Loading...
Guidelines on breast-feeding recommend that mothers abstain from marijuana during pregnancy and lactation. Because limited data exist to support these recommendations, researchers studied the amount and duration of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) excretion in the breast milk of lactating mothers who had laboratory-confirmed marijuana use and who intended to abstain from marijuana while breast-feeding.
Recruitment was difficult: Of 394 women who were screened for study entry, 105 were eligible, 25 were enrolled, and 12 achieved at least partial abstinence. During the 6-week study period, participants provided 2 to 5 samples of breast milk and plasma per week, which were analyzed for THC and metabolites with mass spectrometry assays.
All participant…