Cannabis strength doubles across Europe in 11 years

[Gypsy Nirvana]

Cannabis strength doubles across Europe in 11 years
A study tracking increased potency of both herbal and resin types of the drug points to greater dangers for users

Jamie Doward
Sun 30 Dec 2018 00.05 GMT

Cannabis potency has doubled across Europe in the past decade, according to the first study to track changes in the drug across the continent.

The study, published on Sunday in the journal Addiction and conducted by researchers from the University of Bath and King’s College London, finds that both cannabis resin and herbal cannabis have increased in strength and price with potentially harmful consequences for users.

In herbal cannabis, concentrations of THC – the main psychoactive constituent of cannabis which has been linked to psychosis – increased from 5% in 2006 to 10% in 2016.

For cannabis resin, THC concentrations remained relatively stable between 2006 and 2011 before increasing rapidly from 10% to 17% between 2011 and 2016.

The price of herbal cannabis increased from €7.36 per gram to €12.22 between 2006 and 2016 while the price of cannabis resin increased from €8.21 per gram to €12.27 per gram over the same period.

In the UK alone, THC levels in herbal cannabis remained roughly similar between 2006 and 2016, however police seizures suggest they have risen sharply in cannabis resin.

“These findings show that cannabis resin has changed rapidly across Europe, resulting in a more potent and better value product,” said Dr Tom Freeman from the Addiction and Mental Health Group within the Department of Psychology at the University of Bath who led the study, which was funded by the Society for the Study of Addiction.

Increases in the potency of cannabis resin are chiefly down to new production techniques in Morocco and Europe. But while THC levels have increased, amounts of cannabidiol (CBD) found in cannabis resin thought to offset some of the harmful effects of THC – have remained stable or declined.

“CBD has the potential to make cannabis safer, without limiting the positive effects users seek,” Freeman said. “What we are seeing in Europe is an increase in THC and either stable or decreasing levels of CBD, potentially making cannabis more harmful.”

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/dec/30/cannabis-strength-doubles-across-europe

 

[troutman]

Extracts are bound to be more potent when improved extraction methods are used.

As for overall potency, it's possible the World is 2X as mental now than a decade ago and why drugs hit harder.

 

[Ibechillin]

I feel like whoever wrote this report has only ever seen bunk shit if they think weed was only 5% thc in 2006 and 10% in 2016 lol. These reports of thc content increasing over time never seem to have an accurate timeline.

 

[Cvh]

We do our best to get more powah in the products we make.

 

[ozzieAI]

increased from 5% in 2006 to 10% in 2016.

...pussies....

 

[kaochiu]

These sort of studies are like "discovering" new constellations of stars. In fact they are always suspicious of writing first the results and then look for the feedback. Double? No, the important question is which ones are the peak producers. Then strength will quadruple in 5 years.

 

[EsterEssence]

I would like to know what dangers for users they are talking about.

 

[Switcher56]

Curious... How much would too much THC be?

 

[Kalbhairav]

The figures in the article are probably quoting a mean average and sounds as if they didn't use very diverse samples.

In any case, let's just assume they're right. What pisses me off is the lack of questioning and the fact that they can't seem to get out of this prohibitionist view point. Of course cannabis has, over time, got stronger. Cannabis bred under prohibition will be stronger because new hybrids will be created by those who smoke it. Higher strength cannabis is for those with high tolerance.

It's a stupid piece of writing by someone who sounds like they know very little about cannabis. Don't even get me started on other points the journalist brings up.

 

[therevverend]

There's all these studies that say that THC levels has risen in cannabis samples and the 'experts' always claim it's a bad thing. I have yet to see a study testing this hypothesis. THC is non-toxic. I can think of reasons higher THC levels may be a good thing.

Smoking less plant material is one reason. Plant material is not good for your lungs. The cannabis and hashish is more pure, safer to use and less likely to contain adulterants.

 

[mr.brunch]

Well that clearly doesn’t take the dealers round my way into account...
I’m sure they were selling amnesia and cheese then, and they still are now

 

[yardgrazer]

I'll compliment them on one thing - this is a rare example where the study and supporting data is available via the news piece GN linked to.

Note that this is from the journal Addiction - so the negatives they cite are mostly presumed and only thinly supported in the article, i.e. they reference other articles and say high THC levels are bad, without any specific evidence to support that argument (outside of the statement that most first time addiction treatment references are for Cannabis - which makes some sense given the broad availability of Cannabis... 'though I do wonder if they're treating alcohol treatment separately for "addiction" purposes). The vast majority of the journal piece is dedicated to their argument that potency has gone up.

Haven't looked at the information about their samples yet, seems it was taken from across the EU.

 

[Ibechillin]

Here is a link to the source of the article:

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/downloadSupplement?doi=10.1111%2Fadd.14525&file=add14525-sup-0001-Data_S1.pdf

I took some screenshots to share the relevant data:
The first thing I noticed is the Netherlands having the highest average potency for both flower and hash, as well as those samples having been obtained from coffee shops instead of police seizures like most other samples, no telling how the tested samples were handled/stored or for how long before analysis either. Seems like there is ALOT of brick weed being grown and distributed all over Europe lol.

Herbal (Flower) THC % over the years by country 2006 to 2016

Resin (Hash) THC % over the years by country 2006 to 2016

 

[mr.brunch]

No uk data on the graphs?

 

[Ibechillin]

They have samples from England and Wales listed in the sample origination table too, the plot thickens lol.

Here is a link to the full publication with sources cited for review:

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/add.14525

Reading through it they mention similar trends to America and listed the source they used to compare with. So naturally i read through it and found more information to share:

"A total of 38,681 samples of cannabis preparations were received and analyzed between January 1, 1995 and December 31, 2014. The data showed that, while the number of marijuana samples seized over the last four years has declined, the number of sinsemilla samples has increased. Overall, the potency of illicit cannabis plant material has consistently risen over time since 1995 from approximately 4% in 1995 to approximately 12% in 2014. On the other hand, the CBD content has fallen on average from approximately 0.28% in 2001 to <0.15% in 2014, resulting in a change in the ratio of THC to CBD from 14 times in 1995 to approximately 80 times in 2014.

It is concluded that there is a shift in the production of illicit cannabis plant material from regular marijuana to sinsemilla.

Link to Changes in Cannabis Potency over the Last Two Decades (1995-2014) - Analysis of Current Data in the United States

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4987131/

It would seem the main attribute to potency increase is the increase in seedless marijuana production.

I cant speak from experience on the 60s 70s 80s 90s, seedless medical marijuana availability has always been high for me. Ive only been smoking since 2011 and growing since the end of 2012. Lived in medical marijuana tolerant areas since starting like here in Tacoma, WA and San Diego, CA as well. The reason these types of reports always seem strange to me is because there are 20 year old clones that hit these thc % numbers and higher like Mr.brunch mentioned. Many people Ive met/know that have been smoking most of their life speak highly of strains from the 70s - 90s that they search for and enjoy still today.

Arent there landraces that test higher than 10%? Is it more to do with poor growing/storage and transportation methods?

 

[f-e]

UK:


The conclusion was wrong. What they saw was people moving from imported stick&seed weed, to home grown. Or Skunk as we called it at the time.

I moved indoors in the early 90s, in about the 5th largest city. We didn't even have a grow shop then. Nearly everything on the street was imported, not produced here. 10 years later the stick&seed was a rare thing, and grow shops were everywhere. We had started to grow our own. That was why the samples they seized changed from regular to sensi. The shift in production was global positioning.

It seemed the dutch were having a similar renaissance. By the mid 90s they were bricking up green for us. Often sprayed with nasty shit. The availability of green pushed the brown weed out of peoples minds. By the late 90s I was being told by a coffee shop that I didn't want it.

Looking at the last 10 years, I doubt much has changed here. There are still people just starting, and still people who have been at it 20 years. By which point, you can do it or you can't. There isn't going to be any great leaps until GM green comes forth.

Kids everywhere will have thrown there hands up in disagreement, thinking their new stuff must be better than our old stuff. Not realising they just changed the name. The very first Skunk hybrid is still chucking out phenotypes that the kids call the latest thing. Nothing is really changing quickly. Just the brochures

In my opinion anyway..

 

[JohnnyChicago]

This article just confirms what I saw the last 25 years in Europe.
Weed got better and better till 2006, when you were able to score 25g of good weed for 125€ or good Hazes for 150€ (even HPH or A5). Then the things started to change quickly. Prices remained the same, but quality got worser and worser and now since few years it seems that quality is getting better again.

 

[BongFu]

Ah drug war propaganda yawn. Twice as strong whoopee. Smoke half as much. Few years back some twats linked cannabis to schizophrenia. Odd thing is it was British research but the cohort for the study were New Zealanders. Thing is NZ has the highest rate of teen suicide in the OECD (double that of the US) and the highest rate of domestic violence in the OECD also. Basically it’s a crap place for kids to grow up. Anyway someone quickly pointed out that if cannabis could cause schizophrenia why in the UK where cannabis use had significantly risen in I think it was 25 years had there been a decrease in the rate of schizophrenia. Beware of illicit drug research. Much of it is as corrupt as the drug war itself.

 

[TruffleButler]

It's not getting stronger. I get higher off 15% thc caked up with metabolites than 90% distillate.

Anyone who thinks thc = strength has fallen for corporate government propaganda leading the market right into big pharmas hands. Same thing that happened to opium, a once great natural product that is now only seperated into single constituents, and synthesized in a lab)

Mark Lewis puts it best that people are overdosing on THC and calling it getting high. All I know is isolates/distillates suck.

According to one of the mods on this site, 50% thc extract with natural terpenes was much stronger than 100% thc extract stripped of all other metabolites. And that's coming from a pharma sellout who would be more apt to push the single molecule propaganda (unless he was cut off from any benefits of Gw Pharmas application of patent 6630507)

I guess it's subjective. If laying on their floor and staring at the ceiling mindless is considered getting high to some, who am i to judge. I've never rated any other drugs potency by how boring it is though.

 

[Bud Green]

Quote from another source
"In herbal cannabis, concentrations of THC – the main psychoactive constituent of cannabis which has been linked to psychosis – increased from 5% in 2006 to 10% in 2016."

Any researcher who states cannabis was only 5% in 2006,
certainly wasn't around the East Coast of the U.S. in 1971 when the real deal Acapulco Gold, Oaxacan and Panama Red were coming around..