Over the past decade there has been a significant shift in society regarding marijuana (Cannabis sativa, Cannabis indica) such that the current perceived lack of health risk of this drug has lead to more teens today smoking cannabis than cigarettes (Johnston et al., 2012). The growing acceptance in the Western world for the consumption of marijuana has important relevance particularly for women with far reaching implications. Firstly, more young women have increased their use of marijuana and this also extends to periods of pregnancy (SAMSHA, 2014). Secondly, the use of marijuana by women could possibly impact not only their immediate health, but also the health of their offspring, and such potential long-term consequences are still not known. It is clear that the biological differences between males and females influence the development of neuropsychiatric phenotypes (Figueira and Ouakinin, 2010; Savic and Engel, 2014; Shen et al., 2015), but the ways in which marijuana use causes long-term problems that affect the two sexes remain largely unexplored. As such, the inclusion of females in studies of cannabis is essential to decipher the neurobiological systems vulnerable in the different sexes to also ultimately guide targeted treatments in a sex-specific manner.
