Cannabis

OBJECTIVE: The recent debut of the non-tobacco blunt wrap (N-TBW) for smoking cannabis has received little attention from the tobacco control community. The present study is intended to assess blunt smokers' perceptions and receptivity to N-TBWs, which are being marketed as an alternative to cigarillos and other tobacco products used for making blunts. METHODS: Current blunt smokers (n=41) were recruited from social media platforms to participate in one of nine two-hour focus groups held between October 2022 and May 2023...

INTRODUCTION: Cannabinoids show great therapeutic potential, but their effect on anesthesia still remains unclear. Use of chronic recreational Cannabis in humans undergoing anesthetic procedures tends to require a higher dose when compared to non-users. On the other hand, studies on rodents and dogs have shown that cannabinoid agonists may potentiate certain anesthetics. This contrast of effects possibly occurs due to different time lengths of administration of different phytocannabinoids at different doses, and their distinct effects on the Endocannabinoid System, which is also affected by anesthetics such as propofol and isoflurane...

Aim: Knowledge of the cardiovascular and respiratory effects of cannabis use by route of administration is unclear. This evidence is necessary to increase clinical and public health awareness given the recent trend in cannabis legalization, normalization, and surge in the availability and usage of various forms of cannabis products. Methods: Search was conducted in Web of Science, ProQuest, Psych INFO, Scopus, Embase, and Medline databases, and subsequently in the references of retrieved articles. Peer-reviewed articles published between 2009 and 2023, that reported on cardiovascular and respiratory effects of cannabis use by route of administration were included...

Cannabis sativa L., previously concealed by prohibition, is now a versatile and promising plant, thanks to recent legalization, opening doors for medical research and industry growth. However, years of prohibition have left the Cannabis research community lagging behind in understanding Cannabis genetics and trait inheritance compared to other major crops. To address this gap, we conducted a comprehensive genome-wide association study (GWAS) of nine key agronomic and morphological traits, using a panel of 176 drug-type Cannabis accessions from the Canadian legal market...

BACKGROUND: Recovery from addiction is frequently equated with abstinence. However, some individuals who resolve an addiction continue to use substances, including via substitution (i.e., increased use of one substance after eliminating/ reducing another). Substitution may play a distinct role during early recovery (≤ 1 year), as this period is marked by dramatic change and adjustment. Cannabis is one of the most used substances and is legal for medical and recreational use in an increasing number of states...

BACKGROUND: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are known determinants of negative health outcomes. Sexual and gender minority (SGM) individuals have higher ACE scores than non-SGM individuals. The SGM-ACE scale was developed to better assess this population but is not yet validated in SGM subgroups. AIMS: This study aims to validate the sexual and gender minority adverse childhood experiences (SGM-ACE) scale among sexual minority men (SMM) and sexual minority women (SMW), while testing measurement invariance across both groups...

Cannabis producers, consumers, and regulators need fast, accurate, point-of-use sensors to detect Δ9 -tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) from both liquid and vapor source samples, and phthalocyanine-based organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs) provide a cost-effective solution. Chloro aluminum phthalocyanine (Cl-AlPc) has emerged as a promising material due to its unique coordinating interactions with cannabinoids, allowing for superior sensitivity. This work explores the molecular engineering of AlPc to tune and enhance these interactions, where a series of novel phenxoylated R-AlPcs are synthesized and integrated into OTFTs, which are then exposed to THC and CBD solution and vapor samples...

BACKGROUND: Public education efforts to address and reduce potential harms from cannabis use in Arab countries are either slow or inexistent, and do not follow the steadily increasing trends of cannabis use in Arab youth. Several decades of research on substance use, it can be suggested that being aware of, and knowing about, psychosis risk related to cannabis can at least limit the consumption of the substance. Motivated by a lack of measures specifically designed to measure literacy about cannabis-related psychosis risk in younger populations, and based on an extensive literature review, we aimed to create and validate a new self-report scale to assess the construct, the Cannabis-related Psychosis Risk Literacy Scale (CPRL), in the Arabic language...

Over 75% of young adults who use cannabis also report drinking alcohol, leading to increased risks that include impaired cognition, substance use disorders, and more heavy and frequent substance use. Studies suggest that subjective responses to either alcohol or cannabis can serve as a valuable indicator for identifying individuals at risk of prolonged substance use and use disorder. While laboratory studies show additive effects when alcohol and cannabis are used together, the impact of co-using these substances, specifically with respect to cannabidiol, on an individual's subjective experience remains unclear...

BACKGROUND: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) refers to a chronic impairing psychiatric disorder occurring after exposure to the severe traumatic event. Studies have demonstrated that medicinal cannabis oil plays an important role in neuroprotection, but the mechanism by which it exerts anti-PTSD effects remains unclear. METHODS: The chronic complex stress (CCS) simulating the conditions of long voyage stress for 4 weeks was used to establish the PTSD mice model...

INTRODUCTION: Prenatal exposure to substance use is associated with long-term deficits in the neurodevelopment of children. The objective was to investigate the association between cognitive, motor, and language neurodevelopment at three years of age in infants prenatally exposed to substance use. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A prospective matched case-control study was conducted. Biomarkers of fetal exposure were measured in meconium samples. The Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development (BSID-III) were used to calculate neurodevelopment scores...

Background: Cannabis use is increasing among middle-aged and older US adults, populations that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of cannabis. Risks for adverse effects differ by cannabis use patterns, which have become increasingly heterogeneous. Nevertheless, little is known about age differences in such patterns. Objective: To investigate age differences in cannabis use patterns, comparing younger (age 18-49), middle-aged (age 50-64), and older adults (age ≥65). Methods: A total of 4,151 US adults with past 7-day cannabis consumption completed an online survey (35...

BACKGROUND: Exposure to toxins during pregnancy is the main modifiable behavior that affects the placenta and, consequently, the fetus. In particular, smoking is a recognized risk factor for negative outcomes. Our study pretended to examine gross and microscopic placental features in women who reported exposure to tobacco, alcohol, or other psychoactive substances. METHODS: In this observational case-control study, we collected 706 placentas to assess precise substance exposure histological-interaction features of in the placenta...

Aim: Currently, there exist no curative treatments for neurodegenerative disorders. Recently, there has been a resurgence of interest in the use of medicinal cannabis to improve neurological conditions. Methods: A 12-month, open label, dose-finding, safety and efficacy study was conducted including 48 subjects with a variety of neurodegenerative disorders. Results: In our participants, we observed a reduction in pain, improved sleep, enhanced well-being and less agitation. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that medicinal cannabis might be useful in patients with neurodegenerative disorders in controlling pain, enhancing sleep, reducing difficult behaviors, controlling unusual and complex symptoms when other treatments have failed - this offers medicinal cannabis a role in palliation...

In North America, LGBTQ+ youth have high rates of cannabis use and face mental health issues. We conducted a photovoice study to describe the perspectives, needs, and motivations of forty-six LGBTQ+ youth who use cannabis as they access mental healthcare services. Participants' photographs were discussed in individual semi-structured interviews conducted by peer researchers. Following a thematic analysis of the interview transcripts, we first found that, beyond medication, LGBTQ+ youth sought mental health services facilitating introspection to better understand their sexual and gender identities and mental health...

Mendelian randomization (MR) leverages genetic information to examine the causal relationship between phenotypes allowing for the presence of unmeasured confounders. MR has been widely applied to unresolved questions in epidemiology, making use of summary statistics from genome-wide association studies on an increasing number of human traits. However, an understanding of essential concepts is necessary for the appropriate application and interpretation of MR. This review aims to provide a non-technical overview of MR and demonstrate its relevance to psychiatric research...

In the context of missing data, the identifiability or "recoverability" of the average causal effect (ACE) depends not only on the usual causal assumptions but also on missingness assumptions that can be depicted by adding variable-specific missingness indicators to causal diagrams, creating missingness directed acyclic graphs (m-DAGs). Previous research described canonical m-DAGs, representing typical multivariable missingness mechanisms in epidemiological studies, and examined mathematically the recoverability of the ACE in each case...

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Respiratory illnesses and its repercussions are becoming more prevalent worldwide. It is necessary to research both innovative treatment and preventative techniques. Millions of confirmed cases and fatalities from the COVID-19 epidemic occurred over the previous two years. According to the review research, cannabinoids are a class of medicines that should be considered for the treatment of respiratory conditions. Cannabinoids and inhibitors of endocannabinoid degradation have illustrated advantageous anti-inflammatory, asthma, pulmonary fibrosis, and pulmonary artery hypotension in numerous studies ( in vitro and in vivo )...

OBJECTIVE: Co-use of tobacco and cannabis may be prevalent in pregnancy, potentially leading to additional adverse health outcomes. Utilizing a national sample of women followed prospectively before, during, and after pregnancy, this study tested whether prepregnancy co-use of tobacco and cannabis (vs. tobacco-only use and cannabis-only use) was associated with greater likelihood of continuing to use tobacco and/or cannabis during pregnancy and postpartum. METHOD: Data were drawn from Waves 1-5 (2013-2019) of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study...