Novel study of high-potency cannabis shows some memory effects

Date:
July 8, 2021
Source:
Washington State University
Summary:
Researchers observed participants over Zoom as they used
high-potency cannabis they purchased themselves from dispensaries
in Washington state, where recreational cannabis is legal. After
administering cognitive tests, researchers found no impact on
users' performance on decision- making tests in comparison to a
sober group but did find memory impairments related to free recall,
source memory and false memories.

This study is one of the few to investigate cannabis flower and
concentrates containing more than 10% THC.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
Even before the pandemic made Zoom ubiquitous, Washington State University researchers were using the video conferencing app to research a type of cannabis that is understudied: the kind people actually use.


==========================================================================
For the study, published in Scientific Reports, researchers observed
cannabis users over Zoom as they smoked high-potency cannabis flower or
vaped concentrates they purchased themselves from cannabis dispensaries
in Washington state, where recreational cannabis use is legal. They then
gave the subjects a series of cognitive tests.

The researchers found no impact on the users' performance on
decision-making tests in comparison to a sober control group but did
find some memory impairments related to free recall, source memory and
false memories.

While the findings are in line with previous research on low-potency
cannabis, this study is one of the few to investigate cannabis that
contains much more than 10% tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the plant's main psychoactive ingredient.

This is only the second known study to examine the effect of cannabis concentrates.

"Because of federal restrictions to researchers, it was just not possible
to study the acute effects of these high-potency products," said Carrie Cuttler, WSU psychologist and lead researcher on the study. "The general population in states where cannabis is legal has very easy access to
a wide array of high- potency cannabis products, including extremely high-potency cannabis concentrates which can exceed 90% THC, and we've
been limited to studying the whole plant with under 10% THC." While 19
states and Washington D.C. have legalized cannabis for recreational
use, the U.S. federal government still classifies it as a Schedule
1 drug, implying it has a high potential for abuse and no medicinal
benefits. Until recently, researchers interested in studying cannabis
were limited to using low-potency plants of around 6% THC supplied by
the National Institute of Drug Abuse. In June, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration indicated it may allow some companies to start growing
cannabis for research purposes.



==========================================================================
For this study, which began in 2018, Cuttler and her colleagues
found a way to study the effects of high-potency cannabis while still
complying with federal guidelines. The study participants bought their
own products and used them in their own homes. They were never in
a laboratory on federal property, and the researchers never handled
the cannabis themselves. Participants were not reimbursed for their
purchase. Instead they were compensated for their time with Amazon gift
cards. All participants were over 21 and experienced cannabis users who reported no past negative reactions to cannabis like panic attacks.

The study's method was cleared by WSU Division of the Office of the
Attorney General and the university's research ethics board.

The 80 participants were divided into four groups: two groups used
cannabis flower with more than 20% THC but one containing cannabidiol
(CBD), a non- psychoactive component of cannabis, and the other without
CBD. Another group vaped cannabis concentrates with more than 60% THC
that included CBD. A fourth group remained sober.

For all cannabis using groups, the researchers found no effect on a
range of decision-making tests including risk perception and confidence
in knowledge. On a few memory tests there were also no significant
differences between the cannabis-using and sober groups, including
prospective memory, the ability to remember to do things at a later time,
such as attend an appointment. The cannabis-using participants also did
well on temporal order memory, the ability to remember the sequence of
previous events.

However, the groups that smoked cannabis flower with CBD did worse on
verbal free recall trials- they were unable to recall as many words
or pictures that were shown to them compared to the sober group. This
finding was contrary to a small number of previous studies indicating CBD
might have a protective effect on memory. The groups that used cannabis
without CBD and the group that used concentrates, performed worse on a
measure of source memory which means being able to distinguish the way previously learned information was presented.

Finally, all three cannabis-using groups did poorly on a false memory
test - - when given a new word and asked if it had been presented before,
they were more likely to say it had when it had not.

There was also an unexpected finding: people who vaped the high-potency concentrates with more than 60% THC performed comparably to those
who smoked cannabis flower. This may have been because they tended to self-titrate - - using less of the drug to achieve a similar level of intoxication and impairment as the people who smoked the less-potent
cannabis flower.

Cuttler said this was cause for cautious optimism on the little-studied
but widely available concentrates.

"There's been a lot of speculation that these really high-potency
cannabis concentrates might magnify detrimental consequences, but
there's been almost zero research on cannabis concentrates which
are freely available for people to use," said Cuttler. "I want to
see way more research before we come to any general conclusion, but
it is encouraging to see that the concentrates didn't increase harms." ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Washington_State_University. Original written by Sara Zaske. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Carrie Cuttler, Emily M. LaFrance, Amanda Stueber. Acute effects
of high-
potency cannabis flower and cannabis concentrates on everyday life
memory and decision making. Scientific Reports, 2021; 11 (1) DOI:
10.1038/ s41598-021-93198-5 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/07/210708083849.htm

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