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Invisibledumbfounded1600
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Registered: 07/29/07
Posts: 2,624
Cannabis Rise In Potency
    #8556441 - 06/23/08 10:25 PM (15 years, 10 months ago)

Quote:

http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08/n609/a06.html?397





US: Marijuana's Rising Potency Sparks Debate

MARIJUANA'S RISING POTENCY SPARKS DEBATE

It's a dangerous, highly addictive drug whose skyrocketing potency has only increased its stranglehold on our nation's youth.  Or it's mostly harmless, a substance not much worse than caffeine - with medicinal value to boot.

It's marijuana.  And the polarized debate about its safety has been rekindled by two reports released separately this month by the federal government and a leading drug prohibition group.  Both studies conclude that marijuana's potency has increased, which they link to reports of more addiction, mental health problems, and emergency room admissions related to marijuana use among teenagers.

Advocates of less punitive marijuana laws immediately decried the reports as alarmist, saying there's no evidence linking greater potency to a rise in health problems among pot smokers.

Academics say both sides are guilty of selectively presenting data to bolster their positions.

In a field with limited research, partisans tend to create paper thin arguments, as easily made as they are countered, said Roger Roffman, professor of sociology at the University of Washington.

"I think [both sides] do a disservice to the general public," said Roffman, who has written papers and edited books on marijuana use and dependence.  On websites of drug policy reform advocates, "you'll find lots of information about the very adverse consequences of criminalizing marijuana and very little mention of the very real harm associated with marijuana among some people in some circumstances," he said.

Meanwhile, on government and prohibitionist websites, he said, "you'll find plenty of information on the harmful consequences of marijuana abuse and very little information, perhaps, on the harmful consequences of criminalizing marijuana."

On the same day the government released its report, a peer-reviewed British scientific journal, "Addiction," sent out a press release that got much less attention, announcing the publication of a study in its July issue.

"More research is needed to determine whether increased potency .  .  .  translates into harm for users," principal author Jennifer McLaren wrote in the study, which was conducted by four Australian scientists affiliated with university drug research centers and based on a review of the scientific literature and statistics on worldwide marijuana potency.

The study notes that "claims about escalating potency [have been] made as far back as 1975; yet we know little about cannabis markets that can help support or reject recent claims."

Two weeks ago, the National Institute on Drug Abuse reported that the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana - THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol - has reached an all-time high average concentration of 9.6 percent.  Then last week, Columbia University's National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse reported that levels had reached 8.8 percent, which it said was a 175 percent increase since 1992.  The report noted that during the same period, there was a similar rise in admissions for teenagers who abused marijuana.

"Many of the parents who smoked pot in the '70s and even the '80s, when it was less than 1 percent potency, really don't understand that it's a very different drug," Joseph A.  Califano Jr., founding chairman and president of the center at Columbia, said in an interview.  In a statement accompanying the report, Califano wrote, "The striking and parallel increases in marijuana's potency" and teen treatment and emergency room admissions "together sound an alarm for parents and teens across the country."

Marijuana use among adolescents is a problem, said Michael Botticelli, director of the Massachusetts Bureau of Substance Abuse Services, but since 1996 there's been little change in the number of minors seeking drug treatment in this state who cite marijuana as the main drug they abuse.

He said the US numbers showing increasing problems among teen marijuana abusers "gives us some pause," but because of the many variables involved "I would be somewhat hesitant to jump to the conclusion that that is definitively linked to a potency issue."

Higher potency may not even be harmful, according to Craig Reinarman, professor of sociology at the University of California at Santa Cruz, who conducted research with Dutch colleagues on the habits of smokers in Amsterdam, where marijuana is de facto legal, and San Francisco.  He found that the majority of users, when presented with more potent pot, reduced how much they smoked.

"It's true that hard liquor will get you drunk much faster with less liquid than beer or wine, but usually people are seeking a certain level of intoxication, not to be fall-down drunk - so they drink smaller amounts," said Reinarman, whose research was funded by a National Institute on Drug Abuse grant.  "There's no evidence that suggests that people who use other drugs, however illegal, behave any differently."

But Dr.  David Murray, chief scientist for the Office of National Drug Control Policy, said while more research is necessary, public health policymakers often have to use a "precautionary principle."

"At some point in public policy there is always that imperative that you have to make that judgment that enough is known now to justify certain precautions without unduly raising public alarm," Murray said.

Of course, that's precisely what those on the other side of the debate think the government is doing.

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OfflineMokshaIs
everywhereeverpresent


Registered: 11/29/07
Posts: 476
Last seen: 6 years, 11 months
Re: Cannabis Rise In Potency [Re: dumbfounded1600]
    #8556763 - 06/24/08 12:12 AM (15 years, 10 months ago)

:bigblunt:


--------------------
in all of Infinite
there is but One
and it is nOne
ever and always
in every and all ways

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OfflineNasrudin
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Registered: 07/23/07
Posts: 206
Last seen: 2 years, 11 months
Re: Cannabis Rise In Potency [Re: MokshaIs]
    #8556813 - 06/24/08 12:35 AM (15 years, 10 months ago)

I was ready to  :crankey: when I read the first sentence.

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Offlineandrewss
precariously aggrandized


Registered: 08/17/07
Posts: 8,725
Loc: ohio
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Re: Cannabis Rise In Potency [Re: Nasrudin]
    #8556870 - 06/24/08 01:02 AM (15 years, 10 months ago)

Drugs are bad mmmmmmkay


--------------------
Jesus loves you.

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OfflineVisionary Tools
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Registered: 06/23/07
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Re: Cannabis Rise In Potency [Re: andrewss]
    #8557265 - 06/24/08 05:19 AM (15 years, 10 months ago)

Quote:

Advocates of less punitive marijuana laws immediately decried the reports as alarmist, saying there's no evidence linking greater potency to a rise in health problems among pot smokers.




Advocates of Leaving people that do no one no harm the fuck alone say the rise in potency is a good thing. It means there's more good gardeners out there, and less stalks and more smoke per bag.


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OfflineMaverick
Lover of Earwigs!
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Re: Cannabis Rise In Potency [Re: Visionary Tools]
    #8557787 - 06/24/08 10:03 AM (15 years, 10 months ago)

They're acting like we're cooking this shit up and adding the chemicals and changing the purities or something.  It's a fucking plant and it evolves depending on how the conditions are... potency is only relevant to the environment it was raised in...  it's not like we're throwing in an eightball of coke into the leaves...

Quote:


"Many of the parents who smoked pot in the '70s and even the '80s, when it was less than 1 percent potency, really don't understand that it's a very different drug,"






Isn't that the same potency as ditchweed?  From what I've heard from all the hippies I know that are from that era, weed was just as potent then as now.  I also like how they have no numbers to go along with their increase, just that THC is more potent from the less than 1% THC ditchweed they obtained in the 70s tested the new stuff against.

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OfflineRoosterCogburn
Fearless,one-eyed U.S.Marshall
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Registered: 08/25/06
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Re: Cannabis Rise In Potency [Re: Maverick]
    #8557830 - 06/24/08 10:19 AM (15 years, 10 months ago)

Of course it was just as potent... Good genetics raised in the perfect conditions leads to good product. AS been said, there are simply more growers with better equipment.

People make me :minigun:.

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Invisibledumbfounded1600
Stranger

Registered: 07/29/07
Posts: 2,624
Re: Cannabis Rise In Potency [Re: RoosterCogburn]
    #8557893 - 06/24/08 10:43 AM (15 years, 10 months ago)

Fact: They had Kush in the 60's it just wasn't as common as it is today, Thai weed and Panama Red was just as potent as anything these days.


The DEA/Government are just trying to throw words in our mouth. The only difference is the science of it. Science advances every day. Strains are irrelevant in my opinion other then taste and smell and maybe a bit of an appearance.

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Offlinesinenomine
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Registered: 12/02/06
Posts: 557
Last seen: 10 years, 11 months
Re: Cannabis Rise In Potency [Re: dumbfounded1600]
    #8557918 - 06/24/08 10:52 AM (15 years, 10 months ago)

I feel REALLY sorry for anybody who ever smokes 1% THC weed.  That would be like fucking smoking hemp. 

Also, this "average" that they come up with was computed with all their seizures, correct?  In other words, a total convenience sample whose results and conclusions should in no way be extrapolated into generalizations about the cannabis market.  What if they just happened to bust a couple more dank grows this year, compared to last?

Also interesting that people have been freaking out about "super potency pot" since at least 1975 and are still carrying on about it.

"They are also troubled by the stepped-up potency of some present- day pot -- as much as seven times stronger than the "grass" available four years ago -- although the street variety has changed little over the years. "p.42

Source: Newsweek, New Look at Marijuana, Jan 7, 1980

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OfflineIrieforester
Head to toe inH2O
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Re: Cannabis Rise In Potency [Re: sinenomine]
    #8558028 - 06/24/08 11:29 AM (15 years, 10 months ago)

Quote:

I was ready to  :crankey: when I read the first sentence.




--------------------
I am still and forever learning

Apollyphelion said:
You can learn A LOT from shitting in the right set and setting!:thumbup:

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Offlinejazzillion
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Registered: 04/22/08
Posts: 1,679
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Re: Cannabis Rise In Potency [Re: Irieforester]
    #8558129 - 06/24/08 11:58 AM (15 years, 10 months ago)

I think there has been some truth to the rise in potency in cannabis over time.  If you breed generation after generation of dog looking only for specific qualities, you will end up with those qualities.  It's assisted evolution in a way.  I think the growing technology has also rapidly increased allowing the door to be open for genetic improvements in terms of sheer experience.  I'm not saying there wasn't good pot back in the day, but those good seeds' kin has been bred to be better and more accessible and more tolerant to widespread growing conditions, and it is, which is why it's more prevalent and more potent.

Of course, like the article covers, that doesn't lead to greater abuse or any danger whatsoever, just me eating more nachos  :fatbastard:


--------------------
When it rains, it spores :shroompick:

"Consciousness is the Universe recognizing itself." Once we perceive that everything is conscious we can then ask, "How does consciousness take all these varied forms?" - The Primacy of Consciousness by Peter Russell

All works of poster are of absolute fiction to be used for no other purpose but amusement.

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InvisibleBoomerMan420
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Registered: 10/24/07
Posts: 1,641
Re: Cannabis Rise In Potency [Re: jazzillion]
    #8559196 - 06/24/08 05:15 PM (15 years, 10 months ago)

Did they test the bud back then or did they happen to find 30 year old weed because if they just found it no wonder its garbage it's been rotting for 30 years!!!!!!!

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