Trailing behind marijuana has always been a league of fearmongerers. I grew up directly in the “gateway drug” era. Today, the fear manifests itself in a concern for highly potent weed that has a link to psychosis. This time, however, some of this is backed up in science.
But where do we draw the line between fact and fear?
Cracked recently posted an article that demonstrates how this distinction can be tricky. The author goes into depth showing that the rhetoric around marijuana has always been centered around how the weed of “today” is much stronger than it used to be. And if all of the numbers were to be taken seriously, we’d have marijuana that is 67,200 times stronger than it was in the 30’s.
He goes on to list some of the reasons why this seems insane. Testing methods, different samples over the years, and overall THC inflation are some of the causes.
Interestingly, one tidbit points to the fact that THC level doesn’t necessarily equate with potency, pointing to a study that showed how they didn’t always correlate.
But there is there anything at all to stronger weed? It seems it definitely is stronger, just not as crazy as the politicians would have you believe.
An article at Leafie points to a 2020 study showing an average THC concentration of 21.5% recreationally, which would about a strength five times that of the cannabis from 30 years ago.
High THC weed is more valuable, so there’s a bit of a warping in terms of how things are being presented. That being said, we’re evolving weed into a higher potency beast over the years.
So, like most things true, it’s somewhere in the middle of the two extreme.
