Turning Up the THC Doesn’t Always Turn Up the Mood
As cannabis consumers, we’ve always thought that a higher THC percentage on a strain meant we’d be guaranteed a stronger, more potent high.
That’s why many recreational consumers always check out the strains at dispensaries with a higher number. For many years, we always thought that anything 15% THC and under was child’s play, and anything above that was ideal for rec users as well as medical marijuana consumers who needed a potent dose for sleep or pain relief. On the other hand, strains that had low THC concentrations were often overlooked, except for those who knew the value of microdosing.
Now we know so much better: that number on the label, which indicates how much THC the plant has, is overrated at best. Just because a weed strain possesses high THC, doesn’t automatically mean that it’s going to deliver a better, stronger high.
In fact, the opposite might actually be true.
THC Percentages Are Just A Part Of The Story
The THC percentage you see on a label in a dispensary or in an edible container is basically how much THC is in the product by weight.
That said, THC potency in percentage form doesn’t tell consumers anything about how the high feels, how long the high lasts, and exactly how stoned you’re going to get.
A recent study out of Melbourne, Australia, backs this up: they conducted a review spanning 40 human studies that have been published in the Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews journals. Together, investigators from Australia as well as Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom pored through studies analyzing the effects of THC compared to placebo among more than 1,000 subjects.
They found that the perceived effects of pot actually tended to plateau when participants consumed more THC.
“We found that increasing the dose of THC from 2.5 mg to 5 mg to 10 mg only slightly increased feelings of high (estimated to increase from 31.6 to 34.3 to 39.6 percentage points on a 100–point scale), rather than doubling the intensity of the experience at each dose category,” said the researchers.
“This is common in pharmacology – the study of how drugs work – where bigger doses often bring smaller and smaller extra effects once a certain level is reached”, they said.
“As THC dose increases, subjective feelings of high and tiredness increase in a non-linear manner, with a sharp increase up to approximately 14 mg and 30 mg, respectively, followed by a plateau. These findings provide preliminary, quantitative evidence to inform public health guidance for cannabis consumers on the likely subjective effects of specific amounts of THC…” the researchers concluded. “In legal recreational markets, it may be helpful to explain to consumers that doubling the quantity of THC consumed is unlikely to produce a doubling of the intensity of the subjective experiences during intoxication,” they added.
What This Means For Your Next Smoke Sesh
It might seem hard to believe at first, because it challenges everything we know about the ‘more is better’ rule.
Instead, less is more.
Think about it: They actually found that 2.5 mg of THC didn’t double the high when the consumers doubled their THC consumption. Sure, the results did increase a little, but the rise up was pretty modest.
What’s also interesting is that researchers found, the sweet spot of a great THC high isn’t necessarily hiding at the top of the scale. They discovered that consumers began to feel high significantly at approximately 14 mg, after which, it began to plateau. This means that consumer are pretty much just burning through cannabis without actually making most of the good stuff.
The Plateau: Explained
Oftentimes, most consumers are so used to smoking a certain amount, or consuming too fast, to even notice a difference between each toke.
But that explains why the third bong hit doesn’t feel as intense as the first. According to researchers, this effect is common in drugs or other medicines in general, not just weed: once you hit a certain threshold, higher or more doses will only result in minor effects. Remember that the human body only has a limited number of receptors, and once they’re occupied with THC, the extras likely just have nowhere else to go.
So when you see a cannabis strain at 30%, remember that it won’t automatically deliver twice the intensity of a 15% THC strain. Sure, it’ll feel a bit stronger, but there are also other factors that come into play, which are just as important to consider. These include individual tolerance, one’s unique body chemistry, and the weed’s terpene and cannabinoid profile, to name a few. Additionally, the consumption method also affects the intensity, duration, and onset of the high.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, there’s more to the experience of getting high than the THC percentage you see on a weed label. Of course, THC will always be the primary compound responsible for your high, but it isn’t the only factor there is for determining how stoned you’ll get or how much you’ll enjoy it.
Cannabis strains boasting 30% THC might sound impressive on paper, but it won’t automatically make the experience more euphoric, stronger, or better. It’s time that we stop treating THC percentages as the only measure of cannabis potency and quality; instead, let’s educate ourselves on the broader strain profile of a strain or product, and learn about terpenes, cannabinoids, and our own individual responses.
That doesn’t mean there’s no place for potent weed, it just means that potency shouldn’t automatically be equated with a high THC number, nor should the enjoyment of it be dependent on that number either.
DON’T BUY THE HIGHER THC PERCENTAGE, READ ON…
