Increased THC Content in Today’s Marijuana

In the name of arming parents and others with factual information, I thought I’d pass this along:

The potency of marijuana, measured by the presence of its (psycho)active ingredient, THC, has tripled since 1987, according to the latest figures from the Department of Justice's National Drug Intelligence Center

The new data from the University of Mississippi Potency Monitoring Project … was released in the 2009 National Drug Threat Assessment. [which brings to mind a question; Who knew there was a potency monitoring project?]

The new pot is certainly [more potent], but it's nowhere near as strong as some war-on-drug advocates have contended. The old White House drug czar, John Walters, has said publicly that marijuana's THC content has "increased as much as 30 times," which researchers say is not supported by the available evidence.

So in addition to pointing out the study finding that the most potent marijuana found by the folks at Ole Miss was 37% THC; the article makes two last points. First, as a point of reference, in the Netherlands their medicinal marijuana, meeting government standards, has a minimum potency of 15% THC. Second, most pot smokers control their consumption based on potency like alcohol drinkers vary volumes of consumed beer and other spirits based on their “potency”.

Nonetheless, the facts are that marijuana is getting to be more potent, its intoxicating effects will be more pronounced than those experienced by consumers in the past, and it is illegal, other than medicinal use in something like 13 states here in the US.

Don’t try and scare folks with false claims, like John Walters tried, use facts and remember: “this isn’t your father’s marijuana anymore”.