"Do you want pregnant women to smoke pot?"
That question bounced around the room (and in my head) for a moment. And the answer is an equivocal "Yes" — but the reason why I hesitate is the word "smoke."
Here's a better question — "Do you want pregnant women to consume cannabinoids?" The answer to that question might surprise you, but this is too important of an issue to be wrong — no matter what misconceptions one might have. Current research is confirming a new theory: cannabinoids play a fundamental role in a healthy and successful pregnancy
Pregnancy is a stress to the body. To modulate that stress, the ECS responds by creating endocannabinoids — the body's version of "first responders.
http://www.illinoisnorml.org/content/view/1058/129/
You really think consuming cannabinoids by a pregnant woman is a good idea? Frankly I don't think we know enough yet. That is what angers me.
Now that bit about the ECS system is like saying pregnant women should consume opiates because we have an enkephalin system. It does not pass a simple test of logic.
For example:
All airplanes are made of steel and aluminum. (true)
Steel and aluminum can not fly. (true again)
Therefore since airplanes are made of steel and aluminum they can not fly. (False but a perfect logic sequence)
In logic this is what is known as a syllogism and one of the first and simplest forms. For a simple syllogism to stand all statements must in fact be true. The link between the human ecs and externally derived cannabinoids is still somewhat speculative based on the dearth of research so until we know more it fails there.
This is PRECISELY why Cannabis MUST be rescheduled. We do not have enough research to predict teratogenicity. So frankly I am VERY pro cannabis but I would say best to avoid during pregnancy based solely on the lack of current medical understanding.
***Disclaimer: If you are a pregnant and using or have history of success using during pregnancy I'm not arguing with you. What I'm trying to say is the damn government needs to get it's butt in gear and fix this we need REAL science done so we have substantiated facts and not merely anecdotes (and rightly or wrongly even if everyone agreed it doesn't matter until appropriate scientific tests are designed and repeated the govt. has us by the short hairs).***