuses in your society … and you would increase by about 50% the number of mentally handicapped children. So, on a population [basis] such shifts are highly, highly significant.”

My question is, what are the cumulative effects over several generations? Are we getting dumber and dumber?

There is much more on this story at The Epoch Times.

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Covid-19 > Questions for Fauci; Vax shots while pregnant may help babies; CDC hides troves of data

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GOP lawmakers demand answers from Fauci

House Republicans want to know why the Covid-19 guru seemingly shut down

any debate about whether the virus came from a Wuhan lab

Dr. Anthony Fauci is shown testifying at a Senate hearing last month in Washington.

© Getty Images / Greg Nash

US Republican lawmakers have sent a letter pressing chief White House medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci for answers about his alleged silencing of concerns that the Covid-19 virus originally came from a Chinese lab.

The letter, sent on Monday by three US House members, cited emails suggesting that Fauci and Dr. Francis Collins, then director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), tried in early 2020 to quash speculation among scientists that the virus may have originated in the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Instead of alerting national security officials to the pandemic’s potentially unnatural origin, Fauci and Collins sought to shut down the debate, the GOP lawmakers said.

The emails, which were obtained by media outlets under Freedom of Information Act requests, reportedly showed that some virology experts saw reason to believe that the virus was lab-created. Some of the messages made reference to a February 2020 conference call in which many scientists leaned toward the lab-leak theory. For instance, Tulane Medical School professor Robert Garry said he could see no “plausible natural scenario” for some aspects of Covid-19 otherwise.

“However, those same email communications, particularly when viewed in light of other publicly available information, demonstrate an apparent effort by you and Dr. Collins not only to cover up the concerns those virologists raised, but to suppress scientific debate about the origins of Covid-19,” the letter said.

Representatives Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Washington), Brett Guthrie (R-Kentucky) and Morgan Griffith (R-Virginia) signed the letter.

They demanded that Fauci provide details on how those conversations with scientists were initiated and who consulted him and Collins on Covid-19’s likely origins. The lawmakers also requested information on any communications by Fauci and Collins with Chinese scientists, as well as documents related to US funding of the research in Wuhan.

Even as scientists were speculating about Covid-19’s potentially manmade origins, Fauci told reporters in April 2020 that the sequencing of the virus was “totally consistent with a jump of a species from an animal to a human.” Earlier that same day, Collins sent him a message of concern about the lab leak theory, asking how NIH might “put down this very destructive conspiracy.”

READ MORE: New documents allege Fauci funded gain-of-function research in China

Republican lawmakers have accused Fauci of directing taxpayer funding to gain-of-function research that could potentially make organisms more transmissible or lethal. In Monday’s letter, the House members claimed the efforts to quell the lab-leak theory may have stemmed at least partly from fears of those grants being exposed. “It appears you and Dr. Collins may have done so to protect China and avoid criticism about incredibly risky research that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases was funding at the Wuhan lab,” the legislators said.

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Covid vaccines during pregnancy impact newborns – study

Immunity can be passed from jabbed mothers to babies, according to new research

(FILE PHOTO) © Photo by Fernando Gutierrez-Juarez/picture alliance via Getty Images

Babies born to mothers who took the Covid-19 vaccine during their pregnancy are likely to have some form of immunity against the virus, according to the latest research from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), published on Tuesday.

Researchers analyzed data from 379 hospitalized infants – 176 suffered from Covid-19 and 203 were admitted for other reasons. The children were all under six months old between July 2021 and January 2022.

Their study found that hospitalization risks were reduced by 61% in children whose mothers were vaccinated during pregnancy. 

Protection increased to 80% when the mothers got their jabs later in their pregnancy (21 weeks to 14 days before delivery). The effectiveness of the vaccinations dropped as low as 32% for babies whose mother was inoculated earlier during pregnancy.

The authors cautioned people not to read too much into the study, given the small sample size used.

“Right now we want to ensure that we are protecting both the mom and the infant,” CDC's Dana Meaney-Delman told reporters. “So, as soon as a pregnant woman is willing to be vaccinated, she should go ahead and do so.”

The CDC says that pregnant women are at greater risk of developing complications due to Covid-19, including risks to their own health, as well as preterm births and stillbirths. It is recommended that anyone expecting a baby or trying to get pregnant should keep up to date with their Covid shots.

Recommended by CDC - Big Pharma; the people who make money from you getting your shots.

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Is CDC protecting the government or Big Pharma, or both?

CDC withholds Covid-19 data that could be ‘misinterpreted’ – media

The US agency is declining to release troves of pandemic information it has gathered to date, according to the New York Times

© Getty Images / Elijah Nouvelage

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has kept reams of its Covid-19 data under wraps for more than a year, the New York Times reports, holding back figures at least partly because it doesn’t trust the public to interpret the information correctly.

The agency’s seemingly selective disclosure came to light in an article by the Times on Sunday. Among the data being withheld is a breakdown of Covid-19 hospitalizations by age, race, and vaccination status. The CDC also chose not to report on such findings as the efficacy of booster shots in 18- to 49-year-olds, even though it collected the information, the article added.

Although it’s the agency leading America’s Covid-19 response, the CDC has published only a “tiny fraction” of the data that it has collected, the Times said. In lieu of US data being made more widely available, experts were forced to look elsewhere for information – such as Israeli figures on booster shots – that would help them make informed recommendations.

CDC spokeswoman Kristen Nordlund told the newspaper that the agency’s data priority has been to collect “accurate and actionable” information. Some data has been withheld because “it’s not yet ready for prime time,” she said.

Do the data have to age, like a fine wine, or do they require some massaging before they are ready?

Such omissions have included figures on Covid-19 infections among fully vaccinated Americans. According to the media report, the CDC has been reluctant to publish those figures because “they might be misinterpreted as the vaccines being ineffective.” Nordlund confirmed that concern as one of the reasons.

Epidemiologist Jessica Malaty Rivera, part of an independent Covid-19 data-tracking project, told the Times that her group had been begging for such information for two years. “We are at much greater risk of misinterpreting the data with data vacuums than sharing the data with proper science, communication and caveats,” she argued.

The CDC has been criticized for a lack of transparency and consistency throughout much of the pandemic. For example, when the agency reversed course on mask-wearing guidance for vaccinated people last summer, it attributed the decision to only “unpublished data.” The New York Time’s revelations about the agency withholding data triggered a fresh round of opprobrium.

“It’s political manipulation of scientific data like this that makes people not ‘trust the science,’” said J. Michael Waller, a senior analyst at the Center for Security Strategy, in a tweet. “It is unscientific to withhold data because people might disagree with your policies.”

Big Pharma's influence is obvious here! Hiding the truth is never for the benefit of the public, or science.

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Bits and Bites From Around the World > Man Survives Outer Space, Dies in Cessna; Woman Sues Doctor for Being Born

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Millionaire who flew to space on Bezos’ rocket dies in plane crash

12 Nov, 2021 22:56

The late entrepreneur Glen de Vries (far left) is seen in suborbital flight during

Blue Origin's New Shepard mission, October 13, 2021. ©  Reuters / Blue Origin handout

Glen de Vries, the businessman who visited space last month alongside ‘Star Trek’ lead & RT host William Shatner aboard a rocket produced by Jeff Bezos’ aerospace firm, has died in a plane crash at the age of 49.

A small private plane carrying de Vries and another man, 54-year-old Thomas Fischer, crashed in Hampton Township, New Jersey near the border with New York on Thursday, killing both, the New Jersey state police told media outlets.

The 49-year-old had made a brief suborbital flight to space on October 13 with William Shatner, who hosts the talk show ‘I Don’t Understand’ on RT America, as well as Planet Labs co-founder Chris Boshuizen and Audrey Powers, an executive of Bezos’ space tourism company Blue Origin. It was Blue Origin’s second manned space mission, with a third planned for later this year. 

The company also noted the entrepreneur’s passing, saying it was “devastated” by the news, which wasn’t reported until Friday afternoon.

“He brought so much life and energy to the entire Blue Origin team and to his fellow crewmates. His passion for aviation, his charitable work, and his dedication to his craft will long be revered and admired,” the firm tweeted.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is investigating the crash, the cause of which remains unclear, police added. FAA records cited by CNN said the plane was a four-seat Cessna 172, which went down under “unknown circumstances in a heavily wooded area.”

Reportedly a certified private pilot, de Vries co-founded Medidata Solutions in 1999, a company that specializes in software used for clinical trials and medical research which has since become among the most-used platforms of its kind in the world.

Woman sues doctor for letting her be born

24 Nov, 2021 19:48

A champion showjumper born with a spinal defect has filed a lawsuit in London against her mother’s physician, alleging that he failed to properly emphasise the importance of supplements in pregnancy, resulting in her disability.

Evie Toombes, 20, of Skegness in Lincolnshire has pressed “wrongful conception” charges against Dr. Philip Mitchell. She claims Mitchell did not advise her mother, Caroline, to take folic acid supplements prior to and during pregnancy, resulting in her “having been born in a damaged state.” 

Toombes is asking for millions in damages to cover the cost of living with her disability. Her barrister told Judge Rosalind Coe QC that Toombes will most likely need a wheelchair as she gets older.

Dr. Mitchell has denied the charges and insisted he gave Caroline Toombes “reasonable” and appropriate medical advice about folic acid supplements. 

Evie Toombes was diagnosed with lipomyelomeningocele (LMM), a form of spina bifida, in November 2001. She works at Nottingham University teaching nursing students, and competes in both “para and able bodied showjumping” equestrian sports, both in the UK and internationally, according to her website.

She has appeared on an episode of ITV’s show about ‘Hidden Disabilities’ and met Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in 2018 after receiving the WellChild Inspiration Young Person Award.

20 years after being diagnosed and she's still show-jumping. I think her law-suit may be a little premature.

Pregnant ISIS Recruit Pleads with UK to ‘Bring Me Home,’ But Minister Warns of Prosecution **UPDATE**

Update: 11 Mar 2019 - Shamima had her baby in Syria,

 but it apparently has died.

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Remember these girls? Left the UK to join ISIS. Now, one wants to come home.

(L to R) British teenagers Kadiza Sultana, Amira Abase and Shamima Begum at Gatwick Airport, UK

© AFP / Metropolitan Police

A British teenage ISIS recruit who left home to fight for the self-styled caliphate has called on her government to bring her home from Syria, but the UK security minister has warned that “actions have consequences.”

Shamima Begum was one of three schoolgirls from Bethnal Green in East London who traveled to Syria four years ago to join Islamic State. She has pleaded to be allowed back into the UK in an interview with the Times.

However, government minister Ben Wallace told BBC Radio 4’s Today program that he would not risk the lives of British officials “to go looking for terrorists or former terrorists in a failed state.” He warned Begum that she had the right to return, but could face prosecution at the very least.

Begum, a 19-year-old who is nine-months pregnant with her third child, told the newspaper in an interview from a refugee camp in northeast Syria: “All I want to do is come home to Britain.”

She said that her two children died of malnutrition and illness, and she hopes that the baby she is now expecting would be looked after “health-wise, at least” back in the UK.

Begum said she had no regrets about joining IS in Syria, but claimed that she is “not the same silly little 15-year-old schoolgirl who ran away.”

No! Now she is the silly 19 y/o who thinks she can just say sorry and go home. It's not that I am without sympathy. She was 15, and at 15 there are laws that are supposed to protect you from sexual abuse, online extortion, grooming, etc. What happened to those girls was as much grooming as was done to the thousands of 15 y/o white, British girls by hordes of Pakistani Muslim men. 

Most people are horrified at those crimes and don't blame the children. Those who did blame the children were the police and councils that enabled the abuse to continue for decades. These children should not be held completely responsible for being groomed and manipulated by ISIS recruiters. The government may have some complicity for allowing it to happen.

However, Shamima's intent to return is motivated by a good and accessible health care system, not by a 'Road to Damascus' moment where she realized she was assisting monstrously evil people do monstrously evil things. 

At the very least she should not be allowed to return until after the baby is born, if at all. IMHO, she should not be permitted to return until she turns her back on Islam. Her lack of regret means she is still a danger to a free society.

When Wallace was asked whether the UK would be more lenient on someone who was only 15 years old when they ran away, he bluntly insisted: “People know what they’re getting into.”

Begum and her two schoolmates, Kadiza Sultana and Amira Abase, traveled to Syria in February 2015. They joined a fourth Bethnal Green girl, Sharmeena Begum, who had left London at the end of 2014. Each married an IS fighter.

Labour MP for Bethnal Green, Rushanara Ali, says that if the teenager is trying to return to the UK then it is a matter “for the police, security services and the Foreign Office,” who will “need to consider public safety and national security.”

Bethnal Green, London

Cannabis, Even Medical Cannabis Could Be Much Worse Than Thalidomide - Medical Journal

Medical cannabis on the NHS

This article from a prestigious medical journal is written for medical professionals with terms that most of us

will not understand. I have highlighted a several points so you don't have to read every word.

BMJ - British Medical Journal
doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.k335

Known Cannabis Teratogenicity (Birth Defects) Needs to be Carefully Considered

It is no accident that in almost the same week both Australia and UK have decided that cannabis is to be recommended for a host of medical disorders mostly in advance of gold standard clinical trials. This is a direct product of the organized transnational global drug liberalization movement orchestrated from New York 1.

I wish to most respectfully disagree with the points made by BMJ editor Dr. Godlee. Diarrhoea and colic occur in cannabis withdrawal; Crohn’s disease has a prominent immune aspect, and cannabinoids are likely acting partly as immune modulators. Statements from patients are uninterpretable without understanding the treatments tried, their withdrawal symptomatology and their personal preferences.

Most importantly, as Dr Godlee states, cannabis is a mixture of 104 cannabinoids. The tide cannot be both out and in at the same time. Medicines in western nations are universally pure substances. This comprises a fundamental difficulty.

Medical research has confirmed that the body’s endocannabinoid system is a finely regulated and highly complex system which is involved in the detailed regulation of essentially all body systems including the brain and cardiovascular systems and stem cell niches.

Studies have shown that the rate of use of cannabis by expecting mothers closely parallels that in the wider community. In fact given the long half-life of cannabis in tissues even were a maternal habitual smoker to stop when she discovered her pregnancy, her infant would continue to be exposed to her on-board cannabinoid load for several months afterwards during critical periods of organogenesis. And other studies show that the father’s cannabis use is even more damaging than the mothers’ 2.

Studies show that the father’s cannabis use

is even more damaging than the mothers’

Whilst much research has focussed on the effects of endocannabinoids in the adult brain relatively little research has looked at the impact of these same effects in the developing brain of the foetus and neonate. Whilst the brain stem is almost devoid of type 1 cannabinoid receptors (CB1Rs) they are in high concentration in many parts of the midbrain, limbic system, subcortical regions and cerebral and cerebellar cortices 3. Foetal CB1Rs have been shown to play key roles in virtually all aspects of brain development including neural stem cell function, determining the ratio of glial v neuronal differentiation, brain inflammation, axonal growth cone guidance, stem cell niche function and signalling, blood flow signalling, white matter and CNS tract formation, glial cell differentiation, myelination, dendrite formation, neural migration into the developing cortex, synapse formation and integration of newly formed neurons into the neural network. They are also found in high density on endoplasmic reticulum and mitochondria from which latter they indirectly control major issues including cognition, DNA maintenance and repair systems both by supplying energy and by metabolite shuttle and RNA signalling 4 5.

Hence it is not surprising that gestational cannabis has been linked with a clear continuum of defects, including in protracted longitudinal studies from Pittsburgh, Ottawa and Netherlands impaired cortical and executive functioning; reduced spatial judgement; the need to recruit more brain to perform similar computational tasks 6; microcephaly 7; lifelong smaller heads and smaller brains 6; anencephaly (in two CDC studies 8), and increased foetal death. This progression clearly reflects a spectrum of congenital neurological impairment which is quite consistent with the known distribution of CB1Rs mainly across the foetal and adult forebrain and midbrain and its derivatives 3.

Consistent with a recent explosion of autism

It is also consistent with a recent explosion of autism in Colorado, California, New Jersey and many other sites in USA and internationally in recent years 9. Moreover cannabis induced synpatopathy closely mimics that seen in autism 10 11, as do similar white matter disconnection endophenotypes 3 12.

A similar scenario plays out in the cardiovasculature. The American Heart Association and American Academy of Pediatrics issued a joint statement as long ago as 2007 noting that foetal cannabis exposure was linked with increased rates of ventricular septal defect and Ebstein's anomaly (complex tricuspid valvopathy) 13. This is consistent with recent Colorado experience where ventricular septal defect has risen from 43.9 to 59.4 / 10,000 live births, or 35.3% 2000-2013. Both of these structures are derivatives of the endocardial cushions which are rich in CB1Rs. Concerningly Colorado has also seen a 262% rise in atrial septal defects over the same period. Exposure to other drugs does not explain this change as they were falling across this period. It has also been reported that the father’s use of cannabis is the strongest environmental factor implicated in cardiovascular defects, here involving transposition of the great arteries 2, which is a derivative of the conoventricular ridges immediately distal and continuous with embryonic endocardial cushions, and also rich in CB1Rs.

Similar findings play out in gastroschisis (a birth defect of the abdominal (belly) wall. The baby's intestines are found outside of the baby's body, exiting through a hole beside the belly button). There is an impressive concordance amongst the larger studies of the relationship of gastroschisis and congenital cannabis exposure where senior Canadian authors concluded that cannabis caused a three-fold rise in gastroschisis 14, consistent with a high density of CB1Rs on the umbilical vessels 15.

A 3-fold increase in babies born

with their intestines outside of their bellies.

And cannabis has also been implicated as an indirect chromosomal clastogen and indirect genotoxin through its effect to disrupt the mitotic spindle by microtubule inhibition 16, and likely DNA maintenance and repair 17 by its effect on nuclear actin filaments 18.

Moreover cannabidiol has been shown to alter the epigenome, to be genotoxic, and to bind to CB1Rs at high doses, so the simplistic case that “Cannabidiol is good” – fails.

The simplistic case that “Cannabidiol is good” – fails

These considerations imply that if clinical trials continue to show efficacy for additional indications for cannabinoids, their genotoxic and teratogenic potential, from both mother and father, will need to be carefully balanced with their clinical utility. They also imply that these issues will need to be more widely canvassed and discussed in order to introduce more balance into the heavily biased present global media coverage of the highly misleading misnomer “medical cannabis”.

Only once before has a known teratogen been marketed globally: 

thalidomide

Only once before has a known teratogen been marketed globally: the thalidomide disaster is the proximate reason for modern pharmaceutical laws. With its widespread uptake, rising concentrations, asymptotic genotoxic dose-response curves and actions through the paternal line cannabis could be much worse.

References

1. Open Society Foundations. Open Society Foundations New York: Open Society Foundations; 2018 [cited 2018 4th August 2018]. Available from: https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/ accessed 4th August 2018 2018.

2. Wilson PD, Loffredo CA, Correa-Villasenor A, et al. Attributable fraction for cardiac malformations. Am J Epidemiol 1998;148(5):414-23.

3. Yang Q, Huang P, Li C, et al. Mapping alterations of gray matter volume and white matter integrity in children with autism spectrum disorder: evidence from fMRI findings. Neuroreport 2018 doi: 10.1097/WNR.0000000000001094

4. Hebert-Chatelain E, Desprez T, Serrat R, et al. A cannabinoid link between mitochondria and memory. Nature 2016;539(7630):555-59. doi: 10.1038/nature20127

5. Yates D. Learning and memory: The cannabinoid connection. Nat Rev Neurosci 2016;18(1):4. doi: 10.1038/nrn.2016.171

6. Brents L. Correlates and consequences of Prenatal Cannabis Exposure (PCE): Identifying and Characterizing Vulnerable Maternal Populations and Determining Outcomes in Exposed Offspring In: Preedy V.R., ed. Handbook of Cannabis and Related Pathologies: Biology, Pharmacology, Diagnosis and Treatment. London: Academic Press 2017:160-70.

7. Forrester MB, Merz RD. Risk of selected birth defects with prenatal illicit drug use, Hawaii, 1986-2002. Journal of toxicology and environmental health 2007;70(1):7-18.

8. Van Gelder MMHJ, Donders ART, Devine O, et al. Using bayesian models to assess the effects of under-reporting of cannabis use on the association with birth defects, national birth defects prevention study, 1997-2005. Paediatric and perinatal epidemiology 2014;28(5):424-33. doi: 10.1111/ppe.12140

9. Christensen DL, Baio J, Van Naarden Braun K, et al. Prevalence and Characteristics of Autism Spectrum Disorder Among Children Aged 8 Years--Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, 11 Sites, United States, 2012. MMWR Surveill Summ 2016;65(3):1-23. doi: 10.15585/mmwr.ss6503a1

10. Anderson GR, Aoto J, Tabuchi K, et al. beta-Neurexins Control Neural Circuits by Regulating Synaptic Endocannabinoid Signaling. Cell 2015;162(3):593-606. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2015.06.056

11. Won H, Mah W, Kim E. Autism spectrum disorder causes, mechanisms, and treatments: focus on neuronal synapses. Front Mol Neurosci 2013;6:19. doi: 10.3389/fnmol.2013.00019

12. Zalesky A, Solowij N, Yucel M, et al. Effect of long-term cannabis use on axonal fibre connectivity. Brain 2012;135(Pt 7):2245-55. doi: aws136 [pii]

10.1093/brain/aws136 [published Online First: 2012/06/07]

13. Jenkins KJ, Correa A, Feinstein JA, et al. Noninherited risk factors and congenital cardiovascular defects: current knowledge: a scientific statement from the American Heart Association Council on Cardiovascular Disease in the Young: endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics. Circulation 2007;115(23):2995-3014. doi: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.106.183216

14. Moore A., Roulean J., Skarsgard E. Congenital Anomalies in Canada, 2013. A Perinatal Health Surveillance Report. Chapter 7. Gastroschisis.

. In: Public Health Agency of Canada HC, ed. Ottawa: Health Canada, 2013:57-63.

15. Pacher P, Steffens S, Hasko G, et al. Cardiovascular effects of marijuana and synthetic cannabinoids: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Nat Rev Cardiol 2018;15(3):151-66. doi: 10.1038/nrcardio.2017.130

16. Reece AS, Hulse GK. Chromothripsis and epigenomics complete causality criteria for cannabis- and addiction-connected carcinogenicity, congenital toxicity and heritable genotoxicity. Mutat Res 2016;789:15-25. doi: 10.1016/j.mrfmmm.2016.05.002

17. Caridi CP, D'Agostino C, Ryu T, et al. Nuclear F-actin and myosins drive relocalization of heterochromatic breaks. Nature 2018;559(7712):54-60. doi: 10.1038/s41586-018-0242-8

18. Wang J, Yuan W, Li MD. Genes and pathways co-associated with the exposure to multiple drugs of abuse, including alcohol, amphetamine/methamphetamine, cocaine, marijuana, morphine, and/or nicotine: a review of proteomics analyses. Molecular neurobiology 2011;44(3):269-86. doi: 10.1007/s12035-011-8202-4

French TV Show Calls Transgender Man ‘Mom,’ Divides Social Media

The New Normal - Gender Dysphoria

The French Twittersphere is abuzz over a TV show that invited on a couple of transgender men and their child, calling the one who gave birth “a mother.” Some have slammed the show as intolerant.

The now hotly-discussed show called ‘Hello, earthlings!’ was aired on Saturday. It featured an American transgender couple, Biff Chaplow and Trystan Reese, who were both born women. The latter chose to keep his uterus to bear their child, who was also present on the show.

During the show a banner reading “Mom is on the left” appeared on the screen, referring to the 34-year-old, causing an uproar on social media and splitting it into two camps.

The first half believed that calling a transgender man “a mother” could be offensive for those who wish to change, or have changed, their gender. They immediately accused the TV show of intolerance. “What the hell is it? Mom? It’s a joke?!” one angry person tweeted.

Another person said he thought that the biological mother was somewhere on the left. But when he realized that the banner pointed to Reese, he was furious.

Others believe the controversy is a bit exaggerated. After all, Reese decided to keep his female reproductive organs, the ‘pro-Maman’ front argued.

“The guy on the left of the screen was a woman and gave birth to a child, so yes technically he is the child’s ‘Mom’, even if she changed sex,” one person said.

“He carried a child,”“But it is not a man! It’s a woman who took hormones to get hair!” were among the other arguments.

Meanwhile, Chaplow and Reese hope that the TV show will apologize for the inappropriate ‘Maman’ banner. “We know they will issue an apology for calling me a “mother,” and hope they will remember that many, many other men have given birth before I did,” Reese wrote with a kissing face emoji.

However, the TV show has so far remained silent on Twitter.

Oh, God! How long?

More Transgender Men Using Fertility Treatment to Get Pregnant

Thomas Beatie was the world's first pregnant man. © F A C T / Facebook

Dozens of transitioning women are choosing to freeze their eggs at specialized clinics if they decide to have children after becoming men.

At least three men in the UK who were born female are believed to be using IVF techniques, according to the Daily Mail. Dozens of other men are also having their eggs frozen prior to transitioning to switch sex.

Despite it being possible for a male who was born female to become naturally pregnant, it is rare.

Instead, the fertilised embryo is usually moved to a surrogate, rather than a transgender man giving birth.

Thomas Beatie became the first man in the world to become pregnant, showing that men with female reproductive organs are still able to give birth.

The father of three paved way for other transgender men to consider having children, such as 17-year-old Riley Middlemore who hopes his eggs can be inseminated by a sperm donor and implanted into his girlfriend’s body to allow her to carry their child.

The National Health Service (NHS) is able to fund sex change and fertility treatment for patients, costing on average up to £34,000.

Some people have criticized the free treatment including Conservative MP Peter Bone, who said the NHS should get “its priorities right.”

“I am not sure why the taxpayer should be funding this,” he told the Daily Mail. “I just sometimes ask if the NHS is getting its priorities right.”

The measures were, however, defended by Dr James Barrett of the NHS Gender Identity Clinic, which is based in London.

“As a matter of principle, anybody who loses their fertility as a result of standard NHS treatment should be able to preserve their fertility,” he said.

They lose their fertility as a matter of choice. It appears they want to have their cake and eat it too.

“Why are people with cancer particularly magic and get this NHS fertility treatment, and other people don’t?” he added. “Transgender patients want to live like normal people. They want what everybody else gets as a matter of course.”

Seriously, 'what everybody else wants'? I don't know any women who want to father their own children. 

Interesting statement: 'transgenders want to live like normal people'. Nothing about this sounds 'normal' to me.

Once you start down a perverse path, it just gets weirder and weirder.