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Compromised External Validity: Federally Produced Cannabis Does Not Reflect Legal Markets

As the most widely used illicit drug worldwide, and as a source of numerous under-studied pharmacologically-active compounds, a precise understanding of variability in psychological and physiological effects of Cannabis varieties is essential. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) is designate...

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Autores principales: Vergara, Daniela, Bidwell, L. Cinnamon, Gaudino, Reggie, Torres, Anthony, Du, Gary, Ruthenburg, Travis C., deCesare, Kymron, Land, Donald P., Hutchison, Kent E., Kane, Nolan C.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5395929/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28422145
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep46528
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author Vergara, Daniela
Bidwell, L. Cinnamon
Gaudino, Reggie
Torres, Anthony
Du, Gary
Ruthenburg, Travis C.
deCesare, Kymron
Land, Donald P.
Hutchison, Kent E.
Kane, Nolan C.
author_facet Vergara, Daniela
Bidwell, L. Cinnamon
Gaudino, Reggie
Torres, Anthony
Du, Gary
Ruthenburg, Travis C.
deCesare, Kymron
Land, Donald P.
Hutchison, Kent E.
Kane, Nolan C.
author_sort Vergara, Daniela
collection PubMed
description As the most widely used illicit drug worldwide, and as a source of numerous under-studied pharmacologically-active compounds, a precise understanding of variability in psychological and physiological effects of Cannabis varieties is essential. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) is designated as the sole legal producer of Cannabis for use in US research studies. We sought to compare the chemical profiles of Cannabis varieties that are available to consumers in states that have state-legalized use versus what is available to researchers interested in studying the plant and its effects. Our results demonstrate that the federally-produced Cannabis has significantly less variety and lower concentrations of cannabinoids than are observed in state-legal U.S. dispensaries. Most dramatically, NIDA’s varieties contain only 27% of the THC levels and as much as 11–23 times the Cannabinol (CBN) content compared to what is available in the state-legal markets. Research restricted to using the current range of federally-produced Cannabis thus may yield limited insights into the chemical, biological and pharmacological properties, and medical potential of material that is available in the state markets. Investigation is urgently needed on the full diversity of Cannabis chemotypes known to be available to the public.
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spelling pubmed-53959292017-04-21 Compromised External Validity: Federally Produced Cannabis Does Not Reflect Legal Markets Vergara, Daniela Bidwell, L. Cinnamon Gaudino, Reggie Torres, Anthony Du, Gary Ruthenburg, Travis C. deCesare, Kymron Land, Donald P. Hutchison, Kent E. Kane, Nolan C. Sci Rep Article As the most widely used illicit drug worldwide, and as a source of numerous under-studied pharmacologically-active compounds, a precise understanding of variability in psychological and physiological effects of Cannabis varieties is essential. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) is designated as the sole legal producer of Cannabis for use in US research studies. We sought to compare the chemical profiles of Cannabis varieties that are available to consumers in states that have state-legalized use versus what is available to researchers interested in studying the plant and its effects. Our results demonstrate that the federally-produced Cannabis has significantly less variety and lower concentrations of cannabinoids than are observed in state-legal U.S. dispensaries. Most dramatically, NIDA’s varieties contain only 27% of the THC levels and as much as 11–23 times the Cannabinol (CBN) content compared to what is available in the state-legal markets. Research restricted to using the current range of federally-produced Cannabis thus may yield limited insights into the chemical, biological and pharmacological properties, and medical potential of material that is available in the state markets. Investigation is urgently needed on the full diversity of Cannabis chemotypes known to be available to the public. Nature Publishing Group 2017-04-19 /pmc/articles/PMC5395929/ /pubmed/28422145 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep46528 Text en Copyright © 2017, The Author(s) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
spellingShingle Article
Vergara, Daniela
Bidwell, L. Cinnamon
Gaudino, Reggie
Torres, Anthony
Du, Gary
Ruthenburg, Travis C.
deCesare, Kymron
Land, Donald P.
Hutchison, Kent E.
Kane, Nolan C.
Compromised External Validity: Federally Produced Cannabis Does Not Reflect Legal Markets
title Compromised External Validity: Federally Produced Cannabis Does Not Reflect Legal Markets
title_full Compromised External Validity: Federally Produced Cannabis Does Not Reflect Legal Markets
title_fullStr Compromised External Validity: Federally Produced Cannabis Does Not Reflect Legal Markets
title_full_unstemmed Compromised External Validity: Federally Produced Cannabis Does Not Reflect Legal Markets
title_short Compromised External Validity: Federally Produced Cannabis Does Not Reflect Legal Markets
title_sort compromised external validity: federally produced cannabis does not reflect legal markets
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5395929/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28422145
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep46528
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