Abstract
Groups of mice were dosed with ethanol (2.5 and 5% w/v in drinking water) or cannabis extract (equivalent to 10, 20, 40 and 80 mg δ 9-THC/kg) orally, for 11, 13 and 28 days. The threshold to convulsions produced by the constant intravenous infusion of pentylenetetrazol was determined at various intervals after drug administration had ceased. The convulsive thresholds of mice tested 6 hrs after withdrawal from both doses of ethanol were significantly lower than controls. There was no significant difference from controls in the convulsive threshold of mice which had received cannabis extract at any of the doses employed when tested 6 hrs, 16 hrs, 1, 3 or 6 days after medication had been withdrawn.
These findings support the contention that there is no abstinence syndrome evident following the withdrawal of cannabinoids after prolonged administration to mice and serve again to draw a distinction between cannabis and ethanol.
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Chesher, G.B., Jackson, D.M. The effect of withdrawal from cannabis on pentylenetetrazol convulsive threshold in mice. Psychopharmacologia 40, 129–135 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00421362
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00421362