Sol Tobolski
University of Miami
Co-Authors: Bria-Necole A. Diggs1, Amrit Baral1, Shay P. Hagan1, Jaya Batyra1, Denise C Vidot1
1University of Miami
Background
Cannabis and cannabinoid quantification screening or measurement guidelines have not yet been universally accepted. Lack of universal screening guidelines for identification of cannabis use frequency, cannabinoid use, and route consumed leads to ineffective and time-consuming processes for the identification of cannabis and cannabinoid in a patient’s system. It also leads to lack of uniformity, comparability, and generalizability in the results of cannabis studies. Considering the rapidly changing acceptance of cannabis use in the United States, there is an urgent demand for reliable screening assessment tools for cannabis and cannabinoids to accomplish an effective screening guide that has not yet been universally accepted. To begin that process it is important to understand the current state of literature with respect to cannabis and cannabinoid measurement and quantification screening. The purpose of this review is to examine the past 5 years of studies to identify documented methods of cannabis quantification screening and measurement in epidemiological studies with emphasis on cardiovascular health.
Methods
In February of 2023, a PubMed search was conducted. Inclusion criteria was: 1) manuscripts published between 2018 to 2023; 2) human subjects; 3) manuscripts available in English; 4) manuscripts about cannabis quantification screening; 5) manuscripts about cannabis measurement. Exclusion criteria for the initial search was: 1) non-cannabis illicit drugs; 2) manuscripts published before 2008; 3) abstracts without a peer-reviewed manuscript. Initial articles yielded were filtered by date relevance, title relevance, abstract relevance, and full manuscript relevance.
Results
The presentation will summarize results from analyzing manuscripts individually and synthesizing key overall findings. A preliminary search found the following number of manuscripts based on search term used: “cannabis use quantification” = 205; “marijuana use quantification” = 47; “marijuana dose measurement” = 240; “cannabis dose measurement = 226”. Preliminary review of results indicates self-report, hair, urine, blood, and wastewater to be among the methods used to quantify cannabis and cannabinoids in epidemiological research in the past 5 years.
Conclusion
There are diverse methods to quantify cannabis and cannabinoids. Future studies may consider the diversity in methods to quantify cannabis and employ more than one within their studies.