This isn’t good news for the Drug Czar. He’s currently on the “Superpot! Not Your Father’s Pot” Tour, scaring the people with the Potency Monitoring Project’s report on allegedly increased marijuana potency. Paul Armentano’s response has gotten reprinted in Huffington Post and got so much attention that the Drug Czar’s blog feebly tried to rebut him – a rare moment when the opposition actually responded to our criticism.
Now even the mainstream political blogosphere is calling bullshit on the superpot scare. Andrew Sullivan writes for the Atlantic and is a noted moderate conservative.
The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan
The drug czar would have you believe it’s 30 8 times the strength of the 1970s. No one doubts that pot is now a lot stronger than it once was – although it varies widely. That’s the genius of modern agriculture. But so what? Jacob Sullum makes a point that seems lost on the pleasure-police:With stronger pot, people can smoke less to achieve the same effect, thereby reducing their exposure to combustion products, the most serious health risk associated with marijuana consumption. Yet the ONDCP inexplicably warns that higher THC levels could mean “an increased risk” of “respiratory problems.”
Huh? And why do they never mention vaporizers? Vaporizers – the norm in parts of the pot subculture – remove all the smoke side-effects and still allow THC absorption. But the pleasure, of course, remains.
