Motivational effects of smoked marijuana: behavioral contingencies and high-probability recreational activities

Fifteen adult male research volunteers, in five groups of three subjects each, lived in a residential laboratory for up to 20 days. All contact with the experimenters was through a networked computer system, and subjects' behaviors were monitored continuously and recorded. During the first part of each day, subjects remained in their private rooms doing planned work activities, and during the remainder of each day, they were allowed to socialize. One or two cigarettes containing active marijuana (1.3-2.7% delta 9-THC) or placebo were smoked during both the private work period and the period of access to social activities. Two-or three-day contingency conditions requiring subjects to engage in a low-probability recreational activity in order to earn time that could be spent engaging in a high-probability recreational activity were programmed during periods of placebo and active marijuana smoking. During placebo administration, the contingency requirement reliably increased the amount of time that subjects spent engaged in the low-probability instrumental activity and decreased the time spent engaged in the high-probability contingent activity. During active marijuana administration, however, the increases in instrumental activity were consistently smaller than observed under placebo conditions. The decreases in high-probability contingent activity were similar across drug conditions. Smoking active marijuana was thus observed to produce instrumental decrements under motivational conditions involving recreational contingencies.