New research out of the University of Saskatchewan suggests that using cannabis while pregnant could affect the development and growth of your baby. Dr. Robert Laprairie says in order to determine how cannabis use might affect humans, the graduate students that he oversees have been researching the effect that cannabis has on pregnant rats. “We do this by exposing pregnant rats to cannabis smoke, and then we track the development of the fetus and the growth and development of the pups after birth using different behavioral methods and biochemical analyses,” Laprarie explains.

One graduate student, Ilne Bernard, found changes in the rats’ short-term memory and working memory. Another student, Tallan Black, discovered that injected cannabinoids cause more severe changes in the rats’ growth and development than smoke inhalation did.

Laprairie says in studies of this kind, cannabinoids are typically injected into pregnant rats. However, USask’s first-in-Canada smoke delivery system allows researchers to get a more realistic view of how smoking impacts the brain and body. “There are other systems that are available that deliver vaporized THC or other cannabinoids…ours is the only system, at least that we know of, that delivers smoke from a plant just like a person would use,” Laprairie stated. “A huge push in this research is trying to make the model system that we’re using to study as close to real life or the real world as possible.”

Laprairie says their next steps will be seeing how other routes of exposure effect the rats, such as ingesting it in the form of an edible. Because cannabis is legal in Canada, Laprairie says research on how it affects pregnant women, and their babies is now more important than ever.