[galdosdi]

Thank you. A big factor that excarbates this issue is that the legal cannabis industryha greedily amped up THC potency by an order of magnitude. 5% was typical in the 1990s. Today it's hard to find lower than 20%. And that's just plain flower, whereas many users vape instead which is even more potent and way easier to abuse by using all day at work and school secretly.

Studies and anecdotes agree that higher potency means more symptoms of the sort you discuss and most importantly more addiction and habit forming. So the industry does this on purpose out of greed, and the states have no clue how to stop it.

What do you think would happen if after the 1930s alcohol had been relegalized but suddenly only high proof vodka was available?

Because that is the disaster that has happened with legal weed. We thought we were legalizing the weed we knew and instead they used it as a door to carpet bomb us with ultra high potency products.

The cause of this fiasco is again, greed.

[akira2501]

> greedily amped up THC potency

This had been going on for decades as a result of the prohibition on the substance and the criminal penalties associated with it.

> 5% was typical in the 1990s

What is your source for this assertion?

> vape instead

Is there a source for this as well?

> which is even more potent

The material used in vaporizers is typically from concentrated extracts. This is another product born out of the long standing legal status of the flower. The real question is, are users consuming _more_ when they vape as opposed to other methods, or is this simply a more efficient delivery mechanism for them?

> So the industry does this on purpose out of greed

You're ignoring edibles entirely. These products really didn't exist before legalization. A large segment of these products are much lower dose than the other specialty products and often have reduced THC in favor of higher CBD, CBG or CBN.

> but suddenly only high proof vodka was available?

Pure grain alcohol from stills has always been available.

> they used it as a door to carpet bomb us with ultra high potency products.

This single minded focus on potency of product and not on the impact of users is unusual. Why have you made this such a focus?

[canucker2016]

inserting myself into this thread...

from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6312155/:

"Many people who have voted for legalization thought they were talking about the marijuana of the 1960s to 1980s when the THC content was less than 2%. ...

Prior to the 1990s it was less than 2%. In the 1990s it grew to 4%, and between 1995 and 2015 there has been a 212% increase in THC content in the marijuana flower. In 2017 the most popular strains found in dispensaries in Colorado had a range of THC content from 17–28% such as found in the popular strain named “Girl Scout Cookie.”2 Sadly these plants producing high levels of THC are incapable of producing much CBD, the protective component of the plant so these strains have minimal CBD. For example the Girl Scout Cookie strain has only 0.09–0.2% CBD."

from https://medicine.yale.edu/news-article/not-your-grandmothers...:

"... In 1995, the average THC content in cannabis seized by the Drug Enforcement Administration was about 4%. By 2017, it had risen to 17% and continues to increase. Beyond the plant, a staggering array of other cannabis products with an even higher THC content like dabs, oils, and edibles are readily available—some as high as 90%."

[rascul]

None of those links give actual references for the percents (unless I missed it).

As an anecdote, in the late 90s and early 00s, the higher potency stuff was quite prevalent in my circles. The low potency dirt weed was was basically worthless and we would only get it if we were desperate, but it was readily available.

[canucker2016]

You have to follow the links for a couple of hops.

The key article reference is "Sevigny, E. L. (January 01, 2013). “Is today’s marijuana more potent simply because it’s fresher?”. Drug Testing and Analysis, 5, 1, 62-7."

[galdosdi]

Well good for you, but some people couldn't get the fancy stuff and didn't mind and actually liked the "dirt weed" and are sad it can no longer be gotten for love or money. You can't even grow your own either because in many of the legal states, it's still illegal to grow but legal to buy from a large cannabis corporation. What a boring dystopia and not at all what the punky hippy "LEGALIZE IT" types of yore can possibly have had in mind!

[Teever]

Yeah, as a Canadian who grew up in this time, it's comical to hear people talk about 5% THC levels in weed. The only time I've experienced something like that was down in Arcata when someone gave me some Mexican brick weed.

[voisin]

> Sadly these plants producing high levels of THC are incapable of producing much CBD, the protective component of the plant so these strains have minimal CBD

What does that mean “the protective component of the plant”?

[doublerabbit]

I see CBD as the governor of THC.

High THC and low CBD you'll going to be higher off the ground than say a strain with equal or more CBD.

[canucker2016]

from later in that article:

"Human studies have shown that long-term (>10 years) and heavy (>5 joints per day) cannabis use compared with age matched non-using controls resulted in bilaterally reduced hippocampal and amygdala volumes (p=.001) and significantly worse performance on measures of verbal learning (p<.001).14 There is evidence that recovery is possible in humans as well. ... They found that cannabis users had smaller hippocampal volumes compared to controls but the users not exposed to CBD had an even greater (11%) reduced volumes (CBD appears to be somewhat protective). In the former users the hippocampal integrity was comparable to controls. ..."

summary: THC-only users had smaller hippocampal and amygdala volumes (HAV) than THC+CBD users, while former users had HAV similar to control subjects.

[galdosdi]

>> vape instead

> Is there a source for this as well?

Lol. Do you really doubt this? Have you been out in the world recently? It's become a major problem in the schools. It can be done discretely, much like nicotine vapes, in a way that is impossible for smoked cannabis or smoked tobacco.

[akira2501]

> Lol.

Thank you.

> It's become a major problem in the schools

In my entire life this statement has never been true and has never materially contributed to society by being entertained.

> in a way that is impossible for smoked cannabis or smoked tobacco.

Have _you_ been out in the world?

[galdosdi]

When was the last time you worked in a public school then?

[znpy]

> A big factor that excarbates this issue is that the legal cannabis industryha greedily amped up THC potency by an order of magnitude. 5% was typical in the 1990s. Today it's hard to find lower than 20%.

Only tangentially related, but I’ve realised I should really think thrice before advocating for something because the way things become is pretty much never the way advocates had in their mind while advocating.

I see this in many contexts but I won’t make other examples because it would get controversial…

[bdcravens]

Is there a way to dilute it?

[galdosdi]

No, because the high potency stuff merely increases THC but does not increase and in fact often decreases other psychoactive compounds like CBD. It will not be the same.

[namaria]

Well you can also just take CBD on the side when using high THC strains...

[runlaszlorun]

I had nothing scientific to go one, but have long felt that mixing 50/50 with CBD specific flower may be putting it a lot closer to the old school stuff.

Looking at a couple of the studies linked to from the comments, seems like that broadly about right.

[hughesjj]

(Hypothetically, if I was a Marijuana user) I (would) exclusively use edibles for this exact reason. Dosage is labeled on individually wrapped pieces with the exact amount of thc/cbd/cbg/cbgb on the packaging

[apwell23]

yes. consume less of it.