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Sydney, Australia: Patients diagnosed with anxiety and/or post-traumatic stress respond favorably to medical cannabis treatment, according to observational study data published in the Journal of Pharmacy Technology.

A team of Australian investigators assessed the safety and efficacy of oral cannabinoid formulations (either tinctures or capsules) containing various ratios of THC and CBD in 198 patients with anxiety disorders. The median doses consumed by study participants were 50.0 mg/day for CBD and 4.4 mg/day for THC. (Australian law permits physicians to authorize cannabis products to patients unresponsive to conventional prescription treatments.)

Researchers reported, “The total participant sample reported significantly improved anxiety, depression, fatigue, and ability to take part in social roles and activities.”

Among the subset of subjects diagnosed specifically with post-traumatic stress, cannabis therapy similarly “improved anxiety, depression, fatigue, and social abilities,” with CBD-dominant formulations exhibiting the greatest efficacy.

The most common adverse events experienced by participants were dry mouth, somnolence, and fatigue.

The findings are consistent with those of recent observational studies from the United Kingdom which similarly showed that cannabis therapy was safe and effective for patients with generalized anxiety and post-traumatic stress.

Full text of the study, “The effectiveness and the adverse events of cannabidiol and tetrahydrocannabinol used in the treatment of anxiety disorders in a PTSD population: An interim analysis of an observational study,” appears in the Journal of Pharmacy Technology.

Study: Police Unable to Accurately Determine THC-Induced Impairment via Field Sobriety Tests

San Diego, CA: Trained police officers are frequently unable to discriminate between those who are under the influence of THC and those who are not based upon subjects’ performance on field sobriety tests, according to data published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry.

Researchers affiliated with the University of California at San Diego performed a double-blind, placebo-controlled randomized clinical trial to evaluate whether the use of field sobriety tests (FSTs) are valid measurements for determining if drivers are under the influence of THC.

Consistent with prior analyses, police officers frequently misinterpreted subjects’ FST performance so that they deemed unimpaired participants (those who had smoked placebo cigarettes) to be under the influence. Overall, officers incorrectly classified 49.2 percent of the placebo group as impaired based upon their FST performance.

Investigators concluded, “The findings of this study suggest that (1) FSTs are useful adjuncts but do not provide strong objective evidence of THC-specific impairment and (2) additional efforts to validate existing methods and provide law enforcement with new, effective tools for identifying impairment are needed.”

Authors of an accompanying editorial in the journal added: “Field sobriety tests as administered by highly trained police officers are insufficient to detect cannabis-induced impairment. ... The legal implication of these findings can be major given that FSTs are currently part of the evaluation protocol in North America to detect drivers who are cannabis impaired.”

Some of the study’s findings had initially been published in May in the journal Clinical Chemistry.
The results of a 2021 study by investigators with John Hopkins University similarly reported that subjects’ performance on key elements of the field sobriety test, such as the ‘walk-and-turn’ test and the one leg stand, “showed little sensitivity to cannabis-induced impairment.” By contrast, that study’s authors acknowledged that the use of the mobile device performance application, DRUID, was adequately sensitive to cannabis-induced changes in subjects’ performance. NORML has frequently opined in favor of the use of performance testing technology as a more reliable indicator of cannabis-induced impairment.

In 2017, justices on the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled in Commonwealth v. Gerhardt that standard roadside field sobriety tests cannot “be treated as scientific tests establishing impairment as a result of marijuana consumption.” They added, “Likewise, an officer may not testify that a defendant ‘passed’ or ‘failed’ any FST, as this language improperly implies that the FST is a definitive test of marijuana use or impairment.”

Full text of the study, “Evaluation of Field Sobriety Tests for identifying drivers under the influence of cannabis: A randomized clinical trial,” appears in JAMA Psychiatry.

Survey: Dystonia Patients Report Benefits from Inhaled Cannabis

Tel Aviv, Israel: Patients diagnosed with dystonia (involuntary muscle contractions) report experiencing therapeutic benefits from smoking cannabis, according to data published in the journal Frontiers in Neurology.

Israeli researchers surveyed 23 dystonia patients authorized to use medical cannabis products. (Cannabis is legal in certain circumstances in Israel under a doctor’s supervision.) Participants in the study had used cannabis for, on average, a period of nearly three years. Patients provided numerical ratings commensurate with their symptoms.

Patients reported that inhaled cannabis was associated with a reduction in dystonia symptoms and with improvements in their overall quality of life.

Those patients diagnosed with generalized dystonia perceived greater benefits than did those with more focal dystonia patterns. Patients reported smoking cannabis to be far more effective than consuming oil extracts. The most commonly reported side effects from cannabis were dry mouth, sedation, and dizziness.

“Our real-life observational single-center study suggests that MC [medical cannabis] may provide benefits for some patients with dystonia, particularly those with more widespread or generalized forms of the condition,” researchers concluded. “THC-containing MC products may be a promising starting point for further research into the therapeutic benefits of CBM [cannabis-based medicines] for dystonia in patients with widespread symptoms."

Separate data has shown that cannabis inhalation improves pain and movement control in patients with Parkinson’s disease.

Full text of the study, “A single-center real-life study on the use of cannabis in patients with dystonia,” appears in Frontiers in Neurology.

Israel: Regulatory Changes Will Expand Patients’ Access to Medical Cannabis

Jerusalem, Israel: Regulators are further easing restrictions on patients’ access to medical cannabis products.

Regulatory reforms approved by the Ministry of Health will allow physicians to prescribe cannabis to patients as a first-line treatment rather than as an option of last resort. (Under current law, doctors must attest that their patients have been unresponsive to other conventional treatments, including opioids, prior to granting them access to medical cannabis products.)

About 100,000 Israelis are currently authorized to use medical cannabis.

Another regulatory change eases legal restrictions on patients’ access to hemp-derived CBD products.

Regulators are also seeking to further facilitate clinical trial research involving cannabis products.

The regulatory changes are anticipated to go into effect this December.