Smoking a joint today is like smoking 7 from the 1990’s - the alarming increase in THC potency.

One of the most concerning aspects of the modern marijuana paradigm is the dramatic increase in its potency.  Here are the THC content of flower marijuana by decade:

1970’s: 1-2%[1]

1990’s: 3%[2]

Today: Over 20%[3]

Put another way, smoking a joint of flower marijuana today is akin to smoking 7 joints from the 1990’s (when I started in law enforcement) and the equivalent of smoking over 10 Woodstock joints.  What does that mean? Well, whatever the negative impacts of marijuana use were in the 1990’s, one may expect those disasters to increase 7-fold – and that assumes equal use rates (and America has not been that fortunate as use rates have skyrocketed). 

Furthermore, burning a joint destroys about half of the THC.[4]  When THC is ingested in the form of edibles, it is all “on board.”  What that means is that all of the THC is “bioavailable” and interacting with the user. 

Again, we can ask a simple question.  THC consumption in America is dramatically increasing, both by use rates (as outlined in a previous blog) and by potency in flower marijuana.  With that backdrop, the question is whether we have seen the negative effects of such increased ingestion of THC – and we don’t need a scientific study for that – just our own eyes. 

[1] Alex Berenson, Tell Your Children the Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence (Free Press 2020) p. xix.

[2] Brian Surber, Injustice for All: The (Familiar) Fallacies of Criminal Justice Reform (True Blue Publishing, 2021) p. 94

[3] Id.

[4] Berenson, p.40.