Tobacco ‘does not boost cannabis high’

ADDING tobacco to a cannabis joint does not improve the high achieved, a study has found, but it does increase blood pressure and heart rates.

The research by UCL Clinical Psychopharmacology Unit 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.

“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.

The study participants were 24 healthy, nondependent but experienced users of cannabis and tobacco.

Consistent with previous studies, cannabis impaired the participants’ memory.

Adding tobacco reduced this impairment, which the researchers say relates to prior findings that nicotine can improve concentration.

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.