Elsevier

Drug and Alcohol Dependence

Volume 168, 1 November 2016, Pages 119-122
Drug and Alcohol Dependence

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Does marijuana “blunt” smoking contribute to nicotine exposure?: Preliminary product testing of nicotine content in wrappers of cigars commonly used for blunt smoking

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2016.09.007Get rights and content

Highlights

  • We quantified the nicotine content in wrappers of 5 cigars used for blunt smoking.

  • Total nicotine content in the cigar wrapper ranged from 1.2 to 6.0 mg per cigar.

  • Users of blunts may be exposed to nicotine, the addictive component of tobacco.

Abstract

Introduction

An increasingly popular method of consuming marijuana is through the smoking of “blunts,” cigar products in which some or all of the tobacco filler is removed and repacked with marijuana. Even if all tobacco filler is removed from the cigar product in the process of making blunts, nicotine may be present in the wrapper of the cigar product. This preliminary analysis quantified the nicotine content in wrappers of cigar products commonly used for blunt smoking.

Methods

Five cigar products (3 large cigars, 2 cigarillos) were tested, yielding physical characteristics of cigar length, diameter, weight, and wrapper weight. Nicotine concentration in the wrapper of each cigar product was analyzed via gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. Total nicotine content in the wrapper of each cigar product was computed as the product of cigar wrapper weight and nicotine concentration in wrapper.

Results

Depending on the product, the cigar wrapper contributed between 8 and 18% of the weight of the entire cigar article. Total nicotine content in the cigar wrapper ranged from 1.2 to 6.0 mg per cigar.

Discussion

All 5 tested cigar products had wrappers that contain quantifiable levels of nicotine, indicating that users of blunts may expose themselves to some degree of nicotine, the addictive component of tobacco. Future experimental studies that examine the efficiency of nicotine delivery from typical blunt smoking, as well as surveillance studies that quantify the number of blunts smoked by an individual per day, are needed to evaluate the contribution of blunt smoking to nicotine dependence.

Introduction

Marijuana is the most widely used illicit substance in the US, with 7.5% of population over the age of 12 reporting use in the past month (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2014). An increasingly popular method of consuming marijuana is through the smoking of “blunts” (Schauer et al., 2016, Sifaneck et al., 2003, Soldz et al., 2003, Timberlake, 2013). Blunts are made by splitting open the wrapper of a nicotine-containing cigar product (i.e., large cigar, little cigar, or cigarillo), removing the tobacco filler, and repacking all or part of the filler with marijuana (Sifaneck et al., 2003, Soldz et al., 2003). Blunts can also be made from purchased cigar wrappers in which marijuana is packed. Some cigar wrappers are made from specially grown tobacco that is most suitable for the purpose of cigar wrapping, while other cigar wrappers are reconstituted from tobacco used in the filler blends and rolled, much like the production of sheet or reconstituted tobacco used in cigarette filler (Hoffman and Hoffman, 1998). Thus, even if all tobacco filler is removed from the cigar product in the process of making blunts, nicotine may still be present in the wrapper of the cigar product.

Nicotine is the principle component of tobacco that leads to dependence upon tobacco products, and the amount and rate at which a nicotine-containing product delivers nicotine to the bloodstream is a determinant of its addiction potential (Fant et al., 1997, Henningfield and Keenan, 1993). Although exposure to nicotine when marijuana is smoked as a blunt may depend on several factors, including characteristics of the cigar (e.g., weight, size, pH) and consumption characteristics of the user (e.g., depth of inhalation, breath holding after inhalation), the cigar wrapper itself may be an important component of nicotine exposure. The purpose of the present preliminary analysis was to quantify the nicotine content in wrappers of several cigar products commonly used for blunt smoking.

Section snippets

Methods

Selection of cigar products was based on information obtained from the published and grey literature on the brands of cigar products commonly used to make blunts in the US (High Times, 2016a, High Times, 2016b, Koopman Gonzalez et al., 2015, Sifaneck et al., 2005, Soldz et al., 2003, Sterling et al., 2015). The 5 cigar products selected were: (1) Dutch Masters Palma (large cigar); (2) Phillies Blunts (large cigar); (3) White Owl New Yorker (large cigar); (4) Black and Mild (cigarillo); and (5)

Results

Table 1 shows the physical characteristics, as well as nicotine concentration and total nicotine content in the wrapper, of each of the 5 tested cigar products. Depending on the product, the cigar wrapper contributed between 8 and 18% of the weight of the entire cigar article. The nicotine concentration in the cigar wrapper ranged from 4.7 to 7.9 mg/g, and the total nicotine content in the cigar wrapper ranged from 1.2 to 6.0 mg, per cigar.

Discussion

Results from this preliminary study of nicotine content in wrappers of cigar products frequently used to prepare marijuana blunts showed that all 5 tested cigar products have wrappers that contain quantifiable levels of nicotine. These findings suggest that users of blunts may expose themselves to some degree of nicotine, the addictive component of tobacco, even if all tobacco filler is removed from the cigar.

Consumption of marijuana through the smoking of blunts is becoming a more widespread

Conflict of interest

No conflict declared.

Contributors

Drs. Schauer, Pickworth, and Peters developed the idea for the manuscript. Dr. Schauer, Mr. Rosenberry, and Dr. Pickworth developed the research methods. Drs. Peters and Pickworth wrote the first draft of the manuscript. All authors contributed to writing of the manuscript.

Role of funding source

This work was supported by internal funds from Battelle Memorial Institute. The sponsor had no role in study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; or in the decision to submit the article for publication.

Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge Meridith Thanner and Kristina Aleshire for their contributions to the current research.

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