Why does weed have more thc then the 60s?

ah i got ya now

 

For more than fifty years breeders have been selecting plants for their bud-trich-THC production. In the seventies a global boom in growing started, which snowballed the whole process. Today's indoor hydro setups were science fiction when all this started. Add this up, and of course there is a comparatively huge increase in THC since the 60's. By doing this we have genetically biased our favourite plant to pump out increasing amounts of THC.

Andrea Barthwell, MD, former Deputy Director at the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), told an audience on Jan. 26, 2005:

"In the 1970s and 80s, the active ingredient in marijuana, THC, was at 3.5 percent. Today, the THC found in most marijuana averages more than 7 percent. But specific techniques can skyrocket the amount of THC to as high as 27 percent."

 

Yeah it doesn't kill brain cells, but something killed yours.

 

I don't think they had strains pushing 30% THC back then..not to say a nicely grown haze from back then didn't give you the same buzz but from pure numbers it's from thousands of plants being grown out and the breeders picking the strongest

 

Back in the 70's when I started smoking, the most widely available weed did not have the THC content of today's most widely available weed. However, there were powerful strains available. Probably the best high I got back then was from hash.

The growers really went nuts with the THC imo. The last time I smoked (which was a while ago now) it was bit too intense for me, and I only took a couple of hits. I like a better balance with some of the other substances.

 

Myth: Pot is Ten Times More Potent and Dangerous Now Than in the Sixties

The notion that pot has increased dramatically in potency is a DEA myth based on biased government data, as shown in a recent NORML report by Dr. John Morgan.1 Samples of pot from the early '70s came from stale, low-potency Mexican "kilobricks" left in police lockers, whose potency had deteriorated to sub-smokable levels of less than 0.5%. These were compared to later samples of decent-quality domestic marijuana, making it appear that potency had skyrocketed. A careful examination of the government's data show that average marijuana potency increased modestly by a factor of two or so during the seventies, and has been more or less constant ever since.

In fact, there is nothing new about high-potency pot. During the sixties, it was available in premium varieties such as Acapulco Gold, Panama Red, etc. , as well as in the form of hashish and hash oil, which were every bit as strong as today's sinsemilla, but were ignored in government potency statistics. While the average potency of domestic pot did increase with the development of sinsemilla in the seventies, the range of potencies available has remained virtually unchanged since the last century, when extremely potent tonics were sold over the counter in pharmacies. In Holland, high-powered hashish and sinsemilla are currently sold in coffee shops with no evident problems.

Contrary to popular myth, greater potency is not necessarily more dangerous, due to the fact that users tend to adjust (or "self-titrate") their dose according to potency. Thus, good quality sinsemilla is actually healthier for the lungs because it reduces the amount of smoke one needs to inhale to get high.

Footnote

1. John Morgan, "American Marijuana Potency: Data Versus Conventional Wisdom," NORML Reports (1994). See also T. Mikuriya and M. Aldrich, "Cannabis 1988: Old drug, new dangers, the potency question," Journal of Psychoactive Drugs 20:47-55.

 

The University of Mississippi have a long-running "Potency Monitoring Project".

Potency trends of delta9-THC and other cannabinoids in confiscated marijuana from 1980-1997, ElSohly MA, Ross SA, Mehmedic Z, Arafat R, Yi B, Banahan BF 3rd., J Forensic Sci. 2000 Jan;45(1):24-30.

They analysed over 35,000 confiscated "cannabis preparations" over a period of 18 years, and found a rise in potency.

The potency (concentration of delta9-THC) of marijuana samples rose from less than 1.5% in 1980 to approximately 3.3% in 1983 and 1984, then fluctuated around 3% till 1992. Since 1992, the potency of confiscated marijuana samples has continuously risen, going from 3.1% in 1992 to 4.2% in 1997. The average concentration of delta9-THC in all cannabis samples showed a gradual rise from 3% in 1991 to 4.47% in 1997. Hashish and hash oil, on the other hand, showed no specific potency trends. Other major cannabinoids [cannabidiol (CBD), cannabinol (CBN), and cannabichromene (CBC)] showed no significant change in their concentration over the years.

More recently, they updated this to show (now over 46,000 samples):

The data showed an upward trend in the mean D9-tetrahydrocannabinol (D9-THC) content of all confiscated cannabis preparations, which increased from 3.4% in 1993 to 8.8% in 2008. Hashish potencies did not increase consistently during this period; however, the mean yearly potency varied from 2.5–9.2% (1993–2003) to 12.0–29.3% (2004–2008). Hash oil potencies also varied considerably during this period (16.8 € 16.3%). The increase in cannabis preparation potency is mainly due to the increase in the potency of nondomestic versus domestic samples.

Potency Trends of delta9 THC and Other Cannabinoids in Confiscated Cannabis Preparations from 1993 to 2008, Zlatko Mehmedic; Suman Chandra; Desmond Slade; Heather Denham; Susan Foster Amit S. Patel; Samir A. Ross; Ikhlas A. Khan; and Mahmoud A. ElSohly. J Forensic Sci, September 2010, Vol. 55, No. 5, doi: 10.1111/j.1556-4029.2010.01441.x[/QUOTE]

 

grown better! but there was weed just are good but a lot harder to find