New study takes a look at how THC affects breast feeding mothers

A new study says THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana stays in breast milk up to six days after a mother consumes the drug.

While the study out of the University of California, San Diego, did not address how it could affect babies, how are studies like these addressed in Colorado at the dispensary level?

Green Farms Medical Executive Administrator, Daniel Martin, said compliance at the dispensary is his top priority with budtenders.

“Verbiage is important,” Martin said.

Martin said he and his budtenders do read studies like the one regarding THC in breast milk.

“We like to stay informed, but also have to know our limitations,” Martin said. “We’re not physicians, we’re not scientists, we can draw conclusions, and we can make assumptions, but in the end, we have to follow regulations.”

Martin said bulletins from the Colorado Department of Revenue’s Marijuana Enforcement Division are a piece of those regulations.

In June of this year, a bulletin addressed a study out of Denver Health, where a researcher posed as a pregnant woman and asked for advice for cannabis products to treat morning sickness.

The study showed nearly 69 percent of the 400 dispensaries they called in Colorado, recommended marijuana as treatment.

“We can tell you things we have read in studies, so we have to say things like, ‘I’ve read.’ or ‘I have patients who find this is helpful.’ But I can’t tell you, ‘you won’t feel sick anymore.’,” Martin said.

Colorado’s Director of Marijuana Coordination, Dominique Mendiola told KRDO NewsChannel 13 in July these types of compliance issues create opportunities to educate the industry.

“We are proactively working to message and remind industry what those requirements are,” Mendiola said.