Ethanol and delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol: Mechanism for cross-tolerance in mice

Effects of SR141716 and WIN 55,212-2 on tolerance to ethanol in rats using the acute and rapid procedures

“…However, as mentioned before, only after the recent progress in the knowledge about the endocannabinoid transmitter system (for a review, see Di Marzo et al 1998;Freund et al 2003;Piomelli 2003) have studies suggested that ethanol's effects might be mediated by cannabinoid receptors in the brain (for a review, see Hungund 2002, 2005). Thus, the behavioral results of the present work are consistent with those of studies demonstrating either chronic (Newman et al 1972;Macavoy and Marks 1975;Sprague and Craigmill 1976;Siemens and Doyle 1979;Marks and MacAvoy 1989) or rapid (Da Silva et al 2001) development of crosstolerance between ethanol and Δ 9 -tetrahydrocannabinol. However, the present results are at variance with those of previous studies in which SR did not block ethanol tolerance, suggesting, as mentioned in "Introduction", that the animal species, dose ranges and pretreatment times (Da Silva et al 2001), or the species and chronic ethanol protocol (Nowak et al 2006) may have contributed to these different results.…”

“…Prolonged exposure to ethanol also produces alterations in CB1R receptor gene expression in selected regions of the brain in Wistar rats (Ortiz et al 2004). Additionally, the development of cross-tolerance between ethanol and Δ 9 -tetrahydrocannabinol is well documented (Newman et al 1974;Sprague and Craigmill 1976;Siemens and Doyle 1979;Da Silva et al 2001). However, precise data concerning the effects of drugs acting at the cannabinoid system on ethanol tolerance are scarce.…”

Involvement of the endogenous cannabinoid system in the effects of alcohol in the mesolimbic reward circuit: electrophysiological evidence in vivo

“…Alternatively, it may be possible that our experimental conditions do not allow the detection of subtle differences in the functionality of CB1 receptors in a specific region such as the NAc. Cross-tolerance between alcohol and cannabinoids has been described in studies on experimental animals (Newman et al 1972;Newman et al 1974;Sprague and Craigmill 1976;da Silva et al 2001) and in humans (Wright and Terry 2002). It is tempting to speculate that the increase in voluntary alcohol intake following cannabinoid agonist administration Colombo et al 2002) may also be, at least in part, due to a perceived diminished hedonic value of self-administered alcohol.…”

Modulation of the effects of alcohol on driving-related psychomotor skills by chronic exposure to cannabis

“…Jones and Stone (1970) also reported that alcohol's effects appeared to be diminished among a group of heavy cannabis users. Consistently, in rodents, tolerance to ∆ 9 -THC has been shown to confer tolerance to the acute effects of alcohol (Newman et al 1972;Sprague and Craigmill 1976;Siemens and Doyle 1979). Thus an explanation in terms of pharmacodynamic cross-tolerance would not be inconsistent with the literature.…”