Is it safe to use a small amount of cannabis to help with my anxiety and nausea if I am pregnant and what are the risks?

Hello, actually, with the current data on cannabis, there is no known minimum amount that is safe for pregnancy. The safest approach is not to use it at all. Like alcohol and tobacco, cannabis can cross the placenta and can affect the fetus. Health Canada has produced 2 documents, the Cannabis-Related Risks and the Cannabis Resource, for patients regarding the use of cannabis before, during, and after pregnancy that you can look at later for more details. Briefly, cannabis contains more than 700 chemical compounds that can cause the newborn to have a low birth weight and affect the development of the brain, resulting in the long term in decreased memory function, attention span and reasoning skills. Thus, it is strongly recommended that cannabis not be used in any form during pregnancy.

In addition to the harmful effects on the child, it can have short-term effects on the mother's health, including decreased blood pressure (risk of fainting and injury), drowsiness, fatigue, and anxiety. In addition, there is no scientific evidence that cannabis is useful for nausea. As it seems to me that its use during pregnancy poses more risk than benefit, I recommend consulting your doctor or pharmacist to help your symptoms of anxiety and nausea, as there are other options that are much safer during pregnancy and still effective for these symptoms. 

True to your heart,

Lan Thi Duong, pharmacy student (supervised by Alexandre Chagnon, pharmacist)