breaking the stigma
There seems to be this long standing, negative stigma that surrounds mothers who use cannabis. They get labeled as careless, selfish individuals who couldn't put their "addiction," aside for their children. They get grouped in with parents who are, sadly, addicted to substances that DO affect their parenting abilities. Another sad fact is, many of the people with this way of thinking are extremely obtuse. Almost any efforts to educate them will likely result in insults that are not only even more ignorant than the initial thought process itself; but unjustified, unwarranted and inequitable.
Insults such as,
" You're openly admitting to getting your child high."
"You're hurting your baby!"
"If you can't put it down for nine months, that says a lot about you as a mother."
Let's break some of that down shall we?
Does Baby Actually Get High in Utero?
Let's talk Cannascience. Our government consistently fails to give us the studies we need on this very topic under the guise that it is," unethical," to subject a group of pregnant women to use cannabis for a study. An argument that is not only contradictory, as it would then bring into question the ethics of every pharmaceutical study they have ever been willing to conduct on pregnant women, thus far. But paradoxical, because it suggests that the thousands of women who use cannabis, without any trouble, are not willing to subject themselves to such studies in order to help other women. As an activist, I can say that I would have been more willing to subject myself to a study about cannabis, than a study about Zofran. I can also say, from the conversation that I have started on TikTok alone, I am not the only one.
Decarboxylation of CBD and THC - THAT'S How You Activate Cannabis
The strongest standing argument I have faced, thus far, when speaking with a mom shammer about the use of cannabis and how it actually works in our system is that the THC presence in our blood get our babies "high" in utero. Allow me to break down why this argument is the weakest one.
Many cannabis connoisseurs already know this, but when baking with cannabis, to get all of the pharmacological or healing effects, you first need to decarboxylate your cannabis. What is decarboxylation? Well, cannabis consists of hundreds of cannabinoids. The most common of which are THC and CBD. Before decarboxylation, THC and CBD are only present in the plant as carboxyl acids. This is where you hear the term THC-A and CBD-A. The 'A' stands for acid. When you apply heat, the acid releases a carbon dioxide molecule. This is what's called decarboxylation or activation. You can read more about this process here:
https://sensiseeds.com/en/blog/decarboxylation-of-cbd-and-thc-thats-how-you-activate-cannabis/
Is the THC In Your Blood Activated?
Another argument I have seen a lot of has to do with the THC presence in blood. Many mom shammers claim, "If there is THC present in the bloodstream, then you are getting your baby high."
While this also seems like a strong argument, I will break-down why it's weak. If the THC in your blood were active, that would essentially make you a walking edible. While THC can be found in blood and even binds to fat, its mere presence in the blood is not an indication of a person’s impairment. The THC present in your blood is no longer active. Meaning the only measurement of THC that can be made does not indicate how high an individual was. Only that THC was used in some way. Therefore the THC present in breast milk is also inactive. If one could get high off of the breastmilk of a mother who uses cannabis, there would be a pretty big market for it. While one would have to drink a lot of it, in theory, a person could get drunk off drinking the blood of a drunk individual. The same can NOT be said for THC. And this further proves that this argument is weak.
You can read more on the detection of THC in blood and how indicative it is of impairment here:
Are We Harming Our Children? Are We Bad Moms?
The short answer is HELL NO! The long answer is a bit more touchy-feely so get your napkins ready.
When we become mothers, our number one priority is our babies. So much so that we would even question what our doctors prescribed us. We learned everything we could about the prescriptions, the chemicals in our household products, and even our self-care products. We started to see that we couldn't trust the world around us more than we could have ever imagined and started taking matters into our own hands. We did the research and weighed out our pros and cons. Then we fought.
We fought for our right to choose a plant with little to no side effects over the endless list of side effects the drugs our doctors offered to us had. We fought to protect our children from PROVEN abnormalities (birth defects), long-term side effects, and complete loss. We cried as we read the stories of mothers who wished they had done their research and wished they DIDN'T put all their faith in their doctors. And then we fought some more to be allowed to continue to nourish their bodies with our own, as we should all have the right to do. Our entire journey as mothers, in general, is difficult because we are all viewed with judgment no matter WHAT we choose to do. However, my journey as a cannamom is a struggle I've never known.
It's a constant battle of proving yourself. Proving that just because you rely on natural medicine doesn't make you a lazy couch-locked parent. Proving that it IS medicine and not just something you use for a good time. Constantly being told that your flaws and decisions make you a poor mother when you've worked on every aspect of yourself and every decision made was to be the best mother you could be. Having to constantly validate YOURSELF in a society that invalidates every choice you should have the right to make as a woman. So are you a bad mother because you use cannabis?
I think there is a lot that can make someone a "bad" mother that has absolutely nothing to do with cannabis. It's time we stop spreading that stigma around. After all, in 2022, we have the right to choose many things, and plant medicine should be one of them. I think anyone’s choice to use cannabis is their own and is not the deciding factor on how good of a parent they are. I know in MOST cases, moms who choose to use cannabis do so because of the amount of research they've done on Big Pharma, and cannabis is probably not the only plant they're educated on. Which, in my opinion, makes you a pretty kick-ass mom.
