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Britain's 'Super Strength' Cannabis Could Be Causing Mental Health Problems

telegraph.co.uk

11–20 of 44 posts

Re: Britain's 'Super Strength' Cannabis Could Be Causing Mental Health Problems

#11
Reading from https://hightimes.com/culture/how-much-thc-is-in-a-dab-a-bow...

> A pinner with 0.4 grams of weed should deliver roughly 36 mg of THC, while a gram joint will dish out 90 mg of THC.

How much THC would be in a skunk joint?

Edit: 14 / 9 * 90 = 140mg for a gram joint.

This is excellent reason for the government to sieze control of cannabis by regulating, taxing, and controlling it. In Nevada recently cannabis stores have the potency marked and clearly visible. if you want to ingest 20 grams, eat two gummis or two squares of chocolate.

Re: Britain's 'Super Strength' Cannabis Could Be Causing Mental Health Problems

#12
post #5
post #2

"Latest figures shows there were 7,545 hospital admissions in 2016/2017 for drug-related mental health and behavioural disorders, 12 per cent higher than in 2006/2007." Why provide a stat that includes all drugs in an article about one specific drug

It's a newspaper - not an academic journal. Interesting figures, even if not directly related (or just flat-out misleading), are commonplace.

Do you think newspapers should not be called out on misleading information? It seems to me that not highlighting the good vs bad articles/papers is a net loss for public discourse.

Re: Britain's 'Super Strength' Cannabis Could Be Causing Mental Health Problems

#13
post #6

'Super Strength' is a relative description, it is comparing professionally bred and grown strains against bush weed from the 1970's. It is no more super strength that the strains available in the US right now. The telegraph is essentially a right wing tabloid these days, little better than the Daily Mail, im suprised to see such a poor article so high on HN.

It also uses the telling tabloid scare-word "skunk" as if it's some kind of devilish genetic engineered superdrug when actually skunk cannabis is just a indica-sativa hybrid that has a strong smell, not necessarily a strong THC concentration. As a sad parallel, in Romania around 2008 when we had a massive influx of "legal high" synthetic THC analogs , the media scare-word for these highly dangerous synthetic research…

"skunk" used to a be a general catch-all term for buds with no seeds, regardless of strain. Higher quality, higher strength. Which is why the media use the word.

Whether the term is still used by users, no idea.

Re: Britain's 'Super Strength' Cannabis Could Be Causing Mental Health Problems

#14
post #4

14% is pretty weak marijuana. There are many other factors. I believe this piece is biased.

I wouldn’t consider it weak but yeah, you can easily get that on the streets in the US.

This piece is poorly informed and definitely trying to be overly sensational.

Re: Britain's 'Super Strength' Cannabis Could Be Causing Mental Health Problems

#15
post #7

Completely anecdotal but i saw friends who moved on to long term use of "skunk" in the UK change a lot. They never kept up with the pack or reached close to their potential and ended up drifting away from the friendship group.

another valid perspective: it was you and your retrospectively selected "friendship group", who drifted away from those people.

Sounds like you have a one-dimensional view of change and potential.

Re: Britain's 'Super Strength' Cannabis Could Be Causing Mental Health Problems

#16
It's all purely anecdotal, but as a cannabis smoker of 30+ years that lived in an area with a large variety of cannabis types and strengths, there is definitely truth to 'skunk' causing problems.

I don't believe there is anything special about the makeup of it, other than it's too strong for the way people smoke today. The tolerance range for cannabis is very large. A new smoker can take a single tiny puff and need to take the rest of the day off. A long term user can smoke 5 grams, probably 100x the quantity the new user did, and feel sober within an hour. It's too much build up over time that your brain is never really cleared out. And then you go crazy.

Re: Britain's 'Super Strength' Cannabis Could Be Causing Mental Health Problems

#17
"sinsemilla, also known as skunk" ... by Telegraph readers, and absolutely nobody else. In the UK press "skunk" is a term used to refer to, well, everything from hash to weed, to sometimes heroin - and they're all the same thing, don't you know.

In Uruguay, 9% THC content is what the government sell. [1]

Oh, and here's a crazy thing - if it's really strong - you smoke less, because it's not like you're not in control of what you roll into a joint - and in the UK, almost everyone rolls with tobacco or a rolling mix.

“If the cannabis market is saturated with higher potency cannabis this increases the risk of younger and more naive users developing problems as they are less likely to adjust the amount of cannabis they ingest than more experienced users.”

This is what we call "utter tripe". If that young and naive first-time-user decides to roll a fat joint, and then smokes the whole thing - well, they're going to first of all turn grey, then sweat, then lose control of their bowels, and feel pretty horrible for a few hours - and they won't make that mistake again.

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/10/how-uruguay-ma...

Re: Britain's 'Super Strength' Cannabis Could Be Causing Mental Health Problems

#18
post #16

It's all purely anecdotal, but as a cannabis smoker of 30+ years that lived in an area with a large variety of cannabis types and strengths, there is definitely truth to 'skunk' causing problems. I don't believe there is anything special about the makeup of it, other than it's too strong for the way people smoke today. The tolerance range for cannabis is very large. A new smoker can take a single tiny puff and need t…

So.... it's OK for you, but not for the kids?

I don't think anyone can smoke five grams in one sitting - and if they do, then that's their problem - not the strength of the stuff. I smoke the strong stuff, but I'll usually put 0.1g in a joint, not 5. I can't even envisage a 5g joint.

Re: Britain's 'Super Strength' Cannabis Could Be Causing Mental Health Problems

#19
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It also uses the telling tabloid scare-word "skunk" as if it's some kind of devilish genetic engineered superdrug when actually skunk cannabis is just a indica-sativa hybrid that has a strong smell, not necessarily a strong THC concentration. As a sad parallel, in Romania around 2008 when we had a massive influx of "legal high" synthetic THC analogs , the media scare-word for these highly dangerous synthetic research…

"skunk" used to a be a general catch-all term for buds with no seeds, regardless of strain. Higher quality, higher strength. Which is why the media use the word. Whether the term is still used by users, no idea.

Sensimillia, Spanish for "without seeds", was the term used before the 1930s craze when the US government rebranded it "marijuana". Buds with seeds were never in the history of human cannabis use considered for smoking, exactly because the THC content is extremely low when the plant produces seeds.

Re: Britain's 'Super Strength' Cannabis Could Be Causing Mental Health Problems

#20
post #7

Completely anecdotal but i saw friends who moved on to long term use of "skunk" in the UK change a lot. They never kept up with the pack or reached close to their potential and ended up drifting away from the friendship group.

another valid perspective: it was you and your retrospectively selected "friendship group", who drifted away from those people. Sounds like you have a one-dimensional view of change and potential.

I have nothing against cannabis, i support its legalization. This stuff was marketed as particularly potent and really screwed with peoples minds after long term use.
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