Study Says Marijuana Pill is More Effective than Puff

Instead of puffing weed as many recreation users of marijuana do, people who need the substance which was once banned would get quicker relief if they take marijuana pills instead.

Researchers at the Substance Use Research Center of the New York State Psychiatric Institute compared the strength of smoked marijuana versus the drug dronabinol which contains tetrahydrocannbinol which is the same active ingredient in the plant that induces users to a high.

Dronabinol has actually been approved by the Food and Drugs Administration since 1985 for treatment of nausea and appetite loss of patients suffering from cancer and aids, but it is also used to numb the pain.

The institute got 30 healthy, pain-free male and female subjects who were regular weed smokers and underwent five experimental sessions in which they first took a capsule and after 45 minutes smoked marijuana. Some of them took an inactive placebo while some had pills that contained 10 or 20 mg of dronabinol. The marijuana cigarette they smoked had no THC, a low or high dose but they were unaware which were they ingesting or puffing.

The participants were then asked to place their hands in water bath with temperature above freezing point. The researchers measured how long before the participants felt any pain and how long they were able to tolerate the pain before they removed their hands out of the water.

The researchers discovered both the smoked drug and pill had the same effectiveness when it comes to controlling pain. The participants also experienced lesser pain after puffing weed or taking the pill. But they felt much higher when they puff the marijuana than ingest its capsule form.

Ziva Cooper, the study's author and assistant professor of clinical neurobiology at Columbia University said swallowing the pill could be a safer way to take the drug than puffing it.

The study was reported on Tuesday in the Neuropsychopharmacology journal, just days after the 4/20 celebration.

Medical marijuana is now legal in 18 states and the District of Columbia. As part of the celebration, the yearly Cannabis Cup was held the past weekend in Denver, Colorado where three winners for the U.S. Mixed Flowers contest were named.

The first placer is the Plantinum Girl Scout Cookies by Private Stock LA. It is a west coast favourite known for its elegant but powerful flavours of sticky cotton candy, earth, fruit and spice.

Second place went to Chem Tange by La Conte's North and third place to Kosher Kush by DNA Genetics.

Here is a peek at the highlights of the recent Cannabis Cup.