Abstract
Ten young, healthy male volunteers smoked a marihuana cigarette with 2.5% δ 9-THC and a THC-exhausted placebo cigarette. The marihuana administration was associated with an increase in heart rate, elevation of systolic blood pressure, conjunctival reddening and specific airway conductance increase; time perception and Automated Digit Symbol Substitution Test performance were impaired. Diastolic blood pressure and attention measured by the Continuous Performance Task were not affected.
The placebo preparation produced a subjective pleasant “high” but no physiologic effects nor performance change. The “high” induced by the active preparation was often rated as unpleasant.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abel, E. L.: Marihuana and memory: acquisition or retrieval? Science 173, 1038–1040 (1971)
Altman, H., Evenson, R. C.: Marihuana use and subsequent psychiatric symptoms: a replication. Comprehens. Psychiat. 14, 415–420 (1973)
Beaconsfield, P., Ginsburg, J., Rainsbury, R.: Marihuana smoking, cardiovascular effects in man and possible mechanisms. New Engl. J. Med. 287, 209–212 (1972)
Cappell, H., Webster, C. D., Herring, B. S., Ginsberg, R.: Alcohol and marihuana: a comparison of effects on a temporally controlled operant in humans. J. Pharmacol. exp. Ther. 182, 195–203 (1972)
Clark, L. D., Nakashima, E. N.: Experimental studies of marihuana. Amer. J. Psychiat. 125, 379–384 (1968)
Dornbush, R. L., Fink, M., Freedman, A. M.: Marihuana, memory and perception. Amer. J. Psychiat. 128, 194–197 (1971)
Edwards, A. L.: Experimental design in psychological research. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston 1968
Evans, M. A., Martz, R., Brown, D. J., Rodda, B. E., Kiplinger, G. F.: Impairment of performance with low doses of marihuana. Clin. Pharmacol. Ther. 14, 936–940 (1973)
Halikas, J. A., Goodwin, D. W., Guze, S. B.: Marihuana use and psychiatric illness. Arch. gen. Psychiat. 27, 162–165 (1972)
Harding, T., Knight, F.: Marihuana-modified mania. Arch. gen. Psychiat. 29, 635–637 (1973)
Heath, R. G.: Marihuana. Effects on deep and surface electronencephalograms of man. Arch. gen. Psychiat. 26, 577–584 (1972)
Henriksson, B. G., Jarbe, T.: The effects of two tetrahydrocannabinols (δ 9-THC and δ 8-THC) on conditioned avoidance learning in rats and its transfer to normal state conditions. Psychopharmacologia (Berl.) 22, 23–30 (1971)
Hollister, L. E.: Marihuana in man: three years later. Science 172, 21–29 (1971)
Hollister, L. E., Gillespie, H. K.: Marihuana, ethanol and dextroamphetamine. Arch. gen. Psychiat. 23, 199–203 (1970)
Isbell, H., Gorodetzky, C. M., Jasinski, D.: Effects of (−)δ 9-transtetrahydrocannabinol in man. Psychopharmacologia (Berl.) 11, 184–188 (1967)
Jarbe, T. U. C., Henriksson, B. G.: Effects of δ 8-THC and δ 9-THC on the acquisition of a discriminative positional habit in rats. Psychopharmacologia (Berl.) 31, 321–332 (1973)
Kiplinger, G. F., Manno, J. E., Rodda, B. E., Forney, R. B.: Dose-response analysis of the effects of tetrahydrocannabinol in man. Clin. Pharmacol. Ther. 12, 650–657 (1971)
Klonoff, H., Low, M., Marcus, A.: Neuropsychological effects of marihuana. Canad. med. Ass. J. 108, 150–165 (1973)
Kornetsky, C., Bain, G.: The effects of chlorphromazine and pentobarbitol on sustained attention in the rat. Psychopharmacologia (Berl.) 8, 277–284 (1965)
Melges, F. T., Tinklenberg, J. R., Hollister, L. E., Gillespie, H. K.: Marihuana and temporal disintegration. Science 168, 1118–1120 (1970)
Meyer, R. E., Pillard, R. C., Shapiro, L. M., Mirin, S. M.: Administration of marihuana to heavy and causal marihuana users. Amer. J. Psychiat. 128, 198–204 (1971)
Mirsky, A. F., Kornetsky, C.: On dissimilar effects of drugs on the digit symbo substitution and continuous performance tests. Psychopharmacologia (Berl.) 5 161–177 (1964)
Orzack, M. H., Taylor, C. L., Kornetsky, C.: A comparison of the behavioral effects of periodic administration of chlorpromazine and a “sustained-release” form of chlorpromazine. Clin. Pharmacol. Ther. 10, 258–261 (1969)
Overton, D.: State-dependent learning, produced by depressant and atropine-like drugs. Psychopharmacologia (Berl.) 10, 6–31 (1966)
Renault, P. F., Schuster, C. R., Heinrich, R.: Marihuana: standardized smoke administration and dose effect curves on heart rate in humans. Science 174, 583–591 (1971)
Rosvold, H. E., Mirsky, A. F., Sarason, I., Bronsome, E. D., Beck, L. H.: A continuous performance test of brain damage. J. cons. Psychol. 20, 343–350 (1956)
Segal, S.: Nonparametric statistics for the behavioral sciences. New York: McGraw-Hill 1956
Tashkin, D. P., Shapiro, B. J., Frank, I. M.: Pulmonary effects of smoked marihuana and oral δ 9-tetrahydrocannabinol. New Engl. J. Med. 289, 336–341 (1973)
Vachon, L., Fitzgerald, M. X., Solliday, N. H., Gould, I. A., Gaensler, E. A.: Single-dose effect of marihuana smoke. New Engl. J. Med. 288, 985–989 (1973)
Weil, A. T., Zinberg, N. E.: Acute effects of marihuana on speech. Nature (Lond.) 222, 434–437 (1969)
Weil, A. T., Zinberg, N. E., Nelsen, J. M.: Clinical and psychological effects of marihuana in man. Science 162, 1234–1242 (1968)
Zeidenberg, P., Clark, W. C., Jaffe, J., Anderson, S.W., Chin, S., Malitz, S.: Effects of oral administration of δ 9-THC on memory, speech and perception of thermal stimulation. Comprehens. Psychiat. 14, 549–556 (1973)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
This work was supported by NIMH award number 5 R01 DA00067-03.