Growing evidence underscores the role of nutrients and fertigation systems in soilless production, influencing medicinal cannabis biomass and secondary metabolite content. This study delves into the impact of enhanced nutrient regimes on the 'ionome' and its ramifications for biomass and cannabinoid production in medicinal cannabis, comparing two distinct fertigation systems: recirculation and drain-to-waste. Notably, we assess the optimal harvest time for maximizing profitability. In comparing the experimental variant with elevated levels of phosphorus (P), potassium (K), and iron (Fe) in the nutrient solution to the control variant, we observe distinct patterns in element composition across stems, leaves, and flowers, with significant differences between fertigation systems. Total nitrogen content was determined through the Kjeldahl method. Flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS) and inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) were employed for elemental analysis. Cannabinoid identification and quantification used high-performance liquid chromatography with a diode-array detector (HPLC/DAD). Followed statistical analyses included ANOVA and Tukey's HSD test. Although the augmented nutrient regimen does not substantially increase plant biomass, interesting differences emerge between the two fertigation systems. The recirculation fertigation system proves more profitable during the recommended harvest period. Nonetheless, the altered nutrient regime does not yield statistically significant differences in final inflorescence harvest mass or cannabinoid concentrations in medicinal cannabis. The choice of fertigation system influences the quantity and quality of harvested inflorescence. To optimize the balance between the dry biomass yield of flowers and cannabinoid concentration, primarily total THC yield (sum of tetrahydrocannabinolic acid, Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol, and Δ8-tetrahydrocannabinol), we propose the 11th week of cultivation as the suitable harvest time for the recirculation system. Importantly, the recirculation system consistently outperformed the drain-to-waste system, especially after the ninth week, resulting in significantly higher total THC yields. Enriched nutrition, when compared with control, increased THC yield up to 50.7%, with a remarkable 182% surge in the recirculation system when compared with the drain-to-waste system.

• Keywords
• Cannabis sativa L., THC, cannabinoids, fertigation, indoor-cultivation, soilless-cultivation,
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH

BACKGROUND: The European Web Survey on Drugs aimed to obtain in-depth data on consumption of cannabis, ecstasy/MDMA, cocaine, and amphetamines in different populations of drug users in 16 European countries. This paper examines test-retest reliability, the consistency and the comprehensibility of the prevalence and frequency of use questions in the Czech part of the survey. METHODS: A baseline web survey was performed (N = 610) with follow-up data collection in a sub-sample of volunteers providing email addresses (N = 158). The baseline sample was self-selecting, responding to advertisements made available through multiple channels designed to attract diverse samples of drug users. Test-retest analysis was conducted for core questionnaire items. RESULTS: Respondents to the follow-up were predominantly socially integrated; 91% reported last year cannabis use, 42% used Ecstasy/MDMA, 23% amphetamines, and 27% reported cocaine use. Test-retest reliability was rated moderate to good (reliability coefficients between 0.55-0.87) for most prevalence items with sufficient sample sizes. Items assessing frequency of use were more reliable for most substances when asking about the exact number of days used, compared to categorical items that implicitly assume a regular pattern of use and were interpreted differently by different respondents. CONCLUSIONS: Simplicity and unambiguity of questions increase the reliability of results. Tools measuring drug consumption need to take into consideration the irregularity of drug using patterns. Question testing is important to increase validity and support a correct interpretation of the data.

• Keywords
• Patterns of use, Prevalence, Test/re-test reliability, Web survey,
• MeSH
• Adult MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Young Adult MeSH
• Substance-Related Disorders epidemiology   MeSH
• Surveys and Questionnaires standards   MeSH
• Reproducibility of Results MeSH
• Drug Users statistics & numerical data   MeSH
• Check Tag
• Adult MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Young Adult MeSH
• Male MeSH
• Female MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't MeSH
• Geographicals
• Czech Republic MeSH

OBJECTIVE: To analyse the relative percentage of acute recreational drug toxicity emergency department (ED) presentations involving the main drug groups according to age and sex and investigate different patterns based on sex and age strata. METHODS: We analysed all patients with acute recreational drug toxicity included by the Euro-DEN Plus dataset (22 EDs in 14 European countries) between October 2013 and December 2016 (39 months). Drugs were grouped as: opioids, cocaine, cannabis, amphetamines, gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB), hallucinogens, new psychoactive substances (NPS), benzodiazepines and ketamine. Descriptive data by age and sex are presented and compared among age/sex categories and among drug families. RESULTS: Of 17,371 patients were included during the 39-month period, 17,198 (99.0%) had taken at least one of the investigated drugs (median age: 31 years; 23.9% female; ethanol co-ingestion recorded in 41.5%, unknown in 31.2%; multiple drug use in 37.9%). Opioids (in 31.4% of patients) and amphetamines (23.3%) were the most frequently involved and hallucinogens (1.9%) and ketamine (1.7%) the least. Overall, female patients were younger than males, both in the whole cohort (median age 29 vs. 32 years; p < 0.001) and in all drug groups except benzodiazepines (median age 36 vs. 36 years; p = 0.83). The relative proportion of each drug group was different at every age strata and some patterns could be clearly described: cannabis, NPS and hallucinogens were the most common in patients <20 years; amphetamines, ketamine and cocaine in the 20- to 39-year group; GHB/GBL in the 30- to 39-year group; and opioids and benzodiazepines in patients ≥40 years. Ethanol and other drug co-ingestion was more frequent at middle-ages, and multidrug co-ingestion was more common in females than males. CONCLUSION: Differences in the drugs involved in acute drug toxicity presentations according to age and sex may be relevant for developing drug-prevention and education programs for some particular subgroups of the population based on the increased risk of adverse events in specific sex and/or age strata.

• Keywords
• Recreational drugs, acute toxicity, age, emergency department, epidemiology, sex,
• MeSH
• Acute Disease MeSH
• Time Factors MeSH
• Databases, Factual MeSH
• Adult MeSH
• Risk Assessment MeSH
• Middle Aged MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Adolescent MeSH
• Young Adult MeSH
• Poisoning diagnosis   epidemiology   MeSH
• Substance-Related Disorders diagnosis   epidemiology   MeSH
• Registries MeSH
• Recreational Drug Use trends   MeSH
• Risk Factors MeSH
• Aged MeSH
• Sex Factors MeSH
• Emergency Service, Hospital trends   MeSH
• Age Factors MeSH
• Illicit Drugs classification   poisoning   MeSH
• Check Tag
• Adult MeSH
• Middle Aged MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Adolescent MeSH
• Young Adult MeSH
• Male MeSH
• Aged MeSH
• Female MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Multicenter Study MeSH
• Comparative Study MeSH
• Geographicals
• Europe epidemiology   MeSH
• Names of Substances
• Illicit Drugs MeSH

After cannabis, the most commonly used illicit substance worldwide is amphetamine and its derivatives, such as methamphetamine, with an ever-increasing number of synthetic modifications. Thus, fast and reliable methods are needed to identify them according to their spectral patterns and structures. Here, we have investigated the use of molecular spectroscopy methods to describe the 3D structures of these substances in a solution that models the physiological environment. The substances were analyzed by Raman and infrared (IR) absorption spectroscopy and by chiroptical methods, vibrational circular dichroism (VCD) and Raman optical activity (ROA). The obtained experimental data were supported by three different computational approaches based on density functional theory (DFT) and molecular dynamics (MD). Successful interpretation relies on good agreement between experimental and predicted spectra. The determination of the conformer populations of the studied molecules was based on maximizing the similarity overlap of weighted conformer spectra by a global minimization algorithm. Very good agreement was obtained between the experimental spectra and optimized-population weighted spectra from MD, providing a detailed insight into the structure of the molecules and their interaction with the solvent. The relative population of three amphetamine and six methamphetamine conformers was determined and is consistent with a previous NMR study. However, this work shows that only a few isolated conformers are not sufficient for the successful interpretation of the spectra, but the entire conformational space needs to be sampled appropriately and explicit interaction with the solvent needs to be included.

• MeSH
• Amphetamine * MeSH
• Circular Dichroism MeSH
• Methamphetamine * MeSH
• Molecular Conformation MeSH
• Spectrum Analysis, Raman methods   MeSH
• Solvents MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Names of Substances
• Amphetamine * MeSH
• Methamphetamine * MeSH
• Solvents MeSH