Plain Language Summary
People get high when they smoke or vape cannabis. Many of us know this, but this 2018 paper is among the first to bring volunteers who were not already regular users into the lab, administer a randomized, double-blinded dose of cannabis and study its effects under controlled conditions. They use a mixture of outcome measures including self-reported subjective experience of intoxication, cognitive and psychomotor tests, vital signs, and blood THC concentration, and they explore how those variables reliably change together with administration of cannabis over placebo. None of the effects they report are groundbreaking in themselves for anyone familiar with how cannabis affects the body, but seeing them carefully measured out and compared to each other over time serves to establish some baseline correlates for what's happening in our bodies when we "get high," as well as how different people can differ in their experiences and reactions.
Key Points & Implications
Relatively small sample size (n = 18), but among the first to assess people who were not already regular cannabis users
Within-participant design, meaning each person was in one of the two conditions (vaped or smoked) for the first three sessions, then everyone switched conditions for the final three sessions; that is, over six sessions, every participant got each of the three doses in each of the two conditions
The highest dose they tested was 25mg of THC
They did a lot to keep the dose constant, but at the expense of the experience being quite condition-specific; participants had 10 minutes to self-administer the cannabis, whether it was being vaped or smoked
Participants in both conditions "self-administered" a weight-controlled dose, but those smoking that dose actually self-administered using a pipe and very little filtration, while the study staff operated the Volcano Medic in the vaporized condition and gave the participants filled bags to inhale; two very different experiences to fit into 10 minutes
Still, the tightly controlled laboratory setting (and the approval the team was able to get to administer randomized cannabis doses to infrequent users) serves to establish some measurable correlates to the subjective experience of being "high"
It also suggests that vaped doses are generally more potent by weight than smoked doses, although the high-tech/low-tech discrepancy between conditions could explain at least part of that effect
Author(s) & Affiliation(s)
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Full Citation
Spindle, Tory R., et al. “Acute effects of smoked and vaporized cannabis in healthy adults who infrequently use cannabis.” JAMA Network Open, vol. 1, no. 7, 30 Nov. 2018, https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2018.4841.