7 ms·

Why are pregnant women smoking weed to begin with?

by 1-6 4y ago

westmeal 4y ago
People are nuts.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
nth_degree 4y ago
It can help with nausea.
- ejb999 4y ago
  Thalidomide helped with nausea too.
  - dekhn 4y ago
    thalidomide is still prescribed and is a highly effective drug. What's your point? The entire narrative about thalidomide completely oversells what happened and distorts people's understanding of drug safety.
404mm 4y ago
One response I received was: “weed is natural and comes from the Earth”. It’s absolutely mind boggling how stupid people can be.
- withinboredom 4y ago
  And water comes from burning fossil fuels too, but I doubt that water would be good for you. Ibuprofen comes from the bark of tree IIRC, but that pill is a lot better than the soup you’d have to eat to get not nearly the same effect. Everything is natural. I really hate that argument.
  - 404mm 4y ago
    In moments when I’m not speechless, I usually just say “and so does Mercury and Uranium“.
    - Apocryphon 4y ago
      Those are minerals, not plants. A better counterpart would be nightshade and castor plant oil seeds.
  - nkozyra 4y ago
    > Ibuprofen comes from the bark of tree IIRC This is salicylic acid, in a number of tree barks but most abundantly in white willow. The medication form is aspirin or acetylsalicylic acid.
- vorpalhex 4y ago
  "So are sharks and volcanoes..."
- dekhn 4y ago
  To steelman this argument (to the extent that I can): we can in fact attribute a great deal of harm to highly processed ingredients, while there are a number of plants and animals humans have lived with and eaten for millenia, and we've identified the natural products that are poisonous. Weed is one of the plants that humans have coexisted with and consumed for millenia, and societies with high weed consumption don't appear to be significantly sicker than ones that don't. (I can't think of a way to steelman around the fact that there are many toxic plant and animal substances, and some highly processed ingredients are completely harmless)
gfdsgfdsf 4y ago
morning sickness, the alternatives such as zofran come with their own complications
scythe 4y ago
It's about 5% of pregnant women, while about 14% of women report smoking cannabis, and the rate is significantly higher under age 55: https://news.gallup.com/poll/284135/percentage-americans-smoke-marijuana.aspx https://news.gallup.com/poll/284135/percentage-americans-smo... So probably about 20% of women who may become pregnant smoke marijuana, and 75% of them stop when pregnant, before adjusting for whether they are aware of the pregnancy. There are usually a few irresponsible individuals in any group.
klyrs 4y ago
This is a backlash from anti-cannabis disinformation. People were told lies about how dangerous it is for decades, and now people don't know what to believe.
Maursault 4y ago
- asveikau 4y ago
  https://www.google.com/search?q=cannabis+psychosis https://www.google.com/search?q=cannabis+psychosis People are not making this up. It's a risk that needs to be weighed. Acknowledging this fact is not the same as being in favor of prohibition or criminalization or saying it'll happen to everyone.
  - Maursault 4y ago
    I disagree. I think there is a lot of misinformation flooding the nets and the news, and this is provably true. Psychosis is a pretty obvious condition, and it was not difficult to observe psychosis thousands of years ago. Cannabis has been in wide global use since at least 8000BC, and yet... there just historically aren't enough crazy people for this to remotely pass the stiff test.
    - asveikau 4y ago
      I've personally seen someone with bipolar disorder enter a months long psychotic episode after exposure to small amounts of THC. That is how I know it's a thing. It happens. I think psychotic illnesses are complex and there is no one cause. THC can be a factor. This is also what the Google results I linked you to said
      - superkuh 4y ago
        Unless they regularly entered bipolar episodes after imbibing a small amount of THC I'm not sure you're making a claim here. You saw it happen one time to a person who also goes into bipolar incidents without it and now it's the THC's fault? It isn't a very convincing anecdote. I bet they drank water before the bipolar episode too.
        asveikau 4y ago
adamrezich 4y ago
I asked a then-pregnant still-weed-smoking coworker of my fiancée about this, she said "it isn't that bad for the baby, at least compared to alcohol or meth", and another coworker (female, roughly same age) agreed that "meth and booze are really bad for pregnant women, but weed not so much". from the sound of things (this was on a car trip to a nearby Native American reservation where the then-pregnant girl's parents lived), among this strata of people at least, if you get pregnant, you should definitely stop drinking and consuming meth, but weed isn't a big deal. no idea how this entered the public subconscious but there you have it.
- tartoran 4y ago
  At least they’re not okay with meth and alcohol while pregnant… Or they never consume meth and use the ruse to normalize weed consumption. I my books nothing is worth risking for the baby’s health
  - Dylan16807 4y ago
    > I my books nothing is worth risking for the baby’s health That's a bad book. Everything has risk. If you think you're not risking, you're deluding yourself. Trying to avoid "unnecessary" risks is only marginally better. You need to know how big the risks actually are, or your biases will mislead you.
throwuxiytayq 4y ago
Addiction, self-medication (eg. pain/nausea relief), escapism, peer pressure. To name a few. I used to be sceptical about weed addiction, and then it happened to me. It was relatively difficult to quit even though the habit was severely impacting my work and social life. In the end not having any weed around helped a lot. If you have an easy endless supply, boy, you're in trouble. If you enjoy weed, consider having a strict limit (eg. max 1 smoke per week). If you smoke every day, you might find yourself unable to quit when need arises (eg. pregnancy, yours or your partner's).
- mosseater 4y ago
  Also, you know, doctor recommended medication. And not just the "weed doctors" do it either, my conservative neurologist even told me to smoke THC heavy marijuana. I smoke every day. It absolutely impacts my work and social life, as without it I'm a painful ball of irritation that would have to be on opiates to get anything done.
  - Karunamon 4y ago
    Just to be clear, he told you to smoke? There are other ingestion methods, including vaping, that don't come with a ton of other health risks.
asveikau 4y ago
I think it's more addictive than people think. I've known a few people who I think have a problem, but they become violently confrontational if you say it might be addictive for some. I may get comments and downvotes along these lines. I guess some people may also have some exposure from before they realize they're pregnant. That probably also happens with things like alcohol. I think I've heard some say that's not a big issue, though.
- pier25 4y ago
  When someone mentions addiction people think heroin addiction, but yeah people can become psychologically dependent on cannabis too. I know I did, many years ago.
- xkcd-sucks 4y ago
  > but they become violently confrontational if you say it might be addictive for some Going out on a limb here but it might be in the same spirit as a similar response to "Strong encryption is for child abuse and terrorism" / "Bittorrent is for pirating movies" in that it's true in some cases but is used as a popular discourse wedge to promote governmental overreach
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
mcculley 4y ago
Presumably, for the same reasons they drink alcohol and consume caffeine. Most parents are not thinking ahead.
honkycat 4y ago
It helps with nausea and pain, both of which are symptoms pregnant people experience.

Why are pregnant women smoking weed to begin with?

by 1-6 4y ago

Why are pregnant women smoking weed to begin with?

westmeal 4y ago

People are nuts.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

nth_degree 4y ago

It can help with nausea.

ejb999 4y ago
Thalidomide helped with nausea too.
- dekhn 4y ago
  thalidomide is still prescribed and is a highly effective drug. What's your point? The entire narrative about thalidomide completely oversells what happened and distorts people's understanding of drug safety.

404mm 4y ago

One response I received was: “weed is natural and comes from the Earth”. It’s absolutely mind boggling how stupid people can be.

withinboredom 4y ago
And water comes from burning fossil fuels too, but I doubt that water would be good for you. Ibuprofen comes from the bark of tree IIRC, but that pill is a lot better than the soup you’d have to eat to get not nearly the same effect. Everything is natural. I really hate that argument.
- 404mm 4y ago
  In moments when I’m not speechless, I usually just say “and so does Mercury and Uranium“.
  - Apocryphon 4y ago
    Those are minerals, not plants. A better counterpart would be nightshade and castor plant oil seeds.
- nkozyra 4y ago
  > Ibuprofen comes from the bark of tree IIRC This is salicylic acid, in a number of tree barks but most abundantly in white willow. The medication form is aspirin or acetylsalicylic acid.
vorpalhex 4y ago
"So are sharks and volcanoes..."
dekhn 4y ago
To steelman this argument (to the extent that I can): we can in fact attribute a great deal of harm to highly processed ingredients, while there are a number of plants and animals humans have lived with and eaten for millenia, and we've identified the natural products that are poisonous. Weed is one of the plants that humans have coexisted with and consumed for millenia, and societies with high weed consumption don't appear to be significantly sicker than ones that don't. (I can't think of a way to steelman around the fact that there are many toxic plant and animal substances, and some highly processed ingredients are completely harmless)

gfdsgfdsf 4y ago

morning sickness, the alternatives such as zofran come with their own complications

scythe 4y ago

It's about 5% of pregnant women, while about 14% of women report smoking cannabis, and the rate is significantly higher under age 55: https://news.gallup.com/poll/284135/percentage-americans-smoke-marijuana.aspx https://news.gallup.com/poll/284135/percentage-americans-smo... So probably about 20% of women who may become pregnant smoke marijuana, and 75% of them stop when pregnant, before adjusting for whether they are aware of the pregnancy. There are usually a few irresponsible individuals in any group.

klyrs 4y ago

This is a backlash from anti-cannabis disinformation. People were told lies about how dangerous it is for decades, and now people don't know what to believe.

Maursault 4y ago

asveikau 4y ago
https://www.google.com/search?q=cannabis+psychosis https://www.google.com/search?q=cannabis+psychosis People are not making this up. It's a risk that needs to be weighed. Acknowledging this fact is not the same as being in favor of prohibition or criminalization or saying it'll happen to everyone.
- Maursault 4y ago
  I disagree. I think there is a lot of misinformation flooding the nets and the news, and this is provably true. Psychosis is a pretty obvious condition, and it was not difficult to observe psychosis thousands of years ago. Cannabis has been in wide global use since at least 8000BC, and yet... there just historically aren't enough crazy people for this to remotely pass the stiff test.
  - asveikau 4y ago
    I've personally seen someone with bipolar disorder enter a months long psychotic episode after exposure to small amounts of THC. That is how I know it's a thing. It happens. I think psychotic illnesses are complex and there is no one cause. THC can be a factor. This is also what the Google results I linked you to said
    - superkuh 4y ago
      Unless they regularly entered bipolar episodes after imbibing a small amount of THC I'm not sure you're making a claim here. You saw it happen one time to a person who also goes into bipolar incidents without it and now it's the THC's fault? It isn't a very convincing anecdote. I bet they drank water before the bipolar episode too.
      - asveikau 4y ago

adamrezich 4y ago

I asked a then-pregnant still-weed-smoking coworker of my fiancée about this, she said "it isn't that bad for the baby, at least compared to alcohol or meth", and another coworker (female, roughly same age) agreed that "meth and booze are really bad for pregnant women, but weed not so much". from the sound of things (this was on a car trip to a nearby Native American reservation where the then-pregnant girl's parents lived), among this strata of people at least, if you get pregnant, you should definitely stop drinking and consuming meth, but weed isn't a big deal. no idea how this entered the public subconscious but there you have it.

tartoran 4y ago
At least they’re not okay with meth and alcohol while pregnant… Or they never consume meth and use the ruse to normalize weed consumption. I my books nothing is worth risking for the baby’s health
- Dylan16807 4y ago
  > I my books nothing is worth risking for the baby’s health That's a bad book. Everything has risk. If you think you're not risking, you're deluding yourself. Trying to avoid "unnecessary" risks is only marginally better. You need to know how big the risks actually are, or your biases will mislead you.

throwuxiytayq 4y ago

Addiction, self-medication (eg. pain/nausea relief), escapism, peer pressure. To name a few. I used to be sceptical about weed addiction, and then it happened to me. It was relatively difficult to quit even though the habit was severely impacting my work and social life. In the end not having any weed around helped a lot. If you have an easy endless supply, boy, you're in trouble. If you enjoy weed, consider having a strict limit (eg. max 1 smoke per week). If you smoke every day, you might find yourself unable to quit when need arises (eg. pregnancy, yours or your partner's).

mosseater 4y ago
Also, you know, doctor recommended medication. And not just the "weed doctors" do it either, my conservative neurologist even told me to smoke THC heavy marijuana. I smoke every day. It absolutely impacts my work and social life, as without it I'm a painful ball of irritation that would have to be on opiates to get anything done.
- Karunamon 4y ago
  Just to be clear, he told you to smoke? There are other ingestion methods, including vaping, that don't come with a ton of other health risks.

asveikau 4y ago

I think it's more addictive than people think. I've known a few people who I think have a problem, but they become violently confrontational if you say it might be addictive for some. I may get comments and downvotes along these lines. I guess some people may also have some exposure from before they realize they're pregnant. That probably also happens with things like alcohol. I think I've heard some say that's not a big issue, though.

pier25 4y ago
When someone mentions addiction people think heroin addiction, but yeah people can become psychologically dependent on cannabis too. I know I did, many years ago.
xkcd-sucks 4y ago
> but they become violently confrontational if you say it might be addictive for some Going out on a limb here but it might be in the same spirit as a similar response to "Strong encryption is for child abuse and terrorism" / "Bittorrent is for pirating movies" in that it's true in some cases but is used as a popular discourse wedge to promote governmental overreach
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

mcculley 4y ago

Presumably, for the same reasons they drink alcohol and consume caffeine. Most parents are not thinking ahead.

honkycat 4y ago

It helps with nausea and pain, both of which are symptoms pregnant people experience.