“’Our potencies here are off the scale,’ confirms longtime grower Todd Ellison, co-founder of Colorado Marijuana Marketing, a one-stop shop for weed-related entrepreneurs in search of marketing help. ‘I have a guy who taught me to grow, who has been growing since the ’60s. And this stuff blows him away.’ And Ellison agrees. ‘I am almost 40. I’ve got three kids. You don’t want something that is going to lay you out and make you stupid all day.’
Why is dope so strong? Because plants with big, strong buds maximize the profit of the basement grower. Plus, the people who grow it and sell it also smoke it, and they’ve got high tolerances and a deep fondness for its effects. They like it strong.…
…newbies and those who have been burned by strong weed have a few options. They can make sure that the marijuana they are buying is mostly Cannabis sativa rather than Cannabis indica. Sativa is said to be more cerebral, more placid. Indica, on the other hand, is known for inducing what industry insiders refer to as ‘couch lock.’ If you are in your 40s or 50s, the dope you smoked in high school was probably sativa. ‘Most of this country, people over 40, the fond memories we have of way back when, when pot made you want to play the guitar and dance in the field, were of sativa,’ says Kyashna-tocha. ‘We were importing from tropical places. But then we started having indoor production. If you grow indoors, you shift to the stuff that is going to maximize production: fast, short, and big impressive-looking buds. That is indica. The shift went to this more stupefying stoned high.…’”
https://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2013/03/marijuana_potency_returning_smokers_want_mellower_pot_strains.single.html
Hooey, the old timer strains like columbian and thai were just as potent as today's hybrid pot.
Think of it this way, a person only has to smoke a small amount of potent pot to get the same high off of a couple of joints of schwag. So this should drastically reduce the amount of smoke a person inhales, making potent pot better for you.
A lot of the problem comes from people smoking too much. Just take a little hit and wait for a half an hour.
Did you read the whole article?
"My brother says that it takes five months to a year to create a new strain of dope. It might take longer than that for a culture obsessed with potency to realize that there’s a market for something you can smoke after the kids go to bed or on a camping trip of retirees. Marijuana advocates have long countered worries about increased potency with research that smokers adjust and smoke less. But what if people don’t want to smoke less? We don’t all take tiny shots of strong liquor to get our drink on. No, we nurse 5 percent beer so we can keep drinking.
“People don’t want to take one micro-puff of a tiny little doobie and say, ‘We’re done,’ ” my brother says. “They want to share in the social aspect.” He moves his hand in a circle to indicate the archetypal joint-passing ring."
This is totally true.
Today's coffee is also way too strong.
I miss the old days, when the pot and the coffee were both light brown.
-Jonathan H
San Francisco
I've had to say goodbye to my old friend weed now that dosage regulation is next to impossible. I just can't take a small enough hit, and don't want to risk spending the party drooling in the corner. Before he hit it big with 'The Omnivore's Dilemma' Michael Pollan showed in 'The Botany of Desire' how todays potent pot is a direct result CAMP and the governments driving cultivation indoors. Growers now have total control of genetics, nutrients, temperature, day length and even co2 concentration.
As someone who has abstained some 30 years now, I can honest say this is something I never thought I'd hear… "this weed sux, it's too damn strong"… LMAO
To set up what you like versus what you don't like is the disease of the mind
Scrap Weed
Yes, I did read the whole article. May I suggest you grow your own? Anyone can order seeds over the internet and thanks to a new type of pot called auto flowers you can grow a plant in two months outdoors regardless of the light schedule. They stay one to two feet tall and you can custom order the seeds for any type you want. I have, grew them right in with the tomatoes and got pot that was fantastic and not too strong. The problem isn't with the pot, it's with the prohibition. If it was legal and regulated you could walk into a shop and custom order what you wanted based on it's effects. Keep that in mind next voting round.
I've been saying this for years. As a Humboldt County native, I grew up with outdoor, and I've always preferred outdoor. Some of the stuff now makes me feel like I'm gonna have a heart attack – in fact, I prefer hash now if I want to relax and put on Crazy Horse.
These days, I take a baby-puff and wait a solid half-hour to see where it's going before I smoke again. Sometimes that first hit is all I need…
Here's a very whimsical post on this topic as it pertains to a neighborhood here in Los Angeles:
http://hafosafo.blogspot.com/2012/09/serge-local-feline-resident-piebald_3.html
I believe the word you're looking for is "powerful" not "strong." Modern day cannabis is usually fairly smooth smoking and in that sense not strong. A matter of semantics. I definitely think the powerful modern day weed is better. You don't need to possess as much to have as many good times, so you're better off legally. You don't need to smoke so much to get where you want to be. Yes, I've read that cannabis smoke is not as toxic/carcinogenic as tobacco, but I still can't believe that anyone is better off smoking more than less. A little practice makes perfect as far as how much. No one died of a pot overdose. If you want to share a smoke with someone for social reasons, try tobacco (or a tobacco/cannabis blend as in Europe).
Having just returned to the fray after a 15-year hiatus (!!!!) I gotta concur, the stuff is too strong these days. But yeah, just take one or two tiny tokes, and you'll be ok. The days of smoking half a joint at once is gone, baby, gone.
But in this case the violation will be hailed by many as a positive step.here
Weed is strong these days, too strong in certain parts of the continent. Can't handle it's effects anymore.
It's too strong period.takes away the enjoyment of being pleasantly high enough to go about your everyday activities ..it turns you into someone in a stupor. ..with no ability to do anything….almost a depressant. Like an opioid high.