Public health concerns regarding pregnant women’s health after the enactment of the Cannabis Act in Canada (CAC), and the potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, calls for a contemporary assessment. Our study focuses on examining how the CAC and the pandemic are associated with the monthly prevalence rates of cannabis-, all drug-, and alcohol-related diagnoses disorders among pregnant women in Quebec.
We conducted a retrospective population-based study drawing on data from the Québec Chronic Disease Surveillance System. Using time-series regression analyses, we assessed changes associated with the CAC (October 2018) and the COVID-19 pandemic (April 2020) in the age-standardized monthly prevalence rate of cannabis-, all drug-, and alcohol-related disorders of pregnant women aged 15 years to 49 per 100,000 population between 2010 and 2022.
Before the CAC, the prevalence rate of cannabis-related diagnosed disorders significantly increased each month by 1% (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.00 – 3.00). After the CAC, there were significant increases of 25% (95% CI: 0.01-54.00) of cannabis-related diagnosed disorders. No significant changes were observed for all drug-and alcohol-related diagnosed disorders associated with the CAC. Increases in the prevalence of diagnosed prenatal cannabis-related disorders before and after the CAC, echo public health concerns associated with potential cannabis-related harms in this population including long-term impact on offspring children. In Quebec, a more comprehensive approach to better understand and prevent increases in this outcome should be applied.