Marijuana Potency Research

Marijuana Potency

Is marijuana more potent today than during the 1960s is at the center of debate today among marijuana activists and those who oppose the use of marijuana. US government agencies have published their findings that potency of marijuana has steadily increased during the last 30 years. But is this really so?

“The potency of marijuana did for sure increase if compared to its potency in the 1960's. But, the fact is that marijuana's potency of 3.5% has being at this level for the last 20 years. Knowing that, its important to add that today we have increased range of potencies than we had in the 1960s” said Alan Leshner Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse while testifying in a Congress Committee on Crime.

Supporters of marijuana legalization claim that the data is flawed because of incomplete testings done. Namely the research on potency has being done in only limited geographic areas, and because of that the results of this research is not representing the potency of marijuana overall. Researchers responsible for this testings obtained samples of Mexican marijuana which is known to have low levels of THC (from 0.4% to 1% ). When these low levels of THC in the plant are compared with levels in other types of marijuana today it looks like the overall level of potency has increased in last 25 years.

Average levels of THC (THC is the chemical which is causing the high) are anywhere from 0.3 to 4 percent. But a fact is that specially grown and processed plants can have THC levels up to 15%.

There are different factors that control and influence the level of THC in marijuana. Most important are growing environment, genetics, harvesting and processing.

For example the timing of harvesting will influence the THC levels. Also female plants will have higher levels of THC. During marijuana plant development phases, the chemical composition of the plant is changing. In the early phases cannabidiolic acid is the predominant chemical. Subsequently,cannabidiolic will convert into cannabidiol, which will later be changed into THC at the time of plants flowering.

For an accurate finding of average potency level of marijuana plants researchers should collect data from different geographical regions and of different cannabis plant varieties. This wasn't done properly during the tests undertaken during the 1960's and this fact alone makes it difficult to make exact comparisons between THC levels in cannabis in that time and THC levels of cannabis today.

Continue reading here: Marijuana seeds vs clones

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