Study: Pot Increases Alcohol Toxicity

A German study using rats found that THC, the main psychoactive component of marijuana, and alcohol induced widespread nerve cell death in the brain.

Henrik Hansen and Chrysanthy Ikonomidou, at the Neuroscience Research Center at Humboldt University in Berlin and the University of Technology Dresden, Germany, administered THC; a synthetic form of THC; ethanol, or drinking alcohol, the anticonvulsant MK-801 and phenobarbital by injection to rats 1 to 14 days old.

The study, published in the Annals of Neurology, showed THC and its synthetic form did not cause neurodegeneration when administered alone, but did cause cell death when given with lower than toxic amounts of ethanol. THC also enhanced the neurotoxic effect of phenobarbital and MK-801.

Neuronal degeneration became disseminated and very severe when THC was combined with a mildly toxic ethanol dose, the authors said in a statement.

The authors acknowledge that the effect of cannabinoids in marijuana on the neurotoxicity of ethanol on the developing brain requires further studies.