Not only is pot becoming more legalish, it's becoming more potent too.
On Thursday, scientists will gather in a circle to report that the tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) levels in thousands of confiscated marijuana samples have exceeded 10 percent for the first time.
THC is an indicator of the potency of the pot. Back in the '60s and through most of the '90s THC levels never reached much higher than 5 percent. Scientists are using this new info to warn kids to look-out, this ain't their parents' pot. As CNN notes, the adolescent brain is especially susceptible to high THC levels.
The problem is without the government's expensive testing equipment it's difficult to tell the potency of the weed -- unless you sample it. Some specimens in the government's lab at Ol' Miss had THC scores of 30 percent, which one science likened to 190 proof Everclear. But the average for pot grown domestically stayed at the average 5 percent.
High THC levels can do more than just lead to overdoses. In one study, rats who were injected with THC had a reduced sperm count and noticeable "loss of libido."
Not that whiskey is much better but hey, it's legal and the alcohol content is printed on the bottle so for the time being I'll stick to that.
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Denise,
Do you also recommend we change the drinking age and the age to enlist in the military to 26? I mean if people don't become adults until 26 then they shouldn't have to deal with adult things, right?
I'm in favor of legalizing marijuana, though I no longer use it. However, I am STRONGLY in favor of the legal age for marijuana use being 26. The medical field agrees that the human is not considered an adult until around that age. Given the effects of marijuana on the body, and the normal educational challenges presented to humans prior to that age, it would be a poor mix to introduce the effects of THC into the body prior to that age.
Increased potency of cannabis is another unintended result of prohibition. Stronger cannabis yields more profit on the black market in America. Elsewhere where cannabis is essentially legal, users prefer somewhat milder potency flowers. Since most cannabis is consumed by smoking, and here, now less is needed to produce the same effect, there will be less smoking health ill-effects which is about all there is to cause significant health concern. This is why users should consider vaporizors or food/drink preparations. As toxins go, THC and the like in natural organic cannabis are so mild many people don't even get high the first time or two they use it, some never do, and there has never been even one fatal over-dose in more than five thousand years of documented consumption. Curiously, the prohibitionist D.E.A. does not seem concerned with synthetic THC (commonly acknowledged as the main active ingredient in cannabis), which is 100 percent pure. But it is legal. And in their "special" world, an individual's body metabolism can differentiate among toxic substances based on a particular substance's current legal status. In a few short years after cannabis is re-legalized, people will find it hard to believe so many people could have acted so stupidly, wasted more than a trillion dollars, violated the Constitution and stuck with a failed policy that kept and made actually very dangerous drugs available to our children, for so long. They may also wonder why we stuck with this policy that destabilized the domestic tranquillity of several allied nations and directly funded terrorists sworn to kill us, and gangs that made our neighborhoods so dangerous. When I think what truth does to prohibitionists, I often recall those old movies where the vampire gets caught out in the light of day.
I actually like how it lowers my sperm count, less chance of me getting some bitches pregnant. Morris your a B O N E R
Morris, do you even believe the crap you just wrote ?
"High THC levels can do more than just lead to overdoses. In one study, rats who were injected with THC had a reduced sperm count and noticeable "loss of libido.""
so it can lead to more than just a "overdoes"(you mean sleeping) ...
not only does you sleep , but it could lower your sperm count !!!!!!!
oh no !!!!!!!
get real ... have you ever read any side effects on the label of prescription drugs ?
....didnt think so
propaganda! even the director of the fbi admitted today on camera that no one has ever died from marijuana.
and yeah, drink up owen.
Well, Owen, it must be the end of the road for you since you lost one of your huge (probably literally) supporters. You can guest-blog on mine all you want.
Yes, you are dead on Ryan people wake up everymorning and google for THC overdoses. I make about 50,000 a year and haven't found one yet, but I'll find one here before long.
Honestly,
I have followed Mr. Owen Morris and his blogs and the only thing they do is continue to disappoint me. It is sad to see how lazy he is. There is no factual evidence what so ever in his argument. And thank God he is sticking to alcohol so just maybe there will be a chance that he will overdose and the PITCH can finally get some real bloggers. If somebody takes a minute or two to understand what they are writing about things like this don't happen.
Mr. Owen Morris please get your resume ready because you have lost more than my support.
Am I the only one that finds the above comments odd? Are there really people out there who wake up every morning and google for THC overdose so they can run to set the record straight? Is someone paying people to do this ? Weird.
THC does not lead to overdose. Never in 2700 years of recorded pot use has a human died because of an overdose of THC.
The reason THC levels seem to be increasing is just that more people are smoking higher quantities of high quality pot than they were in the 60s, 70s and 80s. The same quality has always existed but its just more abundant now that the markets taste has refined and been passed down to a new generation who demand the best!
The study and its supporters seem to want to suggest that because it is more potent (as if the race of plants themselves have mutated into a more potent species which is NOT TRUE) it is much worse than even they had lied to you about back then! Smoking more potent pot is actually healthier than the alternative because less is needed for the desired effect and therefore, less combusted plant matter enters your lungs if smoking is your thing.
Pure fiction! What about hash? It is just as strong now as it has been for thousands of years! Marijuana prohibition has been a total failure and is perhaps this country's greatest mistake. Not only has it created criminals out of nearly a third of the country's populace, it costs our society billions of dollars every year, creates a strain on our prison system, and has little or no effect on marijuana use in the US. In some cases, prosecuting marijuana use has turned non-violent, middle class kids into violent and unpredictable, career criminals. Once a person has a criminal conviction on their record, they are far less likely to find a good job and become a useful member of society. Other countries with more liberal drug laws have much lower rates of drug addiction among their people. I invite you to my web-page devoted to raising awareness on the assault on our civil liberties: http://freethegods.blogspot.co...
You can't compare the potency of THC with that of alcohol. They're two completely different things!
Government-approved Marinol is 100% THC and has never killed a single person, what kind of alcohol are you going to compare that to?
Marinol, marijuana and THC all lack the ability to kill people, or even to do them any harm at all. In all of recorded history there has never been a single death from marijuana. Not even one!
The federal marijuana prohibition yields no benefit to our country as a whole or to any single person living in it. It is an expensive and deadly policy that should never have been implemented in the first place.
End the prohibition and legalize the production and sale of marijuana to adults!!
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