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As governments around the world update their policies towards the legality of cannabis,
随着世界各国政府更新本国对大麻合法化的政策，
that drug's medical and recreational use is spreading.
毒品的药用和娱乐用途正在扩大。
Many women therefore want to know whether it is safe to take the stuff during pregnancy,
因此很多女性都想知道孕期使用大麻是否安全
and face a dearth of evidence to guide them. The use of cannabis by pregnant women is on the rise.
但却面临着缺乏指导证据的窘境。食用大麻的孕妇人数在增长。
A study in a Californian health-care system suggests uptake increased from 2.4% of pregnant mothers in 2002 to 3.9% in 2014.
加利福尼亚医疗系统的一项研究表明孕妇的吸食量从2002年的2.4%增长到了2014年的3.9%。
Other work in Western countries has found rates of between 3% and 16%.
西方国家的其他研究发现，这一比例在3%到16%之间。
Such use is by no means simply recreational. Medical cannabis is employed in many places to control nausea and vomiting,
使用大麻绝不仅仅是娱乐性质的。很多地方都使用药用大麻来控制恶心和呕吐，
so pregnant women have turned to it to treat morning sickness.
所以孕妇选择大麻来治疗晨吐。
Some groups would like to promote the use of cannabis during pregnancy as safe and beneficial.
一些组织希望将孕期使用大麻推销成一种安全有益的方式。
CannaMommy, a website which supports a mother's right to choose "plants over pills" during pregnancy,
CannaMommy网站支持母亲在孕期选择“植物代替药物”的权利，
thinks mothers-to-be should be able to decide how they medicate themselves.
该网站认为准妈妈们应该能够决定如何给自己用药。
A banner across one video on the site says, "Fact: Cannabis is safer than pharmaceuticals".
网站上一个视频的横幅上写着：“事实：大麻比药物更安全”。
It isn't a fact, however. The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
但这并非事实。证据缺失并不等于没有证据。
What evidence there is, moreover, is not encouraging.
此外，现有的证据并不令人鼓舞。
Some studies indicate that using cannabis during pregnancy has long-term consequences for the development of a baby's brain.
一些研究表明在孕期使用大麻会对婴儿的大脑发育造成长期的影响。
These investigations are observational, not double-blinded clinical trials, so they are not completely conclusive.
这些调查都是观测性的，并非双盲临床试验，因此它们并不完全是决定性的。
However they suggest prenatal cannabis exposure predisposes people to hyperactivity,
但他们表示产前使用大麻容易让人亢奋，
impulsivity, loss of attention, psychosis and increased sensitivity to drugs of abuse.
冲动、丧失注意力、精神错乱且对滥用药物的敏感性会增加。
A paper published this week in Nature Neuroscience examines these issues more systematically.
本周发表于《Nature Neuroscience》的一篇论文更系统地研究了这些问题。
Miriam Melis of the University of Cagliari, in Monserrato, Italy and her colleagues carried out experiments,
意大利卡利亚里大学的Miriam Melis和她的同事进行了实验，
albeit on rodents rather than people,
虽然是在老鼠而非人类身上进行，
that looked into the question of prenatal exposure to cannabis by administering the drug's main psychoactive ingredient,
他们通过给怀孕的老鼠注射大麻的主要神经活性成分四氢大麻酚（THC）的方式
tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) to pregnant rats.
研究产前食用大麻的问题。
THC interacts with the endocannabinoid system, a network of brain cells which communicate with each other using THC like molecules.
THC与内源性大麻素系统相互作用，内源性大麻素系统是一个脑细胞网络，通过类似THC的分子相互交流。
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