As cannabis gets legalised in more countries, it is essential that any changes in cannabis policy consider their interrelationship." "Surprisingly little research has been done on how tobacco might alter the effects of cannabis. Tobacco's ability to reduce the memory-impairing effects of cannabis may be part of why people add it to their joints," Hindocha said. "In a previous study, we found that the large majority of cannabis users in Europe smoke cannabis with tobacco.
Heart rate was highest when tobacco was combined with cannabis, while there was a moderate increase in blood pressure among participants who combined the drugs, which the researchers say could add to the cardiovascular risk of smoking cannabis. Adding tobacco reduced this impairment, which the researchers say relates to prior findings that nicotine can improve concentration. The study team measured their heart rate and blood pressure, and participants rated their mood and experiences.Ĭonsistent with previous studies, cannabis impaired the participants' memory. Their episodic memory was tested by having to recall passages of prose, which they heard before and after smoking, and they completed a task to test spatial working memory.
They each took part in four sessions, smoking joints that included: cannabis and tobacco, cannabis and a placebo, tobacco and a placebo, or just the placebo of both. The study participants were 24 healthy, non-dependent but experienced users of cannabis and tobacco. "There's a persistent myth that adding tobacco to cannabis will make you more stoned, but we found that actually, it does nothing to improve the subjective experience," said the study's lead author, Chandni Hindocha (UCL Clinical Psychopharmacology Unit). The study is the first to look at how cannabis and tobacco interact when mixed together in joints, which is how the majority of cannabis users in Europe consume the drug.
Adding tobacco to a cannabis joint doesn't improve the experience of being stoned, but it does reduce the memory impairment inherent to cannabis use, finds a new UCL study published in Psychological Medicine.