Читать книгу Lifespan Development - Tara L. Kuther - Страница 166

The effects of marijuana on prenatal development are not well understood. Marijuana use during early pregnancy negatively affects fetal length and birthweight (Gunn et al., 2016). Prenatal exposure to marijuana is associated with impairments in attention, memory, and executive function as well as impulsivity in children, adolescents, and young adults (Grant, Petroff, Isoherranen, Stella, & Burbacher, 2018; Smith et al., 2016). Prenatal exposure to marijuana is associated with a thinner cortex, the outer layer of the brain, in late childhood, suggesting that there are long-term neurological effects (El Marroun et al., 2016). Researchers and health practitioners have thus concluded that it is important to educate the public about the impact of marijuana on pregnancy and to discourage the use of medical marijuana by pregnant women or women considering pregnancy (Chasnoff, 2017).