Impact of Maternal Cannabis Use on Pregnancy and Birth Outcomes

Cannabis (marijuana, hashish, sensimilla) is the most commonly-used illicit drug among pregnant women. Despite recent shifts in national policy and public perception of cannabis, our scientific understanding of the independent risks associated with cannabis use during pregnancy is very poor. Moreover, evidence of maternal cannabis use during pregnancy still constitutes a form of child abuse/neglect requiring mandated reporting to authorities in 14 jurisdictions across the United States (including Illinois), further limiting knowledge in this area. To overcome these barriers, in this study, we will use existing data from approximately 300 women who used marijuana during pregnancy derived from 3 recent independent NIDA-funded prenatal cohorts oversampled for prenatal tobacco and other substance exposures (R01DA020585 PI J. Neiderhiser; R01DA019632 PI R. Eiden; R01DA031188 PI L. Stroud) to advance scientific knowledge about the health outcomes and personal characteristics of women who use cannabis during pregnancy.