Does Unit-Dose Packaging Influence Understanding of Serving Size Information for Cannabis Edibles?

OBJECTIVE: Edible cannabis products have increased in popularity, particularly in jurisdictions that have legalized nonmedical cannabis. Rates of adverse events from cannabis edibles have also increased, in part because of difficulties identifying and titrating tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) levels. The current study tested whether packaging cannabis in separate units enhances consumer understanding of serving sizes. METHOD: An experimental task was conducted as part of the 2018 International Cannabis Policy Study online survey. Participants were recruited from the Nielsen Global Insights Consumer Panel. A total of 26,894 participants (61.5% female) ages 16-65 years from Canada and the United States were randomly assigned to view a cannabis brownie packaged according to one of three conditions: (a) multiserving edible ("control condition"), (b) single-serving edible, and (c) single-serving edible packaged separately ("unit-dose packaging"). Participants were asked to identify a standard serving based on information on the product label. Logistic regression was used to test the influence of packaging condition on the likelihood of a correct response, adjusting for key covariates. RESULTS: Compared with the multiserving edible control (50.6%), participants were significantly more likely to correctly identify the serving size in the single-serving edible condition (55.3%; adjusted odds ratio = 1.22, CI [1.15, 1.29], p < .001) and the unit-dose packaging condition (54.3%; adjusted odds ratio = 1.17, CI [1.10, 1.24], p < .001). CONCLUSIONS: Packaging in which each product unit contained one dose of THC enhanced consumers' ability to identify how much of a product constitutes a standard serving or dose. Packaging products as individual doses eliminates the need for mental math and could reduce the risk of accidental overconsumption of cannabis.

Cannabis labelling and consumer understanding of THC levels and serving sizes.

OBJECTIVE: As part of cannabis legalization in Canada and several US states, regulations specify how THC levels should be labelled on products; however, there is little evidence on the extent to which consumers understand and use THC labelling to inform consumption amounts. The current study was designed to assess comprehension of cannabis-related information including communication of dose and strength of product on different labelling designs among young Canadians. METHODS: Two experiments were conducted in October 2017 among Canadian youth and young adults aged 16-30 years as part of an online cross-sectional survey (N = 870). Experiment 1 randomized respondents to one of three labelling conditions (1=No Label, 2=mgTHC, 3=Doses). Respondents interpreted a recommended serving and number of servings contained in the package. Experiment 2 randomized respondents to one of four labelling conditions communicating THC level (1=No Label, 2=%THC, 3=mgTHC, 4=Traffic Light System). Respondents determined level of THC in the product. RESULTS: Labelling the number of doses per package was associated with the greatest proportion of correct responses (54.1 %) when respondents had to determine a recommended serving compared with the no-label control condition (7.4 %) and THC mg condition (13.4 %). When cannabis products were labelled using a traffic light system, participants were more likely to identify THC level: low THC (85.1 %) or high THC (86.4 %) than the control condition (2.0 % and 5.2 % respectively). CONCLUSION: Few consumers can understand and apply quantitative THC labelling; in contrast, THC labels that provide 'interpretive' information, such as descriptors, symbols, or references to servings have greater efficacy.

The drug purity discounting task: Ecstasy use likelihood is reduced by probabilistic impurity according to harmfulness of adulterants.

BACKGROUND: Ecstasy typically contains adulterants in addition to, or in lieu of, MDMA which may pose a greater risk to users than MDMA itself. The current study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of adulterant-related informational prompts in reducing Ecstasy use using a novel probability discounting task. METHODS: An online sample of past-month Ecstasy users (N = 278) were randomized to one of four different framing prompt conditions: no prompt; a prompt describing MDMA's effects; a prompt describing adulterants as inert "filler"; or a prompt describing adulterants as pharmacologically-active, potentially-harmful compounds. Each prompt contained general, potential public-health information that was not specifically related to subsequent behavioral tasks. All participants then completed an identical Drug Purity Discounting Task, in which they indicated the likelihood of using a sample of Ecstasy across different probabilities of the sample being impure, and then completed a hypothetical Ecstasy purchasing task. RESULTS: Likelihood of Ecstasy use decreased as impurity probability increased across conditions. Ecstasy use likelihood was highest in the "inert" prompt condition, whereas pharmacologically-active adulterant or adulterant-nonspecific prompts resulted in comparably low likelihood of use. Ecstasy-use likelihood did not differ among conditions when the likelihood of sample impurity was 0. Ecstasy purchasing did not differ among groups. Inelastic purchasing was associated with greater likelihood of using potentially-impure Ecstasy. CONCLUSIONS: Altogether, these data highlight the necessity of education regarding pharmacologically-active, rather than inert, adulterants in Ecstasy, and suggest that increased access to drug checking kits and services may mitigate some of the harms associated with Ecstasy use.

Human hallucinogen research: guidelines for safety.

There has recently been a renewal of human research with classical hallucinogens (psychedelics). This paper first briefly discusses the unique history of human hallucinogen research, and then reviews the risks of hallucinogen administration and safeguards for minimizing these risks. Although hallucinogens are relatively safe physiologically and are not considered drugs of dependence, their administration involves unique psychological risks. The most likely risk is overwhelming distress during drug action ('bad trip'), which could lead to potentially dangerous behaviour such as leaving the study site. Less common are prolonged psychoses triggered by hallucinogens. Safeguards against these risks include the exclusion of volunteers with personal or family history of psychotic disorders or other severe psychiatric disorders, establishing trust and rapport between session monitors and volunteer before the session, careful volunteer preparation, a safe physical session environment and interpersonal support from at least two study monitors during the session. Investigators should probe for the relatively rare hallucinogen persisting perception disorder in follow-up contact. Persisting adverse reactions are rare when research is conducted along these guidelines. Incautious research may jeopardize participant safety and future research. However, carefully conducted research may inform the treatment of psychiatric disorders, and may lead to advances in basic science.

Investigation into the temporal stability of aqueous standard solutions of psilocin and psilocybin using high performance liquid chromatography.

This paper reports an investigation into the temporal stability of aqueous solutions of psilocin and psilocybin reference drug standards over a period of fourteen days. This study was performed using high performance liquid chromatography utilising a (95:5% v/v) methanol: 10 mM ammonium formate, pH 3.5 mobile phase and absorption detection at 269 nm. It was found that the exclusion of light significantly prolonged the useful life of standards, with aqueous solutions of both psilocin and psilocybin being stable over a period of seven days.

Synthesis and capillary electrophoretic analysis of enantiomerically enriched reference standards of MDMA and its main metabolites.

Enantiomerically-enriched (S)-3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) and its main metabolites (S)-4-hydroxy-3-methoxymethamphetamine (HMMA) and (S)-3,4-dihydroxymethamphetamine (HHMA) were prepared for unequivocal identification of the differential enantioselective metabolism of these compounds as well as for its application in the analysis of biological samples. Capillary electrophoresis with cyclodextrin derivatives and a chemical correlation of (S)-MDMA, (S)-HMMA and (S)-HHMA has been performed to assign the absolute stereochemistry of major isomers in analytical standards enriched with such enantiomers.

[Studies on the identification of psychotropic substances. VI. Preparation and various analytical data of reference standards of some hallucinogens, 2,5-dimethoxy-4-methylamphetamine (STP), 2,5-dimethoxy-4-bromoamphetamine (DOB) and 2,5-dimethoxy-4-ethylamphetamine (DOET)].

The Reference Standards of 2,5-dimethoxy-4-methylamphetamine (STP), 2,5-dimethoxy-4-bromoamphetamine (DOB) and 2,5-dimethoxy-4-ethylamphetamine (DOET) were prepared. Their purities measured by HPLC were 99.5% for STP hydrochloride, 99.8% for DOB hydrobromide and 99.5% for DOET hydrochloride. For the identification and determination, various analytical data of the three drugs were obtained by using UV, IR, HPLC, GC/MS and NMR, and the discrimination were discussed.