Despite all the headline grabbing research that’s been carried out to look for cancer causing properties of cannabis, there doesn’t seem to have been any research done to look at the effects of mixing cannabis and tobacco, as is common practice here in the UK. As this blog has mentioned before, a safer smoking campaign to wean cannabis users off tobacco is an urgently needed measure here, but the government will have non of it.
So it was with some interest I saw a report of a study from the USA in the August e-zine of the Australian anti cannabis campaign NCPIC (National Cannabis Prevention and Information Campaign).
The study, called “Comparison of subjective, pharmacokinetic, and physiological effects of marijuana smoked as joints and blunts” (abstract here) was carried out by Ziva D Cooper and Margaret Haney at Columbia University in the USA. In the best tradition of scientific research they performed a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study to directly compare the subjective, physiological, and pharmacokinetic effects of marijuana smoked with an without tobacco.
It’s worth pointing out a huge cultural difference between the USA and the UK. In the USA most people who smoke cannabis smoke it pure. A “joint” in US stoner slang is simply grass rolled up in a ciggy paper without the pile of Golden Virginia you’d expect to get here. However in recent times the habit of smoking “blunts” has appeared. A “blunt” is a hollowed out cigar filled with cannabis. A blunt is therefore cannabis wrapped in tobacco leaves, a concept most British tokers would understand as being a joint. It’s important to bear this in mind when reading the study.
The sample was rather small - just 12 people who were already cannabis/tobacco smokers over just 6 sessions.
Participants were blindfolded and smoked three puffs from either a blunt (tobacco joint) or a joint (pure cannabis) containing marijuana with varying Delta(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) concentrations (0.0, 1.8, and 3.6%). Subjective, physiological (heart rate, blood pressure, and carbon monoxide levels) and pharmacokinetic effects (plasma THC concentration) were monitored before and at specified time points for 3h after smoking.
The results?
(Tobacco free) Joints produced greater increases in plasma THC and subjective ratings of marijuana intoxication, strength, and quality compared to blunts (tobacco/cannabis), and these effects were more pronounced in women compared to men.
In other words the tobacco free joints were better at delivering the cannabis “hit”, more cannabis per puff.
However, blunts (tobacco/cannabis) produced equivalent increases in heart rate and higher carbon monoxide levels than (Tobacco free) joints, despite producing lower levels of plasma THC.
In other words the tobacco joints are more harmful in terms of carbon monoxide levels and don’t work as well as pure joints.
The conclusion?
These findings demonstrate that smoking marijuana in a tobacco leaf may increase the risks of marijuana use by enhancing carbon monoxide exposure and increasing heart rate compared to (tobacco free) joints.
Wow, proof at last. Mind you to conclude that cannabis plus tobacco is more dangerous than just cannabis is a pretty obvious conclusion really. It would seem pretty intuitive to assume that one drug taken alone is going to be less hazardous than two taken in combination, but a least now there’s some solid evidence to support the common sense logic.
It would be good to see some similar research carried out on UK tokers to better guage the effects of mixing the two drugs, but as has already been said, the government has consistently refused to address the issue.
The reaction in Australia isn’t any better, despite tobacco/cannabis use being somewhat more common there than in the USA. NCPIC’s Dr Melissa M Norberg reported:
In addition, participants reported liking joints more and believed that they were stronger and produced a better high than blunts.
Well, as the plasma levels of THC were higher with the tobacco free joints they probably did get more stoned. But as to whether the subjects found the pure grass joints more to their liking is debatable and is a claim not made in the abstract as such (the pure joints were rated as a higher “quality” than the tobacco blunts, that could mean a few things). If true though it would bes very interesting, because that’s not what (tobacco) joint smokers so often say here. The usual reaction is that tobacco joints are more enjoyable than pure grass joints. Tobacco is a good mixer drug - it goes with almost every other drug and it’s drug effect is to make users feel good about having taken it. Again though, this should be seen as a problem caused by tobacco as it is very likely to lead to higher levels of cannabis use as people chase the feel good effect of the tobacco, indeed experience at UKCIA indicates that people who smoke tobacco joints smoke more cannabis than those who do not. So that comment by Dr Norberg is probably a wrong interpenetration of the results.
The conclusion the anti-cannabis NCPIC draws is predictable for a drug war campaign:
These findings suggest that smoking (tobacco/cannabis) blunts may increase cannabis use harms.
In non-prohibition speak that means smoking tobacco joints makes cannabis use more dangerous, but as with the British government’s anti cannabis campaign run by Frank, there’s no suggestion of doing the obvious thing to reduce that harm - giving cannabis users information about safer methods of use and encouraging them to toke pure.
1 user commented in " Cannabis/tobacco - American research "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackOver 20 years experience of people who use cannabis has taught me that cannabis mixed with tobacco is a dangerous substance worthy of most of the reputation given to cannabis alone (by the prohibitionists). Mixing with tobacco also hides the awful quality of much of the cannabis available by masking the taste and lack of high (tobacco is not an inert substance and makes a significant part the high experienced).
I was told when I first smoked that you had to mix cannabis with tobacco but in those days it was nearly always hash so you needed a pipe or a tobacco mixture. When weed became more popular the myth changed to being - it makes your weed go further or it would simply be too strong without tobacco (take fewer puffs then you idiots).
I know so many people who are addicted to tobacco via this route. But worse still they are addicted to the mixture. A pure cannabis high is not what they want and neither is a cigarette. So they spend all their leisure time (occasionally ALL their time) smoking a cannabis/tobacco mixture. All the persuading and talking will not change their minds especially when cannabis is in short supply (for most smokers) - they believe they will smoke as many joints when they are pure and therefore use far too much cannabis.
There is really only is one way to kick the smoking habit - buy a vaporiser and throw away all your smoking apparatus (just like a cigarette smoker who wishes to quit). Vaporising also gives the best effect from cannabis without most of the harmful effects associated with smoking and you end up using much less as well !
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