Superpot

Andrew’s a little naive about it, methinks:

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.

I do not know when in the history of American consumerism people ever used less of anything to achieve the same effect, particularly when the effect was getting high. In Europe, it’s true, the habit is often smoking a little hash instead of gobbling down four consecutive bong loads, and people will not hesitate to eat half a pill of ecstasy at a time. As for the US, however, it seems beyond controversy to me that pot consumption was milder when pot was weaker. I’ve argued for some time that if pot were as weak as Miller Lite, it would be legal. And a civilized pleasure policeman, I think, would arrest all these kids sitting on their couches getting fat and brain dead off today’s superpot, and introduce them to the wild idea that too much pleasure is considered excessive precisely because it stops feeling good.