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https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/27432/critical-issues-in-transportation-for-2024-and-beyond

The Impact of Co-Administration of Alcohol and Cannabis on Impairment

It is the intent of the FAA Functional Genomics Team to analyze samples and data from the project to research molecular biomarkers associated with cannabis use, alone and concomitant with alcohol consumption.  This may include biomarkers associated with cognitive performance. In this study subjects will undergo screening and then will complete 7 double-blind, double-dummy outpatient sessions in randomized order. In each session, participants will self-administer placebo (0 mg THC) or active oral cannabis (10 or 25 mg THC, via a chocolate brownie) and a placebo drink (BAC 0.0%) or alcohol drink calculated to produce a breath alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.05%. Participants will also complete a positive control session with placebo cannabis and alcohol at a target BAC of 0.08%. As this is a biomarker discovery project, it is expected there will be multiple computational analyses performed to assess factors that may include molecular and physiological changes among the condition groups, differences in cognitive and driving performance tests, and differences associated with screening and other data collected. A hypothesis is that there are genetic biomarkers that can be used to predict cognitive and/or driving simulator performance deficits due to cannabis and alcohol consumption, and the FAA Functional Genomics Team anticipates testing this via bioinformatics analyses of gene expression changes.  For the FAA Functional Genomics Team, a key objective is to provide foundational knowledge that could be later validated and applied to improve the ability to detect risks to safe operations and performance associated with cannabis and alcohol consumption. A key aim is to provide knowledge that improves aviation/transportation safety.