In 2022, the federal government reported that, in samples seized by the Drug Enforcement Administration, average levels of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC—the psychoactive compound in weed that makes you feel high—had more than tripled compared with 25 years earlier, from 5 to 16 percent. That may understate how strong weed has gotten. Walk into any dispensary in the country, legal or not, and you’ll be hard-pressed to find a single product advertising such a low THC level. Most strains claim to be at least 20 to 30 percent THC by weight; concentrated weed products designed for vaping can be labeled as up to 90 percent.
The high that most adult weed smokers remember from their teenage years is most likely one produced by “mids,” as in, middle-tier weed. In the pre-legalization era, unless you had a connection with access to top-shelf strains such as Purple Haze and Sour Diesel, you probably had to settle for mids (or, one step down, “reggie,” as in regular weed) most of the time. Today, mids are hard to come by.
The simplest explanation for this is that the casual smokers who pine for the mids and reggies of their youth aren’t the industry’s top customers. Serious stoners are. According to research by Jonathan P. Caulkins, a public-policy professor at Carnegie Mellon, people who report smoking more than 25 times a month make up about a third of marijuana users but account for about two-thirds of all marijuana consumption. Such regular users tend to develop a high tolerance, and their tastes drive the industry’s cultivation decisions.
I actually miss the old Mexican brick weed from thirty years ago. It could give you a headache, but otherwise, the high it produced of everything being hilarious doesn’t seem to exist anymore. Modern weed pretty much makes me instantly catatonic.
Further, I don’t know if it’s age, but a single bong rip will send me into violent fits of coughing that frequently render me running outside to puke.
I’ve stopped smoking entirely in favor of edibles due to the coughing thing. The edibles still knock me the hell out. I don’t know how the younger set wakes and bakes and carries on with their day with the modern stuff.
It sounds like you’re looking for a really uplifting sativa / haze the get the giggling feeling. The mainstream strains have been crossbred so much you’ll probably have to look a bit to find a classic lineage.
I don’t know how the younger set wakes and bakes and carries on with their day with the modern stuff.
It was tough lemme tell ya. I hadta set goals, show up every day and give it 110%.
Im no hero, i just care, yaknow? You too can achieve, just do what i did. Set your mind to it and put in a little work daily and greatness will come
Tolerance is kind of the only reason I’ve been able to enjoy ridiculously strong weed. Otherwise, like you said, I’m just catatonic. These days, I need to consume such a small amount (I’m talking 5mg edible) when I don’t have a tolerance.
But I take 1 puff off a joint and that’s when I find that beautiful high where everything is funny, and I still am able to talk to my friends.
Seriously, with this strong ass weed, less is more.
Just smoke less. Take one hit of potent weed and it will feel like an entire joint of that trash you are used to
I prefer some delta 8 for that reason now days. If you shop around for CBD strains, you can score some single digits D9 THC occasionally. What I miss is some old school creeper weed.
Creepers are dangerous… 😂 Did you smoke enough? Or are you going to a new planet in 15 minutes.
me: “I think I have had enough”
the creeper: “HAHAH sucker, you had enough a while ago. Get ready to rubble!!!”
Creeper taught me harm reduction before I knew it was a concept. Just one time of “Ground control to me” was enough for me to stop and wait 15 to 30 minutes before hitting it again.
Because it’s gotten so much stronger, I actually smoke less to get to that “sweet spot,” which saves me money.
Won’t catch me complaining.
Besides that I just grow the weed I want to consume. Legalization is great 💖
Nice! Wish I could do that 😅
Can confirm, legally growing your own weed is the best. It is a beautiful plant and gardening is a great, relaxing hobby.
Just look at my nice ladyplant here.
That is a legit beast, my compliments!
It’s beautiful 🥹❤️
I’ve been growing in Virginia for a few years now and I’m blown away with what you can make at home.
I compared it to expensive weed from a dispensary and it is way better. No machine trimmed bullshit full of plant growth regulators that can cause cancer.
Unfortunately I’ll be moving to a Prohibition State soon, going to suck to give it up but worth it for the lower rent
I read a while ago that the landraces of cannabis that were used sacramentally by Rastafarians in Jamaica are believed to be extinct, replaced by more profitable high-THC varieties grown by organised crime for export to US consumers.
THC percentage in isolation means nothing - if it did, you could easily use less, like you don’t chug booze like it’s beer. The problem is the disturbing ratio of THC to the many other contents, especially the anti-psychotic CBD.
It’s easy not to pack the bowl full of the strong weed, but it has become hard to avoid the strains that make me paranoid and probably drive a teenager to psychosis.
The solution is to legalize and mandate warnings on the packaging, and other safety measures such as different age limits on different strains.
No teenager can legally buy cannabis. 21 seems to be the prevailing age limit. What different age limits do you suggest? edit: My question was in reference to this comment’s suggestions about age limits before the edit. This suggestion was removed.
They’re talking pseudo-bs too
Do elaborate. Don’t you believe there are significant differences between strains caused by psychoactive compounds other than THC? https://herbceo.com/cannabis-terpenes-101/
Not suggesting, only speculating, but it seems pure CBD should be easily available (it is here), and psycho-weeds should be at the other end of the limit spectrum. Maybe “extra bad for teenage brains” on the packet of those strains in addition to the age limit. Or it could be a gene test, assuming it was known which genes interact badly with which molecules.
The age limit suggestion is still there - I moved it, not removed.
No. The explanation is that prohibition makes markets. If you’re gonna risk getting caught you might as well hype your shit and turn a higher profit.
Otherwise there’d barely be adulterated weed.
How does this track with legal marketplaces?
I can buy weed that tests at 38% here if u wanted to, legally.
It’s spawned from the same culture
This article feels like it was written by an old man yelling at clouds. “… Back in my day we smoked mid and we liked it” shakes fist and then uses it as a reason to go back to prohibition. Why can’t we just make it legal and let the free market figure it out.
Turns out more THC for the buck means people can make a few months supply of edibles out of a few grams. Cost effective!
I do agree with the old man yelling sentiment, but in fairness to the article it has ,imo, become a lot easier to get too high in the last decade. By that I mean becoming uncomfortably high. As a daily user for the last decade I smoke mainly because it has been the only reliable way to help me sleep I’ve ever tried, but I honestly enjoy being high as well.
I have issues with anxiety though and it definitely is really easy to accidentally overdo it. I’ve seen this sentiment grow in a minor portion of the community.
Luckily it’s a super super easy fix, add cbd bud. When I was reading scientific lit I saw many journal articles that discussed cbds ability to help with thc side effects. I don’t feel like digging them up right now.
i think the jump compared to 20-30 years ago is like 10x or something which they are finding very hard to handle.
also the balance of thc/cbd has changed massively - almost no cbd
i have noticed that lower thc and higher cbd is more available so i think the free market is catering to the old heads
This is such bad reporting about cannabis that it makes me think The Atlantic probably has very poor standards for all their articles.
I’d call it more of an opinion piece than actual reporting or journalism but it’s still dumb.
Leftists have been calling out the Atlantic’s poor reporting for a while now, history just has a weird way of always proving them right.
It’s pseudo legal, and the free market has spoken. People want stronger
No you just have baby lungs and a low tolerance.
Iron lung tell u where it’s coming from
Another point on this. CBD and THC content are inversely correlated. So high TCH will almost always result in very low CBD. So instead of getting the high + relax you just get high.
One of the best weed I’ve ever smoked was “shit weed” which put me into a “relax and enjoy life” mood. I really want weed to be legalised so that people will start producing weaker weed with high CBD content.
If you’re in a country where CBD is legal, you can mix regular weed with CBD weed bought in store.
It exists.
I can go to the dispensary down the street and get it if I wanted it.
Sounds nice, would like a dispensary but where I live there’s only the black market.
So chances are you’ll have some options, but I can say the options for lower THC weed here in Canada (well, Ontario to be specific) are slim. There just isn’t as much market demand for it once the older folks who abstained during prohibition have tried it and moved on (usually to low dose edibles, tbf). The real money is in appealing to chronic smokers who chase THC %.
Sucks for me, who would love more options with moderate to low THC grown/processed really well (e.g. nice flavour profile, pretty nugs, etc.). There’s been a few, but they usually don’t stay on the market for very long or stay in a grow rotation.
For now, one hitters and lots of attention to dose thresholds are the way I get down. Which means I buy less weed, which also means my preferences aren’t well reflected in overall demand.
They can fuck right off, I enjoy going to outer space on half a joint.
Ugh, they used the word ‘marijuana’. Foreshadowing.
So meta
Marijuana has been getting stronger for a long time according to news outlets. I remember seeing a collection of reports on stronger marijuana from different decades. Multiplying those “x times stronger” tells us, that marijuana is now 2000 times stronger and consists of at least 200% THC or something like that.
Does anyone have the original calculations and references? It was hilarious.
Their explanation is pretty dumb. The main driver for more concentrated drugs in general is money. If you can make more money with less material, its going to be easier to transport, hide, trade. Thats what drug cartels care about. To be blunt the reason cannabis is more potent now is because it was/is illegal.
What? But the volume is the same. It’s not like people are buying smaller amounts they’re just smoking stronger stuff.
Best way to balance this is to buy some cbd bud and mix it in to return it to healthier levels.
Citation needed
Well I’m in the UK but people have been smoking the same amounts for the past ~15 years when grass became popular. Before then it was much denser ‘soapbar’ hash. Grass is a lot harder to smuggle and takes up more volume so it’s not being driven by that.
Those responsible for 2/3 of consumption have had their tolerance pushed up by rising THC levels the past 15 years, but they’re still buying the same amounts every month. The inbalance between THC/CBD is also causing a lot more anxiety and psychiatric symptoms to emerge and pushing people away from it.
I believe there’s some efforts in legal states to move away from the high-THC strains causing these issues, so you’re right that the illegality is ultimately causing these terrible practices.
1, This is not a citation
2, This is bullshit. All of it.
Cut it out.
I was citing the original article where it’s stated. It says it’s increased to match the tolerance of the people who consume 2/3rds of the product not some nonsensical fantasy it’s being done to make it easier to ship.
Like exactly the same thing happened during alcohol prohibition. Beer disappeared, and spirits got harder and harder.
Seriously, what is up with us as a species? Are we still adapting to being able to record history?
Are we still adapting to being able to record history?
History? We barely remember yesterday’s mistakes…
They also claim that all sour diesel strains are top shelf without considering the quality of the growing process at all.
If you take one peek in any grower community you will see that that is not the case. This isn’t cocaine. Growers do not seek just THC, they seek to improve trichome development in general. This includes flavor molecules, Entourage chemicals, and the main chemicals that you know of.
We refer to ourselves as trichome growers, not cannabis growers.
Im sure for recreational or small scale growers this is true, but i doubt that big drug operations care about quality as much. As long as you only use it yourself, you can grow and breed it to whatever needs you have ofcourse.
homegrown is the way
no nasty pesticides, no PGRs, no machine trimming.
Maybe tackle it like the UK does tackle sugar, tax higher after a certain amount of THC?
No bro, its “serious stoners”
I heard this ‘marijuana is too strong now’ argument back in the 90s i swear to God.
This is such a wild stance to take. “The quality of recreational cannabis has improved, and we’re mad about it!” If it’s too strong, just use less. Skill issue
I’m not sure that quality and potency are synonymous.
Ever heard about other terpenes?
