Dear Folks:
        This is in response to Anna's story about the woman worried about
nursing her year old baby after smoking one marijuana cigarette.
        Evidence on cannabis is scant as most studies report on people using
cigarettes, alcohol and other recreational drugs along with the cannabis. It
is difficult to find a study where cannabis is the only drug being used.
There is one in Pediatrics 1994, where infants of lactating women who smoked
4-5 joints a day were compared with infants of women who didn't smoke. The
infants of the smoking mothers scored better at the age of 1 month on various
developmental tests. The authors speculated that the smoking mothers had more
social support and community (they were Rastafarian) which had a positive
impact on their mothering, and consequently their babies.
        THC binds to fat and stays there a long time, some people say even as
long as a month before clearing totally. This is of concern for the growing
infant brain.
        However.....the risks of the breastmilk substitutes are better
documented and more numerous than any published evidence against marijuana.
        Problem with recreational drug research is that the values and
judgements and beliefs of the researchers color the results.
        And remember that it is medically approved to give a mother regular
doses of narcotics in labor......does this make any sense at all?
        Warmly, Nikki Lee

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