New research shows marijuana THC stays in breast milk for six weeks

JacksinPA · Mar 15, 2021

New research shows marijuana THC stays in breast milk for six weeks

Researchers have found that tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive component of marijuana, stays in breast milk for up to six weeks, further supporting the recommendations to abstain from marijuana use during pregnancy and while a mother is breastfeeding.

www.sciencedaily.com

In a new study published in JAMA Pediatrics, researchers at Children's Hospital Colorado (Children's Colorado) have found that tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive component of marijuana, stays in breast milk for up to six weeks, further supporting the recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine to abstain from marijuana use during pregnancy and while a mother is breastfeeding. This is the first study examining THC in breastmilk and plasma among women with known marijuana use in pregnancy since a 1982 study in the New England Journal of Medicine.

"With the increasing utilization of marijuana in society as a whole, we are seeing more mothers who use marijuana during pregnancy," said Erica Wymore, MD, MPH, primary investigator, neonatologist at Children's Colorado and assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine on the Anschutz Medical Campus. "However, given the lack of scientific data regarding how long THC persists in breast milk, it was challenging to provide mothers with a definitive answer regarding the safety of using marijuana while breastfeeding and simply 'pumping and dumping' until THC was no longer detectable in their milk. With this study, we aimed to better understand this question by determining the amount and duration of THC excretion in breast milk among women with known prenatal marijuana use."
The researchers studied women with prenatal marijuana use who delivered their infants at Children's Colorado and UCHealth's University of Colorado Hospital between November 1, 2016, and June 30, 2019. Specifically, researchers recruited women who:

Had a history of marijuana use during pregnancy/a positive urine test for THC when admitted for delivery
Were over the age of 18
Had an intention to breastfeed
Were willing to abstain from marijuana use for six weeks after delivery
Were willing to provide milk, blood and urine samples during those six weeks
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Since I'm not a big consumer of stoner breast milk, this doesn't concern me. But THC consumption in early life may lead to heavy pot use later in life.

Mr Person · Mar 15, 2021

I'd like to hear how much has to be consumed to leave how many nanograms per liter in breast milk, and how that decays over those six weeks. The amount in the mother's bloodstream ≠ the amount the baby gets when breastfeeding. That'd be when it's a fetus in utero.

You could do it with mothers who decided to switch to formula and thus are not transferring anything.

ie, THC metabolites are detectable in urine up to 28 days after a use, and up to months in blood after use. That doesn't mean it has any effect for that period of time.

MamboDervish · Mar 15, 2021

JacksinPA said:
New research shows marijuana THC stays in breast milk for six weeks

Researchers have found that tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive component of marijuana, stays in breast milk for up to six weeks, further supporting the recommendations to abstain from marijuana use during pregnancy and while a mother is breastfeeding.

www.sciencedaily.com

In a new study published in JAMA Pediatrics, researchers at Children's Hospital Colorado (Children's Colorado) have found that tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive component of marijuana, stays in breast milk for up to six weeks, further supporting the recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine to abstain from marijuana use during pregnancy and while a mother is breastfeeding. This is the first study examining THC in breastmilk and plasma among women with known marijuana use in pregnancy since a 1982 study in the New England Journal of Medicine.

"With the increasing utilization of marijuana in society as a whole, we are seeing more mothers who use marijuana during pregnancy," said Erica Wymore, MD, MPH, primary investigator, neonatologist at Children's Colorado and assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine on the Anschutz Medical Campus. "However, given the lack of scientific data regarding how long THC persists in breast milk, it was challenging to provide mothers with a definitive answer regarding the safety of using marijuana while breastfeeding and simply 'pumping and dumping' until THC was no longer detectable in their milk. With this study, we aimed to better understand this question by determining the amount and duration of THC excretion in breast milk among women with known prenatal marijuana use."
The researchers studied women with prenatal marijuana use who delivered their infants at Children's Colorado and UCHealth's University of Colorado Hospital between November 1, 2016, and June 30, 2019. Specifically, researchers recruited women who:

Had a history of marijuana use during pregnancy/a positive urine test for THC when admitted for delivery

Were over the age of 18

Had an intention to breastfeed

Were willing to abstain from marijuana use for six weeks after delivery

Were willing to provide milk, blood and urine samples during those six weeks

========================

================================================================================
Since I'm not a big consumer of stoner breast milk, this doesn't concern me. But THC consumption in early life may lead to heavy pot use later in life.

Every alcoholic I know was breastfed, too. Maybe breastmilk is a gateway drug.

(just kidding)

JacksinPA · Mar 15, 2021

MamboDervish said:
Every alcoholic I know was breastfed, too. Maybe breastmilk is a gateway drug.

(just kidding)

In another life I might get hooked on it. Become a reverse wet nurse.

Patriotic Voter · Mar 15, 2021

Mr Person said:
I'd like to hear how much has to be consumed to leave how many nanograms per liter in breast milk, and how that decays over those six weeks. The amount in the mother's bloodstream x the amount the baby gets when breastfeeding. That would be when it's a fetus in utero.

Accidental contradiction there? Obviously the fetus is not breastfeeding before it becomes a baby.

You could do it with mothers who decided to switch to formula and thus are not transferring anything.

How about this: breast milk with THC in half the bottles and breast milk without THC in the other half. It would be a double-blind study You can't make it DB with real milk against fake milk because the odors are different. Also, we are talking about the effects of THC in breast milk versus untainted breast milk, which can be pumped out artificially to make sure all babies get the same amounts. That is considered the gold standard for this type of research.

THC metabolites are detectable in urine up to 28 days after a use, and up to months in blood after use. That doesn't mean it has any effect for that period of time.

Researchers have to determine if there is a microscopic effect that does not appear immediately. Follow-up testing after one year may be necessary to notice certain negative effects above the cellular level.

Mr Person · Mar 15, 2021

Blue Donkey said:
Accidental contradiction there? Obviously the fetus is not breastfeeding before it becomes a baby.level.

Um, no?

I said that when a mother is breastfeeding, the amount of THC in her bloodstream does not equal the amount of THC in breast milk produced.

I then noted that the bigger concern is before that, when a fetus is in-utero. At that point, it shares the mothers bloodstream, so THC (or any other drug concentration) is going to be the same in both mother and fetal blood.

Blue Donkey said:
How about this: breast milk with THC in half the bottles and breast milk without THC in the other half. It would be a double-blind study You can't make it DB with real milk against fake milk because the odors are different. Also, we are talking about the effects of THC in breast milk versus untainted breast milk, which can be pumped out artificially to make sure all babies get the same amounts. That is considered the gold standard for this type of research.

Researchers have to determine if there is a microscopic effect that does not appear immediately. Follow-up testing after one year may be necessary to notice certain negative effects above the cellular level.

I figure I'll leave it up to the people doing the research to work out how they want to test it.

But I'm not sure what you mean by stuff like "It would be a double-blind study You can't make it DB with real milk against fake milk because the odors are different." If you're thinking of suggesting a study where they give OK milk to control group babies and stoned-mom-milk to other babies, forget it. Ethics bar that.

But what they could test is what concentrations of THC in milk-producing woman produce what concentrations in milk produced, and at various times after consumption of THC. Then perhaps you could follow up with huge self-reporting studies by mothers about THC use during breastfeeding, then evaluate their children at various ages, comparing their metrics to control group 'clean' mothers.

You'd also have to control for those who also smoked between conception and birth, since there the mother's THC load will be the fetus's.

Helix · Mar 15, 2021

this is terrifying, because everyone born in the 70s is potentially in serious trouble. somebody had better tell them. we should get a PSA ad on classic rock radio to let them know.

New research shows marijuana THC stays in breast milk for six weeks

JacksinPA