Acute marijuana effects on social conversation

The present study assessed the acute effects of smoked marijuana on social conversation. Speech quantity was recorded continuously in seven moderate marijuana users during separate 1 h experimental sessions following the paced smoking of 0, 1.01, 1.84, and 2.84% THC marijuana cigarettes. Subjects engaged in conversation with undrugged partners who smoked placebo marijuana cigarettes. The active marijuana produced significant decreases in speech quantity, increases in heart rate, and increases in self-reports of "high" and sedation. Partners showed no effects in speech quantity or self-reports of drug effects that were systematically related to the doses administered to the subject pair members. The effects on speech quantity observed in the present study after acute dosing are similar to the effects on social conversation reported previously during chronic marijuana dosing. Marijuana appears to be an exception to the general rule that drugs of abuse increase verbal interaction.