What a scare some parents had to give when they were told that their babies tested positive for marijuana. After multiple cases have occurred in the United States, a study was initiated that has revealed how the use of certain baby soaps and shampoos It can trigger a positive test result for newborns to detect marijuana.
Among those hygiene products are well-known brands such as Johnson & Johnson or Aveeno. Only a small amount of these in a urine sample will give a positive result of marijuana, detecting tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), component of said drug.
The study has been carried out by researchers from Chapel Hill University in North Carolina. Specifically, soaps directly associated with false-positive marijuana results are: Johnson & Johnson's Bedtime Bath, CVS Night-Time Baby Bath, Aveeno Baby Soothing Relief Creamy Wash and Aveeno Baby Wash & Shampoo.
So far it is not clear why these products affect the result of marijuana screening tests, scientists believe that some soaps have an ingredient of similar molecular structure to cannabis.
What is known is that the products do not produce the effects of marijuana on babies and do not generate intoxication, which, of course, would have caused the immediate withdrawal of the products.
This study that yields such surprising results was initiated to help the families for which the custody of the children was in danger although they claimed that they had not used marijuana. And it is that the positive results in this type of drug can trigger this process.
The case has opened a debate in some sectors of American society, seeing more advantages or damages in the separation of newborn babies from their parents in these cases.
For example, the Director of the National Coalition for the Reform of the Protection of Children considers that taking custody of the baby for a positive test of marijuana is very harmful for the newborn and points out that there is evidence that a substitute home can be Much worse for a child. According to him, this happens even when the mother has taken hard drugs during pregnancy.
The study, published in the June issue of the journal Clinical Biochemistry, also highlights the importance of collaboration and communication between the different units of a hospital, to try to detect cases of risk and false positives, for the benefit of babies.
Now there is the question of how to find out which cases are true, just take a look at the bathrooms of the "suspects" to see if they use some of these baby shampoos?
In short, the study that shows that certain baby soaps give false positives in marijuana It had the objective of demonstrating how safe these cases should be before initiating legal actions and that social services come into play with measures that can significantly harm the baby.
