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studies in this laboratory15 indicate that Id has onefourth to one-half the potency of la in mice, but with a much shorter duration of action, whereas the 8a metabolite le is much less active. These findings in man confirm our previous postulates, based on in vitro studies,2 that A9-THC is primarily metabolized by allylic hydroxylation at either the 8 or 11 position, followed by dihydroxylation to produce the 8,11-dihydroxy metabolite, and lends weight to the interesting speculations of Ben-Zvi, et a/.,14 that the cumulative effect of smoking marihuana may be based on a number of psychologically active cannabinoids derived from microsomal hydroxylation of A9-THC. The number of these metabolites found in biological fluids or tissues after in vivo metabolism in animals or man, often with similar Rt values by thin layer chromatography, indicates that identifications made by this useful technique must be regarded as tentative until confirmed by more rigid techniques such as gas-liquid chromatography combined with mass spectrometry.Acknowledgments. This work was carried out under Contract No. HSM-42-71-108, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health. We wish to thank Drs.

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