Even though you or your friends might have smoked pot when you were younger, your teen should steer clear of marijuana. It's much stronger today than it was decades ago. Some reports estimate that today's marijuana is five times the strength than it was in the 1970s, while other reports estimate the strength to be as high as 25 times that of earlier decades.¹,² Basically, it's a totally different drug.

To find out how strong the drug is, researchers measure average levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)-an active ingredient in marijuana that produces the high. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration tracks the THC content of the pot it seizes, which helps the Government and the general public learn how drugs change over time.

Marijuana is being grown to have higher levels of THC to make it more potent. For example, one of the older forms of marijuana grown in Mexico had a THC content of about 4 percent, but some newer strains have a THC content closer to 6 percent.³,⁴ Other recent strains are even stronger: a new strain from British Columbia called BC bud has a THC content of 30 percent.⁵

Many people try to claim that using marijuana is safer than using cocaine, heroin, and other "hard" drugs, but new forms of marijuana like BC bud are more similar to "hard" drugs than the marijuana of the '60s and '70s.

Even with the newer forms of marijuana, the public's view of the drug has stayed the same in recent years. Many people still believe that it is a harmless, "recreational" drug. The latest Monitoring the Future survey-an ongoing study of the behaviors, attitudes, and values of American secondary school students, college students, and young adults-reports that people believe the risk of using marijuana is no higher than in the past. The report's findings mean that today's youth do not see marijuana use as harmful.

The reality is that today's marijuana is dangerous-more dangerous than it was in the '60s and '70s.

Sources

¹National Institute on Drug Abuse. Research Report Series: Marijuana Abuse, last referenced 2/25/04.

²U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. No: Addictive Drug Has No Medical Value (Seattle Times), last referenced 2/25/04.

³U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Drug Intelligence Brief Mexican Marijuana in the United States-September 1999, last referenced .

⁴U.S. Customs Today. New Strain of Marijuana Is No Laughing Matter, last referenced 2/25/04.

⁵Ibid.