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.
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/
The age limit suggestion is still there - I moved it, not removed.
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.