New Study Investigating Whether Cannabis can be transferred through Breastfeeding Announced

A recent study has been announced on a controversial and important topic—cannabis and breast milk. Dr. Thomas Hale and Dr. Teresa Baker, two researchers at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Amarillo, are planning to start a study on the transfer of THC—tetrahydrocannabinol, the active compound in cannabis—into breast milk.

The focus of their study will be to determine how much leaches into the milk and if there is any medical concern. “One hundred percent of drugs transfer to breast milk,” Hale told Amarillo Globe-News, a renowned expert on the subject. “That said, 99 percent of them transfer at subclinical levels,” which means there are no noticeable symptoms.

Colorado mom Jeanna Hoch had been using cannabis medicinally while carrying both of her children, and while breastfeeding them. Colorado Child Protective Services began investigating Hoch’s cannabis use after they were alerted to the fact that she was breastfeeding her daughter and also using cannabis, back in 2015.

“You’re unsure of what’s going to happen to your family; it’s a lot of pressure, a lot of stress,” Hoch said of the ensuing weekslong ordeal. The state social workers and health officials are working with a very limited amount of scientific research into the topic, according to Hoch.

Luckily, this topic has come under the scrutiny of needing more research across the country, so some doctors finally decided to step up and look into it. Hale has authored a go-to book on the subject called Medications and Mothers’ Milk. Now in its 16th edition, the book contains information for more than 1,000 drugs and can be found in classrooms and hospitals around the world.

The book discourages cannabis use in breastfeeding mothers, but not because of evidence that it is damaging, just mainly because of a lack of quality data. “We looked at how it works in [blood],” Baker said. “Within 20 minutes it goes up, and then after about two hours the active component goes down.”

Whether a similar peak and trough pattern occurs with THC in breast milk is what Hale and Baker hope to discover. It is possible that results in this study could show that only an insignificant amount enters the milk, meaning there’s no need to wait at all.

Hale and Baker recently traveled to Colorado to work out how they will perform the study, and health officials there are welcoming the efforts. The scientists hope to allow volunteers to anonymously pick up packages containing exact instructions on how to participate in the study, where to get the cannabis products and how much to use. Participants in the study will produce breast milk samples, freeze them and mail the samples to Amarillo for testing.

Although the scientists need to first get the study approved by an institutional review board, patients like Hoch are eagerly awaiting the results, whatever they may be. “Even if the research comes out and tells us that we’re wrong, we want to know that,” she said. “We’re not just ‘stoner moms’ recklessly endangering our children; we are mothers that care.”