The Stigmatization of Cannabis Is Still Alive and Well in California
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“You have the right to considerate and respectful care, and to be made comfortable. You have the right to have your cultural, psychosocial, spiritual and personal values, beliefs and preferences respected.”
This is the first right listed on Providence Little Company of Mary Medical Center’s Rights & Responsibilities web page. What they fail to mention, however, is that they don’t consider cannabis consumption to be part of a person’s cultural, psychosocial, spiritual, or personal values, beliefs, or preferences.
In fact, despite it being recreationally legal in California for nearly a decade, consuming cannabis is so far outside their definition of personal preference that they force maternity patients to sign a physical document demanding they “do not trust anyone who is using marijuana to care for [their] child.”
This extremist document—which was handed to me and my wife while she was in labor and required a signature before they would deliver our baby—was presented to us as an agreement that “just states you won’t bring cannabis in the hospital or use it while you’re on-site.”
Nowhere on the paper does it actually say or imply that or anything remotely close, for that matter. It starts off with, “Your caregivers at Providence Little Company of Mary want to help you have the best information available to care for you and your baby.” But it quickly becomes apparent that what they deem as the “best information available” is the same propagandist bullshit that’s been circulating since the 1930s.
Instead of relaying factual information, it presents bogus claims like, “there is no form of marijuana that is safe: smoking, vaping, or edibles,” and, “the effects of marijuana can prevent parents from responding to the needs of their child.”
It also strategically points out that “the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) all state that marijuana should not be used while breastfeeding,” while failing to mention each organization’s reason for this recommendation, which is that there’s not enough evidence to decisively say whether consuming while breastfeeding is safe or unsafe. (See here, here, and here.)
Apparently, Providence Little Company of Mary must have its own vault of evidence to substantiate these claims. I’d love to see it.
And in the vein of providing “the best information available to care for you and your baby,” it should be noted that they did not take the time to discuss with us the effects of drinking alcohol, smoking tobacco, or taking opioids while breastfeeding, nor did they present to us any similar documentation regarding those drugs and their potential effects on parenting an infant. Likewise, when they prescribed my wife fentanyl for her discomfort because it wasn’t yet time for an epidural, there was no discussion about its potential effects on the baby still in her womb.
As a cannabis consumer and professional, I was shocked to see this type of stigmatized language, subjective claims, and flat-out ignorance coming from a medical institution in California, especially one that alleges to be “dedicated to a holistic approach to medicine” and has locations and affiliates in seven states, all of which have a medical marijuana program at the very least.
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As a parent, I was enraged. My wife does not consume cannabis. I do. This document essentially advised my wife to never trust me with our children, and then insisted on her signature to hold her to it.
If she refused to sign, then what? They refuse to deliver our baby and kick her out, mid-labor? They report me to the Department of Children’s Services on “suspicion of infant endangerment”? Unlikely, I’m sure (I would hope), but is that something to be put to the test while my wife is in labor? Of course not. That would be exactly why they handed it to her as she was about to deliver a child.
To see this type of manipulation and flagrant disregard for concrete data coming out of an established and respected medical organization is disheartening, to say the least. To have it happen in California, the state that birthed modern medical marijuana programs in this country, is distressing.
I suppose the argument could be made that it’s just business. The more people choose plant medicine over pills, the less opportunity Providence has to profit, so why not spread a little misinformation for revenue’s sake. This point of view makes the whole thing less surprising, though not any less disgusting.
My biggest takeaway from this bizarre incident is that our fight for cannabis is far from over. Propaganda is still circulating far and wide, and we have to continue to speak out against it if we want to maintain progress.
So, this is me speaking out, because, contrary to Providence Little Company of Mary’s beliefs, my cannabis consumption has not impaired my ability to be a good father to my children - and I’ve got the evidence to prove it.
