Clinical Trial: Marijuana Drug Discrimination and Self-Administration

Study Status: Completed
Recruit Status: Completed
Study Type: Observational

Official Title: Smoked Marijuana Discrimination and Marijuana Choice in Humans: A Laboratory Mode

Brief Summary: This study is designed to investigate the associations among marijuana's discriminative stimulus, reinforcing, subjective (e.g. craving) and physiological effects, and to assess the relative ability of oral THC to block these effects.

Detailed Summary:

Volunteers will be asked to live on a research unit for up to twenty-six (26) consecutive nights and will participate in a total of 38 study sessions held on 19 weekdays. Each session will last approximately four hours and there will be two sessions per day, therefore each study day will last approximately eight hours. In addition to these study sessions, an orientation session will be conducted on the Friday prior to admission to the inpatient unit, and a lottery session will be held on the last day of the study.

During each study session participants will be asked to smoke a cigarette. The cigarette may contain marijuana or it may contain placebo (a blank). Participants will also be asked to swallow a capsule 2-hours prior to smoking the cigarette. The capsule could contain placebo (a blank), THC (delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol, which is the active ingredient in marijuana responsible for its mood effects), or d-amphetamine. We will have participants answer questions about how the drugs make them feel and measure their vitals signs (blood pressure, heart rate, and oxygen saturation) will be measured using a non-invasive (external) vitals monitor.


Sponsor: Wayne State University

Current Primary Outcome: To test the ability of oral THC to alter the discriminative stimulus and reinforcing effects of smoked marijuana. [ Time Frame: Multiple Choice Procedure Questionnaire (MCP-Q) will be administered after each drug administration sessions and participants will choose between the drug and various amounts of money. ]

Three hours after each smoked marijuana dose the participant will complete the MCP-Q to make 15 independent choices between the drug dose sampled and various money amounts.


Original Primary Outcome:

Current Secondary Outcome: Subjective effects: Self-report questionnaires regarding subjective drug effects, craving, withdrawal symptoms, and marijuana choice will be assessed. Physiological effects: Heart rate, skin temperature, and blood pressure will be monitored. [ Time Frame: Measurements will be taken throughout a total of 40 sessions (i.e., two sessions per day) conducted over 20 weekdays. Total duration of the stay will be up to 30 days, as sessions will not be run on weekends. ]

Original Secondary Outcome:

Information By: Wayne State University

Dates:
Date Received: July 21, 2009
Date Started: April 2009
Date Completion:
Last Updated: April 26, 2016
Last Verified: April 2016