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The effect of cannabis on regular cannabis consumers’ ability to ride a bicycle

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Abstract

To assess the effects of cannabis on the ability required to ride a bicycle, repetitive practical cycling tests and medical examinations were carried out before and after inhalative consumption of cannabis. A maximum of three joints with body weight-adapted THC content (300 μg THC per kg body weight) could be consumed by each test subject. Fourteen regular cannabis-consuming test subjects were studied (12 males, 2 females). In summary, only a few driving faults were observed even under the influence of very high THC concentrations. A defined THC concentration that leads to an inability to ride a bicycle cannot be presented. The test subjects showed only slight distinctive features that can be documented using a medical test routinely run for persons under suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

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Acknowledgments

This study was sponsored by VEGaS e. V. (Verein zur Erforschung der Gefahren durch Drogen und andere Rauschmittel im Straßenverkehr).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Legal Medicine, University Hospital Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Benno Hartung, Nona Mindiashvili, Annette Rickert, Stefanie Ritz-Timme & Thomas Daldrup

  2. Institute of Mathematics, Heinrich-Heine-University, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Holger Schwender

  3. Augenzentrum Friedrichstadt, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Eckhard H. Roth

  4. Department of Psychiatry, Heinrich-Heine-University, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Florence Hellen

  5. Department of Anaesthesiology, University Hospital Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Almut Grieser

  6. Institute of Legal Medicine, Paris-Lodron-University, Salzburg, Austria

    Fabio Monticelli

Authors
  1. Benno Hartung
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  2. Holger Schwender
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  3. Eckhard H. Roth
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  4. Florence Hellen
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  5. Nona Mindiashvili
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  6. Annette Rickert
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  7. Stefanie Ritz-Timme
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  8. Almut Grieser
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  9. Fabio Monticelli
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  10. Thomas Daldrup
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Benno Hartung.

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Ethical standards

The experiments of this study comply with the current German laws. The study protocol was pre-approved by the ethics committee of the University Hospital Düsseldorf.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Hartung, B., Schwender, H., Roth, E.H. et al. The effect of cannabis on regular cannabis consumers’ ability to ride a bicycle. Int J Legal Med 130, 711–721 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-015-1307-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-015-1307-y

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