20 Year Analysis of Marijuana Seizures Reveals a Doubling in Pot Poten

[Jess Stone]

Study Finds Highest Levels of THC in U.S. Marijuana To Date

20 Year Analysis of Marijuana Seizures Reveals a Doubling in Pot Potency Since Mid-80's;

New Strains of Marijuana May Be Behind Increase in Teen Marijuana Treatment Admissions and Rise in Emergency Room Episodes Related to Marijuana

White House Drug Czar Warns: "This isn't your father's marijuana."

 

(Washington, D.C.)—Today, the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) released the latest analysis from the University of Mississippi's Potency Monitoring Project which revealed that levels of THC—the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana—have reached the highest-ever levels since scientific analysis of the drug began in the late 1970's. According to the latest data on marijuana samples analyzed to date, the average amount of THC in seized samples has reached 8.5 percent. This compares to an average of just under 4 percent reported in 1983 and represents more than a doubling in the potency of the drug since that time.

 

As of March 15, 2007, the University of Mississippi has analyzed and compiled data on 59,369 cannabis samples, 1,225 hashish samples, and 443 hash oil samples confiscated by law enforcement agencies since 1975. In its most recent quarterly Report, the highest concentration of THC found in a marijuana sample during this period was 32.3 percent. Two-thirds of the cannabis samples seized in 2006 were from law enforcement seizures and purchases, and the remaining were from domestic eradications. The law enforcement seizures were obtained from 45 different states. The Potency Monitoring Project is funded through by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and has conducted an ongoing analysis of seized marijuana samples since 1976.

 

John Walters, Director of National Drug Control Policy and President Bush's "Drug Czar" expressed serious concerns regarding this trend, "This new report serves as a wake-up call for parents who may still hold outdated notions about the harms of marijuana. Evidence now tells us that the higher-than-ever potency of today's marijuana translates into serious health consequences for teens. Among teens who are receiving treatment for drug abuse or dependence, more than 60% report marijuana as their primary drug of abuse. Additionally, we are now seeing more mentions of marijuana during visits to emergency rooms than ever before. A growing body of research now tells us that marijuana poses a serious threat to the health and futures of young people. Parents need to start having critical conversations with their children about this drug."

 

Dr. Nora Volkow, Director of NIDA stated, "Although the overall number of young people using marijuana has declined in recent years, there is still reason for great concern, particularly since roughly 60 percent of first-time marijuana users are under 18 years old. During adolescence and into young adulthood, the brain continues to develop and may be vulnerable to marijuana's deleterious effects. Science has shown that marijuana can produce adverse physical, mental, emotional, and behavioral changes, and—contrary to popular belief—it can be addictive."

 

Higher potency marijuana may be contributing to a substantial increase in the number of American teenagers seeking treatment for marijuana dependence. According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) 4.1 million Americans (1.7 percent) of Americans report dependency or abuse of marijuana. Additionally, the latest information from the Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS, 2005), reports that 20.1% of drug treatment admissions were for marijuana as the primary drug of abuse. This compares to 6% in 1992.

 

The increasing strength of marijuana may also be linked to increasing mentions of marijuana in hospital emergency rooms. The Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN), a national surveillance system that monitors trends in drug-related emergency department visits and deaths, and is operated by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), has found that DAWN emergency room mentions of marijuana have increased nationally from 45,000 in 1995 to 119,000 in 2002 (Data since 2002 cannot be compared with earlier years).

 

Seizure Specimen Potency Trend

http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/images/pr_042507_2_th.gif

Source: Univ of Mississippi Marijuana Potency Monitoring Project, Report 95, Jan 9 2007

 

Potency of All Tested Cannabis Specimens

http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/images/pr_042507_2b_th.gif

article at.... the Office of National Drug Control Policy-Office of US Drug Czar

 

 

HUH ?

But your boss and both organizations recently claimed "MJ is 25-30 x times more potent.....Jess

 

 

San Francisco Chronicle

Open Forum

Pot Use in America-CON

Marijuana today: Setting the record straight

John P. Walters - Drug Czar

Sunday, September 1, 2002

 

The public debate over marijuana has been plagued by difficulties, not the least of which is a lack of accurate information. Any policy debate that draws activists promoting their cause is likely to suffer from confusion. But the debate over marijuana has been further muddled by careless or gullible media reports. Too often, journalists are fed misleading advocacy information that they swallow whole.

 

For instance, one columnist recently charged that worry about the increased potency of today's marijuana is wildly overstated. In fact, he calls such claims "whoppers," because the active ingredient THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) "has only doubled to 4.2 percent from about 2 percent from 1980 to 1997."

 

No wonder the public has trouble getting a clear picture. His source for this information is the Marijuana Policy Project, a group of marijuana legalizers relying on a study that covers just those years. Unfortunately, the columnist did not check his facts with the Drug Enforcement Administration, which monitors scientific studies of marijuana.

 

What does the DEA analysis show? In 1974, the average THC content of marijuana was less than 1 percent. But by 1999, potency averaged 7 percent. Further, unlike the old "ditchweed" and bulk marijuana of the past, there are now far more powerful products to entice youth. The THC of today's sinsemilla averages 14 percent and ranges as high as 30 percent.

Even stronger stuff is on the way. The point is that the potency of available marijuana has not merely "doubled," but increased as much as 30 times.

 

Some advocates argued that this increased potency is actually good news, because kids will simply use less. But the data don't support that interpretation. The number of tons of marijuana sold in America is increasing, not decreasing. The number of people seeking medical treatment for marijuana abuse is increasing rapidly, not decreasing. In fact, the number of adolescent marijuana admissions increased 260 percent between 1992 and 1999.

 

The stakes in this debate are high, especially for young people. So widespread is marijuana in today's schools that nearly half of all high school seniors report having tried it by graduation, while a smaller but still alarming number report using it every month -- even everyday. This is a drug that, after all, produces withdrawal symptoms, is associated with learning and memory disturbances and produces behavioral problems for those who become dependent.

 

It's time to face facts: Today's marijuana is a more dangerous drug than the pot of the Woodstock era. It creates tolerance (you need increasing doses to achieve the same effect), and at high doses it induces paranoia or even violence.

 

The haze of misinformation grows even thicker when it comes to the issue of "medical" marijuana. On the face of it, the idea that desperately sick people could be helped by smoking an intoxicating weed seems unlikely, even medieval. It is, in fact, absurd.

John P. Walters is the Director of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP)—sworn in on December 7, 2001. As the Nation’s “Drug Czar,”

This article appeared on page D - 5 of the San Francisco Chronicle

 

full blog entry

 

What the hell is this crap ,the US Drug Czar claims MJ potency 25-30 times that of 1970's ,but this is an admission they have LIED for years as they now claim "MJ has doubled in potency" (which is it lying toe-rags?),which means nothing other than like the difference between beer and spirits ,you use less spirits to achieve the equivalent beer buzz....Jess

Edited April 30, 2007 by Jess Stone

[Tom]

We know how to look after our plants a lot better now, HID's have replaced fluorescents in most grow rooms and I wish we'd had todays quality of nutrients back then too.

 

[Luke Skywalker]

Not to mention dissemination and cultivation of improved genes.

 

They'll never stop this kinda crap... unless we counter it...

[WantDaChronic]

they also left out growers are manicuring the pot these days so you end up with a much higher quality product

 

and i wonder how a population boom would affect marijuana consumption on a nation wide level?

[torture]

well someone needs to tell these yanks where they can stick their bullshit reports

 

my 2 cents

[Jess Stone]

All your comments about this I agree with you , however I hope I'm not being patronising towards you all but the point I believe I was making and proving is that the ONDCP and the Drug Czar & NIDA and Frau "Doktor" Volkow have been "stating" for a number of years now that MJ is 25-30 X times stronger than "NIDA" analysed MJ from 1971 which it was "claimed" averaged -1% THC ,which as we know here is really HEMP and likely barely gave you any buzz and clearly was wild Kansas or some other Mid-west US state "Ditchweed" as they call the wild hemp that grows everywhere still apparently and clearly wasn't top Mexican or Hawaiian etc, remember there was famous strains known by this time eg, Acapulco Gold and Panama Red, so -1% THC weed was indeed WEED and not quality MJ but now they claim a doubling of potency over the last 20 years which infact maybe true for commercial grade MJ but as we know here(the Old fogeys at least) Top Shelf has NOT doubled in potency at all infact its my oft stated opinion that TS has slightly diminished in Q because of genetic dilution from cross-breeding so its false in both cases IMO.So they have been lying and exaggerating with the 25-30 X stronger MJ BS (<--OzStoners thread)still going around the newspapers last week as some one posted about and the SMH ran the story and as I pointed out in the thread Reuters when challeged to prove the story about people presenting to Emergency Rooms for MJ,which they "say" was retracted and claimed all they meant was when people fill out the ER forms for treatment and they ask about drug or alcohol use that might effect treatment not people presenting for MJ "OD's" or even MJ related accidents.

 

And the SMH and A.P. are at it again !

 

Marijuana has damaging effect on brain

 

New findings on marijuana's damaging effect on the brain show the drug triggers temporary psychotic symptoms in some people, including hallucinations and paranoid delusions, British doctors say.

British doctors took brain scans of 15 healthy volunteers given small doses of two of the active ingredients of cannabis, as well as a placebo.

 

One compound, cannabidiol, or CBD, made people more relaxed. But even small doses of another component, tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, produced temporary psychotic symptoms in people, including hallucinations and paranoid delusions, doctors said.*

 

The results, to be presented at an international mental health conference in London tomorrow and on Wednesday, provides physical evidence of the drug's damaging influence on the human brain.

 

"We've long suspected that cannabis is linked to psychoses, but we have never before had scans to show how the mechanism works," said Philip McGuire, a professor of psychiatry at King's College, London.

 

In analysing MRI scans of the study's subjects, Dr McGuire and his colleagues found THC interfered with activity in the inferior frontal cortex, a region of the brain associated with paranoia.

 

"THC is switching off that regulator," Dr McGuire said, effectively unleashing the paranoia usually kept under control by the frontal cortex.

 

In another study being presented at the conference, a two-day gathering of mental health experts discussing the connections between cannabis and mental health, scientists found that marijuana worsens psychotic symptoms of schizophrenics.

 

Doctors at Yale University in the US tested the impact of THC on 150 healthy volunteers and 13 people with stable schizophrenia. Nearly half of the healthy subjects experienced psychotic symptoms when given the drug.

 

While the doctors expected to see marijuana improve the conditions of their schizophrenic subjects - since their patients reported that the drug calmed them - they found that the reverse was true.

 

"I was surprised by the results," said Deepak Cyril D'Souza, an associate professor of psychiatry at Yale University's School of Medicine. "In practice, we found that cannabis is very bad for people with schizophrenia," he said.

 

While Dr D'Souza had intended to study marijuana's impact on schizophrenics in more patients, the study was stopped prematurely because the impact was so pronounced that it would have been unethical to test it on more people with schizophrenia.

 

"One of the great puzzles is why people with schizophrenia keep taking the stuff when it makes the paranoia worse," said Dr Robin Murray, a professor of psychiatry at King's College.

 

Experts theorised that schizophrenics may mistakenly judge the drug's pleasurable effects to outweigh any negatives.

 

Understanding how marijuana affects the brain may ultimately lead experts to a better understanding of mental health in general.

 

"We don't know the basis of paranoia or anxiety," said Dr McGuire.

 

"It is possible that we could use cannabis in controlled studies to understand psychoses better," he said. Dr McGuire theorised that could one day lead to specific drugs targeting the responsible regions of the brain.

 

AP via SMH online

 

* It is well known that PURE THC does this to you , check out the side effects for MARINOL , NABILONE and DRONABINOL and these drugs have been available for about 20 years in the US but Lil' Johhny wont have none of that marry-ah-warner drug in Australia even if glaucoma victims go blind ,I'd imagine in his words "its the price we're prepared to pay"

 

Side effects of Marinol.Nabilone and Dronabinol : Nervous system: (Amnesia), anxiety/nervousness, (ataxia), confusion, depersonalization, dizziness*, euphoria*, (hallucination), paranoid reaction*, somnolence*, thinking abnormal*.

 

A.P , SMH , ONDCP , NIDA , Lil'Johnnies Government,bu$h&Gov , Dr McGuire&King's College Psychiatry Dept , Yale and all the rest of the wankers who spew LIES and HATRED about CANNABIS are SCUM SUPREME ie. FUCKWITS !

Edited May 1, 2007 by Jess Stone