Oral fluid testing for marijuana intoxication: enhancing objectivity for roadside DUI testing

Reducing marijuana-impaired driving is an important part of any strategy to prevent motor vehicle traffic injuries. In Colorado, the first of eight US states and the District of Columbia to legalise marijuana for recreational use, drivers with positive tests for the presence of marijuana accounted for a larger proportion of fatal MVCs after marijuana commercialisation. The use of blood tests to screen for marijuana intoxication, in Colorado and elsewhere in the USA, poses a number of challenges. Many high-income countries use oral fluid drug testing (OF) to provide roadside evidence of marijuana intoxication. A 2009 Belgium policy implementing OF roadside testing increased true positives and decreased false positives of suspected marijuana-related driving under the influence (DUI) arrests. US policy-makers should consider using roadside OF to increase objectivity and reliability for tests used in marijuana-related DUI arrests.

Cannabis and Confabulation: An Intrusive Relationship

IntroductionThe association between the neurocognitive impact of cannabis use and deficits in working and declarative memory is well documented. Studies with cannabis users suggest that recognition memory is particularly susceptible to cannabinoid acute intoxication. Studies carried out in the 1970s using free memory tests, showed that cannabis users not only named fewer words having also a tendency to evoke intrusive memories. Interestingly, a recent study has exposed an association between cannabis consumption and increased likelihood of creating fake memories.ObjectivesThe main objective of this work is to do literature revision, framing old data with recent works, exposing the relationship between cannabis consumption and memory confabulation/intrusion.MethodologyLiterature review, comparison and description of empirical data [1].ResultsRecent studies show that both cannabis users and abstinents are more susceptible to create false memories, not being able to identify trap stimuli as events that never occurred.Discussion/conclusionsChanges in perception and memory deficits are two common consequences of acute marijuana intoxication. The fact that these deficits remain during drug abstinence demonstrates the relevance of better understanding the mechanisms by which cannabinoids alter such cognitive functions. Reductions in the activation of brain areas comprised in the lateral and temporal lobe and in frontal cortex zones involved in the processes of attention and performance monitoring may be a possible explanation.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

When the grass isn’t greener: a case series of young children with accidental marijuana ingestion

Marijuana is the most commonly used illicit drug in Canada, with 10% of the general population admitting to its use in the past year. This high prevalence increases risk of accidental ingestion in young children.We report four pediatric cases of accidental marijuana ingestion who presented to our local emergency department with altered mental status. Three patients had extensive testing, including one patient who underwent lumbar puncture and empirical treatment for meningitis. To our knowledge, this is the first Canadian case series since McNabb et al., published over 2 decades ago.The case series aims to highlight the importance of considering acute marijuana intoxication in the differential diagnosis when assessing young children with altered level of consciousness.