Citation

Meier U, Dussy F, Scheurer E, Mercer-Chalmers-Bender K, Hangartner S. Forensic Sci. Int. 2018; 291: 62-67.

Affiliation

Institute of Forensic Medicine of the University of Basel, Health Department Basel-Stadt, Pestalozzistrasse 22, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.forsciint.2018.08.009

PMID

30149280

Abstract

In Switzerland, the sale of cannabis with tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content less than 1% has recently been legalized. As a consequence, cannabis with low THC and high cannabidiol (CBD) values up to approximately 25% is legally available on the market. In this study, we investigated cannabinoid blood and urine concentrations of a naive user and of a modeled chronic user after smoking a single CBD joint. Chronic use was modeled as smoking 2 joints per day for 10 days. Joints contained 200mg of cannabis with THC concentrations of 0.94% and 0.8% and CBD concentrations of 23.5% and 17% in the naive-smoker and chronic-smoker experiment, respectively. After smoking, blood and urine samples were collected for 4 and 20h after smoking start, respectively. THC blood concentrations reached 2.7 and 4.5ng/mL in the naive and chronic user, respectively. In both cases, the blood THC concentration is significantly above the Swiss road traffic threshold of 1.5ng/mL. Consequently, the user was legally unfit to drive directly after smoking. CBD blood concentrations of 45.7 and 82.6ng/mL were reached for the naive and chronic user, respectively. During the 10-day smoking period, blood and urine samples were regularly collected. No accumulation of any cannabinoid was found in the blood during this time. Urinary 11-nor-9-carboxy-THC concentrations seemed to increase during the 10-day period, which is important in abstinence testing.

Keywords: Cannabis impaired driving


Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

Abstinence testing; Cannabidiol; Cannabinoids; Driving capacity; GC–MS/MS