NCT05999344

Alcohol and Cannabis Concentrates Co-Administration

Exploring Intoxication During Acute Alcohol and Cannabis Concentrate Co-Administration: A Focus on Cannabinoid Content and Order Effects

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 146 (actual)
• Sponsor: University of Colorado, Denver · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 21 Years – 65 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The goal of this study is to learn about the effects of combining alcohol with cannabis concentrate products which contain high levels of THC. The main question\[s\] it aims to answer are, 1) How does the order in which someone consumes THC and alcohol in a given co-use session impact outcomes such as blood alcohol level, heart rate or subjective drug effects, and 2) how does THC percentage in cannabis influence outcomes following alcohol and cannabis co-administration. Participants will be scheduled for our mobile lab to come to their residence. During the session, they will: * consume a standardized dose of alcohol as well as use their own preferred cannabis concentrate product. * they will then remain in our mobile lab for about 4 hours and complete some surveys as well as do some cognitive tasks on an iPad every 30 minutes. * They will also have their blood drawn three times throughout the session, and will periodically be asked to blood into a breathalyzer to measure blood alcohol level. Researchers will compare people who use alcohol prior to cannabis to those who use cannabis prior to alcohol to determine whether order of use impacts outcomes.

Detailed description

Individuals who drink alcohol commonly report co-using cannabis, and the increasing availability of new formulations of highly potent cannabis products on the legal market means that alcohol is likely being combined with cannabis products that contain high levels of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). There is limited existing research on the acute effects of cannabis products containing high amounts of THC, such as cannabis concentrates, which often contain up to 90% THC. Existing laboratory data suggests that consuming alcohol and cannabis together (compared to alcohol alone) is associated with reduced BAC, delayed time to peak blood alcohol concentration (BAC), longer duration of intoxication, and increased subjective intoxication, but it is unknown how cannabis concentrates may interact with alcohol to influence these outcomes. There is also a lack of research regarding whether timing or order of use matters, though recent survey data from our group and others suggests that using alcohol before cannabis may confer additional risk compared to using cannabis prior to alcohol. The present study leverages a federally-compliant mobile laboratory design to explore the acute effects of self-administered cannabis concentrates alongside a standardized dose of alcohol. The investigators will recruit a community sample of individuals who regularly use alcohol and cannabis to participate study sessions in our mobile laboratory. The sessions will involve individuals consuming cannabis concentrates of their choice (that they acquire themselves) along with a standardized dose of alcohol. Half of the participants will use the alcohol before cannabis, and the other half will use the cannabis before alcohol. The investigators will measure intoxication and biological outcomes every 30 minutes for 4 hours. The investigators will also measure differences between those who used alcohol before cannabis and those who used cannabis before alcohol.

Conditions

• Alcohol Use Disorder
• Cannabis Use

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	commercially available cannabis administered prior to commercially available alcohol	Self administration of cannabis prior to researcher administered alcohol
OTHER	commercially available alcohol administered prior to commercially available cannabis	Researcher administered alcohol prior to self-administration of cannabis

Timeline

• Start date: 2021-12-16
• Primary completion: 2024-08-01
• Completion: 2024-08-01
• First posted: 2023-08-21
• Last updated: 2025-11-18

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States