The Potency Lie: New Research on THC

At recreational dispensaries across the country you will be hard pressed to find cannabis with under 20% THC content. For the past two decades, consumers have been convinced that high quality cannabis equals high THC potency cannabis. However, in the past few years more research has come out to suggest otherwise. 

The industry has often convinced consumers that to buy high THC cannabis provides much more ‘bang for your buck’. Consumers bought in, buying this type of product aggressively while lower THC potency cannabis sat on shelves. Recently, research conducted by the University of Colorado and published in JAMA Psychiatry found that THC content alone isn’t actually a great indicator of the effects on users.

Any casual cannabis user knows that personal tolerance level is a huge factor in how high you will feel from cannabis. The amount you consume leads directly over time to an increased THC tolerance. The more you consume, the more potency you need to achieve the same level of effect. The study in JAMA Psychiatry found that while consuming high-potency cannabis concentrates boosts levels of THC in the blood, it didn’t necessarily correlate with habitual users reporting feeling higher. 

Intoxication levels are measured by the presence of THC in the blood. However, the users level of impairment (balance, memory, cognitive function, mood) didn’t match up with the potency of THC. In fact, between the group of users who consumed low potency THC and the group who consumed high potency THC, researchers didn’t find a significant difference in impairment. 

This research is key to changing the conversation regarding appropriate dosing for products. Kent Hutchison, co-author of the study and a professor of psychology and neuroscience at CU Boulder said, “People in the high concentration group were much less compromised than we thought they were going to be,” and pointed out how cannabis intoxication differs from alcohol, “If we gave people that high a concentration of alcohol it would have been a different story.”

This research suggests that habitual cannabis users (and obviously inexperienced users) are better off starting at low potencies and increasing as necessary. The higher potency you start at the more your tolerance will build, and the more THC you’ll need to consume to achieve your desired effect.