title: Recent marijuana blunt smoking impacts carbon monoxide as a measure of adolescent tobacco abstinence.
abstract: Adolescent tobacco smokers have a higher prevalence of marijuana (MJ) smoking than adolescents who do not smoke tobacco. As part of an adolescent smoking cessation trial, we examined whether MJ smoking, and specifically "blunt" (gutted cigars filled with MJ) smoking, elevated participants' likelihood of a false indication of cigarette smoking on the basis of breath carbon monoxide (CO) testing. Using clinical data from 37 adolescents (mean age 15.1+/-1.4 years, 78% female) who participated in a smoking-cessation trial in Baltimore between 1999 and 2002, and who on at least one occasion, reported abstinence from tobacco smoking for at least 7 days, we analyzed 146 cigarette-abstinent-visit exhaled CO concentrations classified into blunt occasions (12 participants, 33 visits), nonblunt MJ occasions (seven participants, 20 visits), and non-MJ occasions (27 paricipants, 93 visits). Repeated-measures logistic regression revealed that blunt occasions were associated with CO > or = 8 ppm, compared to nonblunt occasions (p = 0.013). Blunt occasions also tended to be associated with the more youth-appropriate cutoff CO > or = 6 ppm, compared to non-MJ occasions (p =0.054). Blunt smoking impacted the interpretation of measures of exhaled CO for tobacco cessation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Intramural Research Program, Baltimore, Maryland 21224, USA. emoolcha@intra.nida.nih.gov
authors.forename: Eric T
authors.initials: ET
authors.lastname: Moolchan
authors.forename: Darin
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zimmerman
authors.forename: Shelley S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Sehnert
authors.forename: Debra
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zimmerman
authors.forename: Marilyn A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Huestis
authors.forename: David H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Epstein
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001944:Breath Tests; D002248:Carbon Monoxide / Q000032:analysis*; D015928:Cognitive Behavioral Therapy / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D002189:Marijuana Abuse / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology*; D016540:Smoking Cessation / Q000379:methods*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014029:Tobacco Use Disorder / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000628:therapy
chemical_list: D002248:Carbon Monoxide