TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2021//
TI  - Assessment of cognitive and psychomotor impairment, subjective effects, and blood THC concentrations following acute administration of oral and vaporized cannabis
JO  - Journal of psychopharmacology
A1  - Spindle, Tory R.
A1  - Martin, Erin L.
A1  - Grabenauer, Megan
A1  - Woodward, Thomas
A1  - Milburn, Michael A.
A1  - Vandrey, Ryan
SP  - 786
EP  - 803
VL  - 35
IS  - 7
N2  - BACKGROUND:  Cannabis legalization is expanding, but there are no established methods for detecting cannabis impairment.     Aim:  Characterize the acute impairing effects of oral and vaporized cannabis using various performance tests.     Methods:  Participants (N = 20, 10 men/10 women) who were infrequent cannabis users ingested cannabis brownies (0, 10, and 25 mg Δ−9-tetrahydrocannabinol, THC) and inhaled vaporized cannabis (0, 5, and 20 mg THC) in six double-blind outpatient sessions. Cognitive/psychomotor impairment was assessed with a battery of computerized tasks sensitive to cannabis effects, a novel test (the DRiving Under the Influence of Drugs, DRUID®), and field sobriety tests. Blood THC concentrations and subjective drug effects were evaluated.     Results:  Low oral/vaporized doses did not impair cognitive/psychomotor performance relative to placebo but produced positive subjective effects. High oral/vaporized doses impaired cognitive/psychomotor performance and increased positive and negative subjective effects. The DRUID® was the most sensitive test to cannabis impairment, as it detected significant differences between placebo and active doses within both routes of administration. Women displayed more impairment on the DRUID® than men at the high vaporized dose only. Field sobriety tests showed little sensitivity to cannabis-induced impairment. Blood THC concentrations were far lower after cannabis ingestion versus inhalation. After inhalation, blood THC concentrations typically returned to baseline well before pharmacodynamic effects subsided.     Conclusions:  Standard approaches for identifying impairment due to cannabis exposure (i.e. blood THC and field sobriety tests) have severe limitations. There is a need to identify novel biomarkers of cannabis exposure and/or behavioral tests like the DRUID® that can reliably and accurately detect cannabis impairment at the roadside and in the workplace.    Keywords: Cannabis impaired driving<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0269-8811
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/02698811211021583
ID  - ref1
ER  -