Rising marijuana potency levels have been a favorite propaganda tool in the War On Drugs for years, in an effort to convince the public to shun the Evil Weed. Like higher potency is a bad thing!? No doubt you’ve read news of the latest annual report by the University of Mississippi Marijuana Potency Project, that this year marijuana potency levels have risen yet again - by less than 1%. This is nothing more than a blip on the radar of smokers, but it will reinforce fears among the firmly anti-pot voting bloc. Which, I suspect, is the White House’s intention.

There were so many things in this AP news release that had me rolling my eyes that I hardly know where to begin. It’s like, they took the facts and used misleading quotes to support a false conclusion. Here’s a good example in this quote by 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.

"Might be more effective…"? In the FIRST place, it’s yet to be proven that THC is effective at all in triggering these changes. To people who don’t know any better, statements like this only reinforce the anti-pot propaganda machine.

Here’s an excerpt that particularly pissed me off:

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.

Gee, and I suppose that means that there is absolutely no connection at all between a teenager living in a fucked-up world and dealing with an inadequate educational system and and them WANTING to get high to find some relief?? To say that marijuana causes depression in teenagers is a COMPLETE cop-out that allows the government to avoid dealing with the real underlying issues of teen depression. But those would probably cost money to fix, so there’s no point in spending money on those kinds of studies, ‘eh?

One huge thing this news release fails to mention is that the potency level figure they came up with is an average derived from seized samples. It only takes a few potent samples to increase the average for the group, but that’s not proof that the average user is smoking super-potent weed. And besides - another thing this article fails to mention is that the average potency level of pot in European countries is much higher than here in the U.S., and they haven’t noticed an increase in any of the problems that the National Institute on Drug Abuse is trying to raise an alarm about.

It’s true that smoking pot can cause respiratory problems in a few people. That’s just common sense, because you’re smoking. But the fact is, when you’re smoking potent pot you’re probably going to smoke less - just like you do when you’re drinking alcohol. No one would drink the same volume of vodka or whiskey as they would beer, for instance. They’d pass out well before then, for one thing. So when you’re smoking the good stuff, you just smoke less, DUH. So instead of interpreting the information in this study as proof that THC is bad for you, all it means to me is that smoking pot is safer than ever!

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