Nitegazer
Well-Known Member
Here is an article I put together for your entertainment. Feel free to chime in with your views. If folks like it, I will do more in the future.
Why Potency Doesn't Matter Any More
- The Sensible Toker
Potency is currently one of the most common measures of a cannabis strain's value, and may be the most accepted measure. When browsing through seed banks, THC content is typically listed at the top of the description for each strain. A quick search of Rollitup posts indicated 120 threads in the last year with the word 'potent' or 'potency' in the title (I did not search for key words like 'dank' or 'fire' which also refer to potency). A whole line of business has sprung up to measure the exact percentage of THC and other cannabinoids, quantified to the tenth, or even hundredth of a percent.
I'm going to argue that potency, especially the way it is typically measured, is overrated. Sure, I'd rather get high from some sweet chronic than some brown schwag, but once you're talking good weed, potency becomes highly subjective, and other factors become much more important.
Here are my nine reasons why I think potency doesn't matter much anymore:
1 - Good weed is plenty good enough. Ok, forget about drug czar propaganda that cannabis is twenty times more potent than it was for your granddad. Weed is strong and getting stronger, though. The popularization of home growing and medical marijuana have pumped millions of dollars into hands of talented breeders, resulting in the selective breeding of high grade plants. Top shelf strains are now measured near 25% THC. Does it really matter if my stash measures out to 22.3% instead of 24.6%? Not really. Both can get me fucked up with a single good hit.
2 - An extra hit won't kill you. For me, consuming cannabis is a pleasure. I like the taste and aroma. Since I vaporize my weed, there's no risk of smoke irritation or toxins. That means if I need to take an extra hit because the cannabis is a little weaker, I'm just fine with that-- I might even prefer it. Some folks would rather choose the taste and feel of combusted bud. I imagine that they don't shy away from an extra hit either.
3 - There is so much around, it's a waste of time to obsess on potency. Back when I was in college, I had to sacrifice buying a couple pizzas to afford one stinking bag of weed. It needed to last me, so potency meant everything. Now I grow under a 400w and produce more than I can share with my closest friends. Potency doesn't matter as much if the weed tastes good and there's plenty to go around.
4 - Getting high is not just about being wasted. Gone are the days that I would get so high that I couldn't hold a lighter to light up a bowl. I'm busy. I like to be functionally high, and frankly, the most potent weed makes it hard to stay functional. I imagine many medical users feel the same way. I've seen a couple threads by patients wanting to minimize the intoxicating effects of their cannabis. Also, if folks want to get wasted, there are always concentrates.
5 - There are always concentrates. Of course some folks like to push the envelope-- and they can turn to concentrates. Do you want 70% THC? How about 90+% It can easily be found in ice wax or BHO. If I were only interested in potency, I would not look to THC percentages of strains, I would go straight for oil. If making concentrates, the total volume of cannabinoids is what matters, and that has just as much to do with yield as potency.
6 - What is this 'Potency' you speak of anyway? Potency is almost always represented in THC percentages. But, cannabis contains at least 66 different cannabinoids, and nobody knows how many of these affect the high. Experienced tokers will tell you that the most intense high can come from the least frosty bud. There is something about the combination of cannabinoids, and not just THC that gives a plant its punch.
7 - It's not how high, it's what kind of high. The quality of the high varies not only between sativas and indicas, but between hazes and thais, kushes and OGs. Measuring everything with the yard stick of potency neglects much of the nuance that makes pot great. I recently read a review of a famous sativa strain by an indica lover, and they judged the strain to have only average potency. It could have been a poor grow, or a weak pheno, but I think part of the problem was that the reviewer isn't impressed by the sativa high. To him, there may be no potent sativas.
8- Measures of potency are inaccurate at best. Not only is potency a subjective thing, but our attempts to measure it through labs is flawed. Even measures of THC tend not to be very accurate. Different buds from the same plant can exhibit as much as a 10% variation in THC content. That means that buds from a plant with measured THC content of 20% may really be 18% or 22% THC. Yet labs sometimes report this content to a hundredth of a percent -- overplaying the meaningful accuracy of the measurement.
9 - Other factors matter more. Flavor, color, aroma, quality of high -- these things matter so much more to me than a semi-accurate percentage of one of the principal components of the high. Yes, I like strong weed, but I'm growing tired of competitions to test ever higher THC levels, and the constant emphasis on potency by tokers and growers. It feeds into breeder hype that incorrectly makes one strain look better than an other.
I don't select my scotch by its proof, why would I pick my strains based on THC%?
Outside related reading:
http://www.marijuanagrowershq.com/is-cannabis-lab-testing-a-scam/
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2013/03/marijuana_potency_returning_smokers_want_mellower_pot_strains.single.html#pagebreak_anchor_2
http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/11/health/gupta-marijuana-entourage/
Why Potency Doesn't Matter Any More
- The Sensible Toker
Potency is currently one of the most common measures of a cannabis strain's value, and may be the most accepted measure. When browsing through seed banks, THC content is typically listed at the top of the description for each strain. A quick search of Rollitup posts indicated 120 threads in the last year with the word 'potent' or 'potency' in the title (I did not search for key words like 'dank' or 'fire' which also refer to potency). A whole line of business has sprung up to measure the exact percentage of THC and other cannabinoids, quantified to the tenth, or even hundredth of a percent.
I'm going to argue that potency, especially the way it is typically measured, is overrated. Sure, I'd rather get high from some sweet chronic than some brown schwag, but once you're talking good weed, potency becomes highly subjective, and other factors become much more important.
Here are my nine reasons why I think potency doesn't matter much anymore:
1 - Good weed is plenty good enough. Ok, forget about drug czar propaganda that cannabis is twenty times more potent than it was for your granddad. Weed is strong and getting stronger, though. The popularization of home growing and medical marijuana have pumped millions of dollars into hands of talented breeders, resulting in the selective breeding of high grade plants. Top shelf strains are now measured near 25% THC. Does it really matter if my stash measures out to 22.3% instead of 24.6%? Not really. Both can get me fucked up with a single good hit.
2 - An extra hit won't kill you. For me, consuming cannabis is a pleasure. I like the taste and aroma. Since I vaporize my weed, there's no risk of smoke irritation or toxins. That means if I need to take an extra hit because the cannabis is a little weaker, I'm just fine with that-- I might even prefer it. Some folks would rather choose the taste and feel of combusted bud. I imagine that they don't shy away from an extra hit either.
3 - There is so much around, it's a waste of time to obsess on potency. Back when I was in college, I had to sacrifice buying a couple pizzas to afford one stinking bag of weed. It needed to last me, so potency meant everything. Now I grow under a 400w and produce more than I can share with my closest friends. Potency doesn't matter as much if the weed tastes good and there's plenty to go around.
4 - Getting high is not just about being wasted. Gone are the days that I would get so high that I couldn't hold a lighter to light up a bowl. I'm busy. I like to be functionally high, and frankly, the most potent weed makes it hard to stay functional. I imagine many medical users feel the same way. I've seen a couple threads by patients wanting to minimize the intoxicating effects of their cannabis. Also, if folks want to get wasted, there are always concentrates.
5 - There are always concentrates. Of course some folks like to push the envelope-- and they can turn to concentrates. Do you want 70% THC? How about 90+% It can easily be found in ice wax or BHO. If I were only interested in potency, I would not look to THC percentages of strains, I would go straight for oil. If making concentrates, the total volume of cannabinoids is what matters, and that has just as much to do with yield as potency.
6 - What is this 'Potency' you speak of anyway? Potency is almost always represented in THC percentages. But, cannabis contains at least 66 different cannabinoids, and nobody knows how many of these affect the high. Experienced tokers will tell you that the most intense high can come from the least frosty bud. There is something about the combination of cannabinoids, and not just THC that gives a plant its punch.
7 - It's not how high, it's what kind of high. The quality of the high varies not only between sativas and indicas, but between hazes and thais, kushes and OGs. Measuring everything with the yard stick of potency neglects much of the nuance that makes pot great. I recently read a review of a famous sativa strain by an indica lover, and they judged the strain to have only average potency. It could have been a poor grow, or a weak pheno, but I think part of the problem was that the reviewer isn't impressed by the sativa high. To him, there may be no potent sativas.
8- Measures of potency are inaccurate at best. Not only is potency a subjective thing, but our attempts to measure it through labs is flawed. Even measures of THC tend not to be very accurate. Different buds from the same plant can exhibit as much as a 10% variation in THC content. That means that buds from a plant with measured THC content of 20% may really be 18% or 22% THC. Yet labs sometimes report this content to a hundredth of a percent -- overplaying the meaningful accuracy of the measurement.
9 - Other factors matter more. Flavor, color, aroma, quality of high -- these things matter so much more to me than a semi-accurate percentage of one of the principal components of the high. Yes, I like strong weed, but I'm growing tired of competitions to test ever higher THC levels, and the constant emphasis on potency by tokers and growers. It feeds into breeder hype that incorrectly makes one strain look better than an other.
I don't select my scotch by its proof, why would I pick my strains based on THC%?
Outside related reading:
http://www.marijuanagrowershq.com/is-cannabis-lab-testing-a-scam/
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2013/03/marijuana_potency_returning_smokers_want_mellower_pot_strains.single.html#pagebreak_anchor_2
http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/11/health/gupta-marijuana-entourage/
