This is an excerpt from an email sent by Stuart Reece to Senator Eric Abetz as part of a Drug Watch International discussion relating to the proposal for Drug Decriminalization in Northern Territory of Australia, more specifically related to the effects of cannabis exposure to malformation of babies.
Eric you might also be interested that I am working on a study of cannabis as a contributing factor to the pattern of congenital malformations seen in babies world wide with some of the top people in the world.
I am also doing a detailed dissection of some of the congenital anomaly rates in various conservative and liberal USA states again exploring is cannabis exposure can explain the different patterns seen – as we would very much expect from the observed pattern of congenital anomalies and the basic science of cannabis teratogenesis to this point.
Interestingly perhaps there seem to be about five major routes from cannabis exposure in father or mother to malformation of babies. They are:
- Epigenetic changes – disordering of the software programming that the DNA gene sequence carries
- Disruption of mitosis and cell division by disruption of the mitotic spindle and interference with the tubulin rails along which the chromosomes slide in cell division
- Disruption of cellular energetics which relates to DNA physiology both indirectly and directly and via modulation of epigenetic pathways
- Interruption of the blood vessel pathways – foetal vessels carry high density cannabinoid type 1 receptors (CB1R’s). Since they guide nerve and limb and muscle development, disruption of the blood vessels implies major failures of foetal formation, and disruption of the well documented processes of heart valve and major central vessel formation, since the tissue from which heart valves and great arteries are formed also has high levels CB1R’s
- Major changes to sperm and egg formation with major damage to the DNA, protamine proteins which package DNA in sperm, sperm epigenome, and the physiology of the reproductive tract in both male and female
The spectre of another thalidomide disaster is a real concern which has very much not been factored in to the debate so far.
Why we cannot learn from history completely eludes me…..???
Source: Email sent in copy to Drug Watch International. May 2018