Cannabis potency and dose aren’t the same

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In June, I implored my colleagues in mainstream newsrooms to stop treating potency and dose as the same thing. It sounds simple, but so many stories kept getting it wrong: Just like a beer is different from a shot, so are 28% THC joints and 2.5 mg edibles.

The beauty is that the regulated market provides both. 

Dr. Margaret Haney, a Columbia psychiatry professor and cannabis expert, is making the same argument in a new review in Preventive Medicine.

A key takeaway: Cannabis potency is not THC dose.

The evidence is straightforward. When Haney's team had experienced smokers puff 1.8% and 3.6% THC cannabis under controlled conditions, both groups ended up with similar THC blood levels and felt similarly high. The people smoking the weaker product simply inhaled more.

A separate study found the reverse. As THC percentage ticked up, participants inhaled less. People adjust, as they do with everything from alcohol to Advil. 

And the legal market can and should be allowed to serve consumers on both ends of the spectrum, lest they find illicit sellers of the same product. 

But it’s worth noting: This is not an industry-friendly paper. Haney is sharply critical of cannabis companies that stretch thin evidence into marketing claims, and she flags rising rates of cannabis use disorder in legal states. That's exactly what makes the potency finding hard to wave away.

It also matters for policy. A potency tax targets the number on the label, not what people actually consume.

Still, the "not your parents' weed" headlines from journalists inexperienced on the beat aren't going anywhere. Nor is the fear-mongering from conservative and anti-cannabis groups. But at least now there's a peer-reviewed citation to send back.

-JB

“We did everything we could to avoid furloughing people, leaned on the community and got through it. That experience is part of why I take it seriously when I say a South Carolina ban on hemp beverages isn’t some abstract policy debate,” Jacob Virgil, the president of NoDa Brewing Company in Charlotte wrote in the Charleston City Paper. 

“It’s the kind of shock that puts people out of work and closes doors that don’t reopen.”

Virgil said about 11% of the company’s revenue comes from hemp THC drinks, and urged lawmakers to regulate the beverages like alcohol.

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A Republican state senator is seeking cosponsors for a bill that would keep intoxicating hemp products on shelves in Pennsylvania while requiring 21+ sales, state registration, independent testing and a ban on candy-style packaging. Sen. Dawn Keefer said the state can't wait on Congress, which has delayed a federal ban on most hemp THC products until December 11.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed two cannabis bills Sunday, one requiring retailers to hand over a product's certificate of analysis on request and letting regulators pull products off shelves for lab testing. The other expands track and trace to the full supply chain, bars tobacco sellers from selling cannabis and removes CBN isolate from the state's definition of cannabis concentrate.

Youth advocates urged lawmakers to scrap the increase before it takes effect with recreational sales next July. Black residents make up about 19% of the state but receive nearly half of public-use citations.

The Cannabis Control Commission warned that words like "sale," "discount" and "X% off" on retailer websites will draw citations, reports Talking Joints Memo. Some licensees told regulators they won't fix violations until every competitor does.

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