Journal of cannabis research最新文献

Background: Cannabis supply methods vary depending on the country, legislation, availability, and population characteristics. In many countries, cannabis consumption remains illegal and poses a major public health concern. Therefore, it is essential to study the factors associated with cannabis supply.

Methods: Data were obtained from the 2017 French ESCAPAD and Health Barometer surveys (HBS). ESCAPAD is a national cross-sectional survey representative of 17-year-olds, while the HBS is a national cross-sectional telephone survey representative of French individuals aged 18-64. To ensure representativeness, data were weighted, and missing data were imputed. Three cannabis supply methods used in the past year were available in both databases and were analyzed using multivariate multinomial logistic regressions: (a) obtained for free; (b) bought from friends, relatives, or dealers; (c) home cultivation.

Results: The study included 2,943 17-years-old and 1,221 adults who reported using at least one of the analyzed methods to obtain cannabis. The majority had purchased cannabis (60% in ESCAPAD and 68% in HBS), while 33% and 24%, respectively, obtained it free, and only 5% and 8% had cultivated it. Among both 17-year-olds and adults, compared with obtaining cannabis for free, being male and experiencing problematic cannabis use were associated with buying or cultivating cannabis. Among 17-year-olds, being an apprentice was associated with a higher likelihood of cultivation, while earning money in the past 30 days and experiencing depression were associated with buying cannabis. Early experimentation with cannabis was associated with both supply methods among adolescents. Among adults, the 26-34 age group was associated with both buying and cultivating, while having less than a high school diploma was associated only with purchasing.

Conclusion: Cannabis supply methods are similar between minors and adults, with buying from friends, relatives, or dealers being the most common source. This study identifies vulnerable people who use cannabis and their acquisition practices, providing valuable insights for public policies.

Background: Cannabinoids have proven to useful for attenuating adverse effects of HIV. People living with HIV use cannabis at higher rates, with evidence suggesting it alleviates physiological symptoms such as nausea, loss of appetite, etc.. Cannabis can alter physiology as well as essential behavioral functions such as motivation. This study investigated the effect of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main psychoactive component of cannabis, on physiological responses and motivation in HIV-1 transgenic (tg) rats and their controls.

Methods: In Experiment 1, adult female and male HIV-1tg (n = 46) rats and their controls (wildtype littermates [WT] and Fischer344 [F344] rats; n = 87) were tested for acute THC-induced (0, 0.3, 3 mg/kg) physiological effects using the cannabinoid tetrad assay: 1) nociception, 2) body temperature, and 3) locomotor and exploratory behavior. In Experiment 2, adult female and male HIV-1tg (n = 58) rats and controls (n = 84) were tested in the Progressive Ratio Breakpoint Task (PRBT) to assess effortful motivation at baseline, after acute THC, then chronic (16 days) THC treatment (0, 0.3, 3 mg/kg). Data collected was analyzed using separate univariate ANOVA test with group (HIV-1tg, WT, F344), drug (0, 0.3, 3 mg/kg THC) and sex (female and male) as fixed factors. Bonferroni adjustments were used to correct for multiple comparisons.

Results: THC (3 mg/kg) reduced nociception, temperature, and locomotor and exploratory activity across genotypes with some sex-dependent effects. Further, HIV-1tg and WT rats showed reduced motivation compared to F344 controls across PRBT testing timepoints. Acute 3 mg/kg THC reduced breakpoints but with no effects after chronic treatment.

Conclusion: Hence, THC produces consistent physiological and motivational across HIV-1tg rats and their controls. Additionally, the HIV-1tg rat exhibited motivational deficits only when compared to the F344 but not WT controls, suggesting careful selections of control groups in future studies.

Background: Depression, anxiety, and cannabis use are growing, interconnected primary care concerns, but remain understudied due few health systems conducting systematic cannabis use screening. This study examines cannabis use and risk of cannabis use disorder (CUD) among primary care patients, comparing outcomes by depression and anxiety diagnoses and psychotropic prescriptions.

Methods: We assessed past three-month cannabis use, reasons for use, and risk of CUD among 170,032 adult primary care patients at a large health system in Los Angeles, CA under a routine screening protocol using the validated, self-administered ASSIST survey. This survey was embedded in the electronic health record (EHR), where data on ICD-10 diagnostic codes for depressive and anxiety disorders, psychotropic prescriptions, and demographics were collected. Logistic regression analysis assessed the association of depression and anxiety diagnoses on risk of CUD.

Results: Median age was 48 years (IQR 35-61), 57.8% were female, and 17.5% reported cannabis use. 24.0% had anxiety diagnoses and 9.0% had depression diagnoses. Cannabis use was higher among patients diagnosed with depression or anxiety than other patients (21.7%-27.4% vs. 15.5%, p < 0.001). Most patients who reported cannabis use and had depression or anxiety diagnoses reported using cannabis to manage emotional symptoms (62.5%-71.3%); notably, 47.3% of these patients had current antidepressant or anxiolytic prescriptions. Moderate-to-high risk of CUD was elevated among patients who reported cannabis use diagnosed with depression (9.8%), anxiety (8.0%), and particularly depression and anxiety (12.9%) (other patients = 4.9%; p < 0.001). After adjusting for age, sex, race and ethnicity, sexuality (LGB + versus heterosexual), employment, and Charlson Comorbidity Index, depression and anxiety diagnoses were associated with elevated risk of CUD [aOR 1.99 (95% CI 1.78-2.23); aOR 1.6 (95% CI 1.51-1.69), respectively], with the highest association among patients with both diagnoses [aOR 2.58 (95% CI 2.34-2.83)].

Conclusions: Clinical depression and anxiety diagnoses were associated with elevated cannabis use prevalence and risk of CUD. Many primary care patients reported using cannabis to manage mental health-related symptoms, even when prescribed psychotropic medications. These findings highlight the need for providers to assess and address cannabis use and potential CUD among primary care patients, especially those diagnosed with depression or anxiety.

Trial registration: Clinical trial number: not applicable.

Background: Poor sleep quality is a commonly reported reason for medical cannabis (MC) use, yet evidence regarding its long-term impact on sleep remains limited. This study evaluated changes in subjective sleep quality over a 12-month period among adults initiating MC treatment in Pennsylvania and explored whether preferred route of administration and referring condition were associated with observed changes.

Methods: A total of 137 adults newly referred for MC in PA completed the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) at baseline and at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months. Linear mixed effects models assessed changes in PSQI global and subscale scores over time. Additional models evaluated whether preferred administration route (oral vs. other) and referring condition (chronic pain, anxiety, PTSD) were associated with differences in observed outcomes.

Results: Global sleep quality scores, where higher values indicate poorer sleep quality, were significantly higher at baseline than at each follow-up point (p < .0001), with no significant differences among follow-up assessments, suggesting early and sustained improvements in self-reported sleep quality. Improvements were observed across all PSQI subscales. No significant relationships were found between sleep quality scores and either administration route or referring condition.

Conclusions: These findings suggest that MC may be associated with improvements in subjective sleep quality, though its impact did not vary as a function of administration route or primary referring condition. Additional research using objective sleep measures and controlled designs is needed to clarify MC's role in sleep quality.

Background: Cannabis use is on the rise yet the systematic molecular impact of key cannabinoid components on various tissues in diverse organisms remains incompletely understood. We aim to systematically elucidate the molecular pathways and networks affected by delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) across species and tissue types.

Methods: We curated 105 THC- and CBD-related RNA sequencing (RNAseq) and microarray datasets from Gene Expression Omnibus (NCBI GEO) with a focus on mammalian species (human, non-human primate rhesus macaque, mouse, rat). Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified using limma for microarrays and DESeq2 for RNAseq data, followed by a meta analysis to identify meta-DEGs. DEGs were analyzed for pathway enrichment using EnrichR, network regulation using Mergeomics key driver analysis, and disease associations using Mergeomics Marker Set Enrichment Analysis. Comparative analyses were conducted across compounds, datasets, species, and tissues.

Results: CBD datasets demonstrated more DEGs and enriched pathways across species and experimental conditions compared to THC. CBD datasets clustered more tightly by route of administration and species and were more frequently enriched for pathways related to zinc homeostasis, inflammation suppression, and cell cycle regulation. In contrast, THC signatures were more heterogeneous and did not exhibit consistent clustering, although consistently altered genes associated with antioxidant activity, neuronal myelination, synaptic signaling, and transcriptional regulation were identified across datasets. THC altered endocannabinoid signaling genes more often in brain tissues, while CBD affected this pathway more heavily in both central and peripheral tissues. Disease enrichment analyses revealed significant associations of CBD DEGs with lipid metabolism and body composition traits, while DEGs of both compounds showed links to neuropsychiatric disorders and type 2 diabetes.

Conclusions: THC and CBD demonstrated distinct and largely non-overlapping transcriptomic responses, with CBD showing more coherent molecular effects across datasets. Our results underscore the potential therapeutic relevance of CBD to metabolic and psychiatric regulation, highlight the context-dependency of THC's molecular actions, and offer molecular insights into the therapeutic and side effects of cannabinoids.

Background: Cannabidiol (CBD) is a non-psychoactive cannabinoid with potential therapeutic applications, including anti-inflammatory, analgesic, and anticancer effects. However, experts raised concerns about its potential to induce DNA damage and chromosomal aberrations at low concentrations. Notably, these studies used liver cell lines, which may not fully reflect the metabolic processing of CBD, potentially limiting the generalizability of their findings. This study investigated the short time effects of CBD on DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) and proliferation in the human liver-derived cell line HepG2.

Methods: HepG2 cells were treated with CBD (5 - 50 [Formula: see text], 3 - 72h incubation). To investigate potential imbalances in the expression of cannabinoid receptors 1 and 2 (CB1 / CB2) within HepG2 cells, we examined their expression using Western blot analysis. We hypothesized that such an imbalance could be associated with pathogenic processes. Double-strand breaks were then detected (5 [Formula: see text] Etoposide (ETP) served as positive control) via indirect immunofluorescence analysis using γ H2AX and 53BP1 antibodies, followed by quantification of DSB foci.

Results: Expression of CB2 but not CB1 was downregulated by 30 % in HepG2 cells after exposure to 5 [Formula: see text] CBD (24h incubation; [Formula: see text]0.05) and 70 % downregulated after exposure to 50 [Formula: see text] CBD (24h incubation; [Formula: see text]0.01). This effect was dose-dependent. Whilst ETP induced dose dependent DSBs, we could not confirm findings by others that CBD significantly increases the number of γ H2AX and 53BP1 foci between 5 [Formula: see text] and 50 [Formula: see text] (3h incubation; [Formula: see text]0.05).

Conclusion: In our model, CBD stimulated the cells, as confirmed by modulation of CB2 expression as well as changes in intracellular cAMP. Our results show that CBD in ranges between 5 [Formula: see text] to 50 [Formula: see text] does not significantly increase the amount of DNA double strand breaks in HepG2 cells compared to the control. However, we did observe a significant reduction in cell proliferation and a significant increase in intracellular cAMP levels following CBD treatment.

Cannabis sativa L. containing < 0.3% delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is currently defined as hemp. Many different legal products in the United States now contain hemp and are marketed for their cannabinoid effects, as an alternative to tobacco products, or even as an aid for tobacco smoking cessation. The hemp cigarettes analyzed have similar designs to tobacco cigarettes with a filter and filler wrapped in paper. Cannabis sativa, like tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum), is a hyperaccumulator of metals. Currently, no publications have reported analyses of metals in these cigarette-like products. Hemp and cannabidiol (CBD) products are increasing in popularity. Thus, reporting the metal concentrations from a variety of hemp cigarette brands can help assess the potential for harmful exposures. We analyzed the hemp filler in 14 commercial brands for beryllium (Be), chromium (Cr), manganese (Mn), cobalt (Co), nickel (Ni), arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), and uranium (U) content.The hemp cigarette filler metals concentrations are compared to previously published metals levels in tobacco cigarette and little cigar filler. NIST Reference Material (RM) 8210 Hemp Plant was also analyzed to assess and confirm analytical accuracy. Of note, all hemp cigarette filler cadmium concentrations were below our lowest reportable level, and statistically lower than our previously published U.S. tobacco cigarettes and little cigars filler. The other metal concentration ranges were similar to previous tobacco cigarettes and little cigars results, although mean concentrations were statistically different in many cases. Different states have testing requirements with action limits for selected metals concentrations in Cannabis sativa L. Several hemp cigarette brands had chromium, nickel, arsenic, and lead concentrations that were above some state action limits.