§ Lord Alton of Liverpoolasked Her Majesty's Government:
What advice is being issued to women regarding the effect on unborn children of exposure to cannabis. [HL2315]
§ Baroness AndrewsA report prepared for the Department of Health by the National Addiction Centre. namedDangerousness of Drugs (September 2001), links the following dangers to cannabis: "Like tobacco, cannabis smoke is highly likely to be harmful to foetal development and should be avoided by pregnant women. Although there is a raft of studies suggesting that babies born to cannabis smoking mothers weigh less than the offspring of a control group and that children of cannabis smoking mothers may face developmental problems, the research thus far has been unable to untangle the effects of smoking and other factors from that of cannabis use per se".
Copies of the report have been placed in the Library.