The two most studied compounds in cannabis may not be as balanced with each other as commonly claimed.
THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol) is the main intoxicating part of the cannabis plant, and CBD (cannabidiol) is the main non-intoxicating part.
The two are often at odds, but the effects on the human body may not be a tug-of-war after all.
A new double-blind clinical trial has challenged the hypothesis that CBD can outperform THC and reduce negative side effects such as drunkenness, cognitive impairment, and anxiety.
Instead, when taken in high enough doses, CBD appears to actually enhance the intoxicating effects of THC.
In the experiment, when participants took 9 milligrams of THC and 450 milligrams of CBD, they reported feeling significantly more physically and mentally “high” than if they took THC alone.
Researchers who analyzed their blood found elevated levels of THC and its psychoactive metabolites. They suspect that high doses of CBD may inhibit the metabolism of THC in the body, thereby exacerbating its psychoactive effects.
These interactions were also evident at lower CBD doses of 30 milligrams, but these lower doses did not have a significant effect on subjective feelings of intoxication.
“The hypothesis that CBD attenuates the effects of THC, regardless of the route of administration, remains controversial, and our results add further evidence against it,” said a clinical scientist led by Andriy Golbenko of the Center for Human Drug Research. The authors of the study explain: In the Netherlands.
The study was conducted on healthy male and female volunteers between the ages of 18 and 45. Each participant had used cannabis in the past, but had not used the drug for at least 3 weeks prior to the experiment.
On five separate occasions, participants arrived at the clinic to take oral medication containing either a placebo, pure THC, or a mixture of THC and CBD. Neither the participants nor the researchers knew who was ingesting what.
Several hours after ingestion, participants measured subjective pain and feelings of intoxication using two validated tests. Blood samples were collected before dosing and again at multiple intervals up to 8 hours after dosing.
Lower doses of oral CBD did not affect the intoxicating effects of THC, but the highest doses of CBD had a significant effect on most psychoactive measures examined.
“A drug-drug interaction, with CBD as the perpetrator drug and THC as the victim drug, appears to be the most likely explanation for the pharmacokinetic findings in this study,” the research team explained. .
Additionally, CBD levels did not affect participants' subjective ratings of pain, supporting previous clinical studies that found that CBD products alone do not reduce chronic pain.
This study was small and only considered oral ingestion of CBD and THC. However, to date, inhalation studies have not yet provided convincing evidence that CBD reduces the effects of THC.
Neuropharmacologist Geert Groenefeldt told Scipost that his team at the Center for Human Drug Research is continuing trials using very high doses of pure CBD.
“We haven't announced this yet,” Groeneveld told reporter Eric Dolan. It can be detected in very sensitive test batteries…”
Cannabis is now the most regularly used recreational drug in the United States, even surpassing alcohol. It's time to find out how its two main compounds affect the human body.
The study was published in the journal Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics.
