Marijuana Potency Up, Says White House

New Report Says Drug's Potency Increased To Highest Level In Over 30 Years

(AP)  Marijuana potency increased last year to the highest level in more than 30 years, posing greater health risks to people who may view the drug as harmless, according to a report released Thursday by the White House.

The latest analysis from the University of Mississippi's Potency Monitoring Project tracked the average amount of THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, in samples seized by law enforcement agencies from 1975 through 2007. It found that the average amount of THC reached 9.6 percent in 2007, compared with 8.75 percent the previous year.

The 9.6 percent level represents more than a doubling of marijuana potency since 1983, when it averaged just under 4 percent.

"Today's report makes it more important than ever that we get past outdated, anachronistic views of marijuana," said John Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. He cited baby boomer parents who might have misguided notions that the drug contains the weaker potency levels of the 1970s.

"Marijuana potency has grown steeply over the past decade, with serious implications in particular for young people," Walters said. He cited the risk of psychological, cognitive and respiratory problems, and the potential for users to become dependent on drugs such as cocaine and heroin.

While the drug's potency may be rising, marijuana users generally adjust to the level of potency and smoke it accordingly, said Dr. Mitch Earleywine, who teaches psychology at the State University of New York in Albany and serves as an adviser for marijuana advocacy groups. "Stronger cannabis leads to less inhaled smoke," he said.

The White House office attributed the increases in marijuana potency to sophisticated growing techniques that drug traffickers are using at sites in the United States and Canada.

A report from the office last month found that a teenager who has been depressed in the past year was more than twice as likely to have used marijuana than teenagers who have not reported being depressed - 25 percent compared with 12 percent. The study said marijuana use increased the risk of developing mental disorders by 40 percent.

"The increases in marijuana potency are of concern since they increase the likelihood of acute toxicity, including mental impairment," said Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which funded the University of Mississippi study.

"Particularly worrisome is the possibility that the more potent THC might be more effective at triggering the changes in the brain that can lead to addiction," Volkow said.

But there's no data showing that a higher potency in marijuana leads to more addiction, Earleywine said, and marijuana's withdrawal symptoms are mild at best. "Mild irritability, craving for marijuana and decreased appetite - I mean those are laughable when you talk about withdrawal from a drug. Caffeine is worse."

The project analyzed data on 62,797 cannabis samples, 1,302 hashish samples, and 468 hash oil samples obtained primarily from seizures by law enforcement agencies in 48 states since 1975.

[republic1776]

Does less harm than Alcohol.
It''s is NOT Goverment''s role to tell a person what they can or cannot consume.
Just like, Alcohol Firearms and Tobacco should be the name of a Convenience store, not a Government Agency.

[lemonskink]

Who really cares? Bush prefers cocaine. The economy is down, the citizens are down. Food, Gas, and pot are up. Idiot article.

[columbiabro]

how about legalizing it and taxing it?

[wardoglrs]

I hear the CIA makes good smoke... :]

[gmond]

I will have to conduct a study to make sure.

[ubrew12]

White HOuse: "Marijuana potency increased last year to the highest level in more than 30 years"

Yeah, and if BEER has been illegal the last 30 years, we''d be facing the SAME problem with ALCOHOL!!!

It''s the LACK of Federal Standards of potency for illegal substances that allows them to become TRULY HARMFUL!!!

Folks: WATER WILL KILL YOU IF YOU DRINK TOO MUCH OF IT!!!!!!

Federal Standards KEEP beer at a 6% alcohol level. Imagine such standards for POT!!! Without such standards OF COURSE Pot is going to increase in potency!!!

Todays Pot is higher in potency to the Pot 30 years ago, by the same fraction that VODKA is to BEER!!!!

Does VODKA make you an alcoholic???

Does BEER???!!!

OF COURSE, the difference in potency is the difference that creates addicts out of recreational users. But, try telling that to Republicans!!!!!!!

[incog-nito]

President Bush confirmed this finding with an announcement: "I just took a bong hit, and man, this is some good weed!"

[republic1776]

Rather than making a millions of dollars in taxes,
The Government spends billions on Police , Jails, etc.
Turn people decent people for the most part, into criminals.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$

[jax_kyle]

Potency up, prices down as adjusted for inflation, sounds great to me. Marijuana lowers my blood pressure 30 plus points, among other benefits. Up the potency reduce the amount required for a medicinal effect, sounds even better. If the pharmaceutical companies didn%u2019t care that you could grow your own medicine it would be legal. However, pharma co%u2019s aren%u2019t going to let you grow something they can sell you a pill for. We%u2019ve wasted enough money and destroyed to many lives in this faux war on drugs.

[brianbwb-2009]

White HOuse: "Marijuana potency increased last year to the highest level in more than 30 years"

Cool, so maybe now I can turn into a lizard, like Sgt, Stedanko?

[republic1776]

Good that Clinton did not inhale!
Lie Number #1 of ????

[truthisstran]

and just think still not 1 single death?huh?
how many people are killed every year tabbacco and alcahol!If a bad habit of spelling and getting the munchies is the side effect instead of killing people then i pick???you will suffer from budweiser which by the way gave the first 100,000$ to the war on drugs!

[antizion]

Well if anybody would know it would be the drunk drug addict in the white house.


Think you have a free press in this country? Congress just delivered 35 solid articles of impeachment against Bush for treason and other high crimes and not a peep in the media.

But then george is fighting Israels was and the US media is controlled by 7 Jews.

Freedom of the press was the first one on the list of Amendments to the constitution. Proof you live in a jewish controlled dictatorship.

[mysticstone]

Marijuana is NOT a drug. It is NOT manufactured, it IS cultivated, as tobacco, corn, potatoes, tomatoes. etc. It is God''s agricultural gift to mankind as all herbs are! This one just by chance has several uses; hemp ropes, and has a wonderful calming effect that allows me to fall asleep better than manufactured Rx drugs (that are addictive!!!) I VOTE to legalize Marijuana. The government can put there controls on it and tax it as everything else in this country is, and just perhaps find the USA out of debt.

[carlylaine]

I believed this lie all of my life until I turned 50. My middle finger in the air to the government. Do they get this hyper over ALCOHOL? No, they don''t...they did once and PROHIBITION was REPEALED.

Instead of a FIST in defiance....point that middle finger and show your unity!

[watcher269-2009]

YUP!

Our President certifies it too!

[dugas64]

Having a bad experience more than 30yrs ago, due to unknown added ingredients to my hemp experience, I decided to say "NO". Yet, I''ve become addicted to other comsumptions of the flesh. Through FREEBASING, GAMBLING, CANCER, CRACK, MEN, LOW ESTEEM, you name it, "I WISH I HAD GIVEN HEMP ANOTHER CHANCE". "TRULY, THIS HERB AFFORDS THE MOST ADDICTED PERSONALITY THE OPPORTUNITY TO BE FUNCTIONAL IN ALL AREAS OF LIVING!!

[dugas64]

DHP@PADCO, LET US HERE FROM YOU.
DOCKDOORS.COM
LUV U

[floydzeppl]

According to some statistics, 1 in 3 American families have serious problems associated with alcohol and yet marijuana, which isn''t physically addictive, gets this psychotic screeching attention from the BushBots. Oh, yeah, its "I want to control you-ism" from the RINOs. What a hoot antique RINOs are.

[honestabe8]

Does anyone believe what comes out of the ONDCP? This is not a Republican or Democrat thing. Walters is a lying pile of dung. McCaffery was that lying pile of dung for the Clinton administration, and there will be another lying pile of dung with the next administration. The term "controlled substances" is a misnomer. Prohibition means NO CONTROL. These punks are lying to hold on to the funding and to give legal pushers a leg up. Time to legalize and tax it. Give it the same legal status as alcohol. But, I don''t see that happening any time soon.

[bgwinnett]

Marijuana Potency Up, Says White House

___________________________________


Is that their excuse for the incompetence last 7 1/2 years?

[dobbershome]

Sounds like a better product for the consumer.

[cockapoo10]

Legalize marijuana!

[sleepyric]

This is wonderful news for Karl Rove!

[samrensho]

I''m sure the First Idiot handles the QA personally. He''ll probably put in an acre or so in Crawford - for medicinal purposes of course.

[mcvet]

We are 9.5 TRILLION DOLLARS in debt and fighting a stupid War for NO reasons... with that going on we''re spending BILLIONS trying to keep a PLANT away from people. Is there ANYONE sane in charge??

[olebd]

I wish I had some 20 year old pot to do a comparison but, alas, I smoked it up already.

[eggy1620]

The analysis for this report came straight from the Oval Office. If anyone should know how good DC buds are, it%u2019s Bush.

[slimpkns]

JUST SMOKED SOME AND IT WAS SOOOO GOOOOD

[messiahx4eve]

So that is what bush is doing on his european farewell tour; he is making last minute drug deliveries while laura is making whoopee with the afganistan dude in the black speedo''s. Bet she is bowlegged by now.

[slim1h2o]

Is there ANYONE sane in charge??

Posted by MCVet at 07:15 AM : Jun 12, 2008

No, there isn''t. They have been wacked out since the 80''s

[luvny-2009]

hummm maybe that is what''s been wrong with dumbya ALL THESE YEARS.

[floydzeppl]

Actually this is a good thing. Because its stronger, you smoke less for the same buzz so the health effects are lessened from the smoking.

[timdgrim]

Leave it to the booze hounds in Washington to tell us about the bad implications of pot.
Thanks Mr. Walters, now go have a couple of martinis with your fear mongering colleagues.

[xtina100-2009]

Yeah yeah yeah. We''ve been hearing this bull*hit for 35 years now - what a crock. You spend billions and billions of dollars ruining people''s lives over this stuff, AND IT''S WRONG. What you are doing is protecting the money you get prosecuting these cases - has anyone ever done a full audit on these clowns?

I especially loved it when you raided the marijuana clubs in CA - people using it for cancer and AIDS treatment - much cheaper than Marinol. But what you did in AZ, which okayed for medicinal use, sort of takes the cake too. The DEA has too much power, and we are sick of your drama. Millions of people languish in prisons, and abuse treatment and education so a person doesn''t have to return to dealing is a thing of the past. So you all can go to *ell for all I care.

[citizenusa-2009]

Perhaps they were high when they decided to invade Iraq. Only a STONER would think that taking out IRAN''S BIGGEST ENEMY would be a nifty thing to do. While they were "gettin mellow" and sending our troops to "search and destroy", Iran has been acquiring the "WMDS" that Iraq NEVER HAD...."Dude, it seemed like a good idea at the time"....(muses little Bush).

[citizenusa-2009]

How about making drugs legal? No can do. The government privatized the prisons. Without the b.u.l.l.s.h.i.t. drug convictions, the jails would be virtually empty. No prisoners, no money! No money, no Republican support. Sickening.

[georgew1956]

now let me bring you up to speed bush get fuel prices up and he gets big kick backs and pot prices go up and yes he gets ( you got it now ) think he''s strait he''s a genius. the money is going straight to him after the fact. laura is not with him for his family inheratance he is the money.

[citizenusa-2009]

Excuse, George doesn''t know his a.s.s. from a hole in the ground. Uncle Dickey has "shown him the way". You can bet on it!

[libloser]

Floydzeppl you''re a pot head? you smoke da ganja d.amn liberal!!

[omega39-2009]

Marijuana potency increased last year to the highest level in more than 30 years..

The war on drugs appears to be going nearly as well as the war in Iraq.

[wogerwabbit]

Finally, some good news for a change.

[inventagod2]

...and Bu$h should know

Cocaine and booze are more potent too...

[xraytwonine]

smoke nothing, eat nothing, drink nothing, but nothing because everywhere you turn there is danger, but the government can save you, jesus can save you... most scientific studies are at best inconclusive, in this vast world of extreme varying life styles it is hard to produce solid results on what one particular "drug" can do to "everyone".

[gopsoccermom]

Bureau Official: Here is an example: A fifteen-year-old lad apprehended in the act of staging a holdup - fifteen years old and a marijuana addict. Here is a most tragic case. ...............................
Dr. Carroll: Yes. I remember. Just a young boy... under the influence of drugs... who killed his entire family with an axe.

[slandis2]

My question is HOW do they know what the THC levels were back when....and if you have been keeping such good records you would also be able to see that alcohol and other drugs are the cause of MANY more deaths then marijuana. I also agree that there are far more pros to marijuana than most legal drugs. And the medicinal value is phenomenal...it is very good for pain and increasing appetite...I am also very concerned about the assumption that marijuana leads to heavier drug use... What ***!!!!!!!!....I agree with many who have left posts that this drug is only illegal for the money, yet if they would legalize it they may actually make more money then currently... and the world would be a HAPPIER place.

[gopsoccermom]

zoe2006, my story does too have validity. Its from a well known 1936 movie. Now I''m going to ask you a straightforward question: isn''t it true that you have, perhaps unwillingly, acquired a certain habit through association with certain undesirable people?

[omega39-2009]

Marijuana, should be legalized and taxed.

Posted by zoe2006

Screw_that, if it was legalized we''d have the commodity speculators bidding it up as a hedge against the falling dollar. Even though illegal it has become more potent and generally cheaper.

[clemenhagen1]

Simple equation folks: Prohibition does not work! In the 1920''s we ended up with a cultural disaster and a mafia boon. Today it works out the same. Gangs and organized criminal networks absolutely depend on the billions of dollars in illegal drug traffic to keep them in profit.

Legalize marijuana - tax the heck out of it, and use the money from the sale to emphasize drug treatment and rehabilitation programs. What is the current reality? We flood our court system and prison systems with drug cases; we spend billions in police and interdiction efforts that fail; we enrich the drug cartels and gangs in the process. Wake up America and see the truth behind marijauna criminalization.

[honestabe8]

If you can grow your own, there would be no tax on it, there would be no criminal involvement and you could determine what goes into it. Also, you can get some really good seeds to start out with from the seed banks.