(Reuters Health) – Cigarette use decreased among young women – including pregnant women – during the past decade in the U.S., according to a new study. But, researchers found, use of marijuana blunts rose.
A blunt is a cigar that’s been hollowed out and filled with marijuana. Although researchers aren’t sure about the health implications of the increase, they want to know more given the rapid changes in state marijuana laws, the study authors wrote in the American Journal of Public Health.
“Everyone knows that smoking is bad for you. Everyone knows that women should not smoke while pregnant,” said lead study author Victoria Coleman-Cowger of the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore, in an email to Reuters Health. “But until recently, research in this area has focused primarily on the prevalence and impact of smoking tobacco cigarettes during pregnancy. We now recognize that use of tobacco products and multiple substances is not uncommon, and pregnant women who smoke tobacco cigarettes are often using other tobacco products as well.”
Coleman-Cowger and colleagues analyzed data from the 2006-2016 National Survey on Drug Use and Health to understand how women of reproductive age used cigarettes, cigars, and marijuana blunts during the past month. Altogether, they had survey responses from about 8,700 pregnant women and 162,000 nonpregnant women, ages 18 to 44.