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.
Well I’m in the UK but people have been smoking the same amounts for the past ~15 years when grass became popular. Before then it was much denser ‘soapbar’ hash. Grass is a lot harder to smuggle and takes up more volume so it’s not being driven by that.
Those responsible for 2/3 of consumption have had their tolerance pushed up by rising THC levels the past 15 years, but they’re still buying the same amounts every month. The inbalance between THC/CBD is also causing a lot more anxiety and psychiatric symptoms to emerge and pushing people away from it.
I believe there’s some efforts in legal states to move away from the high-THC strains causing these issues, so you’re right that the illegality is ultimately causing these terrible practices.
1, This is not a citation
2, This is bullshit. All of it.
Cut it out.
I was citing the original article where it’s stated. It says it’s increased to match the tolerance of the people who consume 2/3rds of the product not some nonsensical fantasy it’s being done to make it easier to ship.