Introduction: Major gaps exist in the measurement of cannabis exposure. The accuracy of self-reported cannabis and tobacco dose per joint is poorly characterized and has never been investigated following acute cannabis/tobacco exposure. Using an innovative "Roll a Joint" paradigm, this study aims to (1) compare estimated and actual dose of cannabis and tobacco per joint at baseline and (2) exam...

Cannabis is the most frequently used illicit drug worldwide, but little is known about the mechanisms underlying continued cannabis use. Cue-reactivity (the physical, psychological, behavioural and neural reaction to substance-related cues) might be related to continued cannabis use. In this 3-year prospective neuroimaging study we investigated whether cannabis cue-induced brain activity predic...

INTRODUCTION We examine whether regular cigarette smokers were more likely to be exposed to and use cannabis at an earlier age, and further, upon initiation, whether their initial experiences with cannabis varied from those reported by never/non-regular cigarette smokers. METHOD A sample of 3797 Australian twins and siblings aged 21-46 years was used. Survival analyses examined whether cigare...

PURPOSE OF REVIEW A rational cannabis policy would arguably be one that minimized the harms of both cannabis use and the legal policies adopted to control its use. We, therefore, review recent epidemiological evidence on the harmful effects of cannabis use and social research on the costs and benefits of cannabis prohibition. RECENT FINDINGS Epidemiological evidence suggests that cannabis inc...

INTRODUCTION AND AIMS Recent years have witnessed increased attention to how cannabis use impacts the use of other psychoactive substances. The present study examines the use of cannabis as a substitute for alcohol, illicit substances and prescription drugs among 473 adults who use cannabis for therapeutic purposes. DESIGN AND METHODS The Cannabis Access for Medical Purposes Survey is a 414-q...

A potentially powerful predictor for the course of drug (ab)use is the approach-bias, that is, the pre-reflective tendency to approach rather than avoid drug-related stimuli. Here we investigated the neural underpinnings of cannabis approach and avoidance tendencies. By elucidating the predictive power of neural approach-bias activations for future cannabis use and problem severity, we aimed at...

INTRODUCTION Cannabis is Europe's most commonly used illicit drug. Some users do not develop dependence or other problems, whereas others do. Many factors are associated with the occurrence of cannabis-related disorders. This makes it difficult to identify key risk factors and markers to profile at-risk cannabis users using traditional hypothesis-driven approaches. Therefore, the use of a data-...

While the effects of cannabis use on retrospective memory have been extensively examined, only a limited number of studies have focused on the links between cannabis use and prospective memory. We conducted two studies to examine the links between cannabis use and both time-based and event-based prospective memory as well as potential mechanisms underlying these links. For the first study, 805 ...

OBJECTIVES Cannabis use has been associated to a wide variety of mental disorders, the possible causal role of this use in the etiology of severe mental disorders as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder standing out. Moreover, the cannabinoid system is involved in emotional regulation, so cannabis use could disturb this process and provoke anxiety and mood disorders. The main objective of this stu...

Background: Cannabis is the most widely used illegal drug worldwide. Long-term use of cannabis is known to cause chronic bronchitis and airflow obstruction, but the prevalence of macroscopic emphysema, the doseresponse relationship and the dose equivalence of cannabis with tobacco has not been determined. Methods: A convenience sample of adults from the Greater Wellington region was recruited i...