Ann Arbor, MI: Newborns who test positive for prenatal marijuana exposure are at no increased risk of suffering from either child abuse or neglect, according to an analysis of hospital birth records and subsequent Child Protective Services (CPS) investigations published in the journal Child Abuse & Neglect.
Investigators at the University of Michigan assessed records from over 35,000 births. They found that Black babies are disproportionately tested for drugs – a finding that is consistent with prior data – but that they are no more likely than other newborns to suffer from neglect.
Researchers wrote: “Newborns with a test positive for THC only were not more likely to experience maltreatment. … To our knowledge, this is the first study to link individual hospital birth records including newborn drug tests and results with subsequent CPS investigations and records of substantiated maltreatment.”
They concluded: “No individual person, family, or institution benefits from racially biased testing or unnecessary CPS investigations. These practices have no impact on child safety, but they represent a clear racial disparity and unnecessarily contribute to racial disproportionality in child welfare. … The evidence strongly supports a policy to end routine CPS investigations for cannabis exposure and eliminate racially biased drug testing practices.”
Separate data published last year by researchers at Harvard Medical School similarly determined that those selected to undergo marijuana-specific drug screening during the labor and delivery process are disproportionately Hispanic or African American. The authors of that study concluded, “Toxicology testing of patients for a sole indication of cannabis use, without other risk factors, may be of limited utility in elucidating other substance use and may exacerbate existing disparities in perinatal outcomes.”
Another study, published last year in The Journal of the American Medical Association, also affirmed that “racial disparities [exist] in newborn drug testing [that are] unrelated to obstetrical risk.”
Full text of the study, “Prenatal cannabis exposure and the risk of subsequent maltreatment,” appears in Child Abuse & Neglect.