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Citation |
Burns M, Moskowitz H. Proc. Int. Counc. Alcohol Drugs Traffic Safety Conf. 1981; 1981: 954-968. |
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Copyright |
(Copyright © 1981, The author(s) and the Council, Publisher International Council on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety) |
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DOI |
unavailable |
PMID |
unavailable |
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Abstract |
The effects of alcohol and marihuana, singly and in combination, on driving-related skills were studied with twelve male subjects. They were initially trained to a criterion performance level on a test battery which included a compensatory tracking task, a divided attention task, a critical tracking task, and a test of the rate of information processing. They then participated in four experimental sessions. At each session a subject received both a cigarette and a beverage in one of the four possible treatment combinations: placebo-placebo, marihuana-placebo, placebo-alcohol, and marihuana-alcohol. The marihuana dose can be characterized as a moderately high level at 200 mu G delta-9 thc/kg bodyweight. The alcohol dose, calculated to produce .07% BAC, was 0.58 g alcohol/kg bodyweight. All response measures showed significant impairment by marihuana alone and alcohol alone. The combined treatment produced greater impairment than either substance alone, with the exception that the information processing rate task showed less deficit under the combination than under alcohol alone. The nature and extent of impairment under alcohol and marihuana is a function of the behavior examined. The paper discusses these findings in terms of driving skills and traffic safety. (Author/TRRL) |