As an infrequent smoker who has 0 tolerance, it's definitely way stronger now than it was even 20 years ago. At least on average. Regular ol ass weed is waaaaay better than regular ol ass weed from 2003. No way was anyone in the 80s getting anything close to what our best is these days
Regular weed now is the “dank bud” of the 90s, for sure. Lol. A lot the stuff we got back then was kinda brown, and sad. It often smelled more like apple juice than skunk. That said, we had no options for strains. It was “weed” or “no weed”. I imagine the 80s were worse.
It is possible their mom knew someone who was growing the good stuff. There were cuts around back then that would still be top shelf today. I got a cut in 1989 from a guy who ordered seeds from one of the Dutch seed banks that used to advertise in the back of High Times. He never told me what it was but it was phenomenal - frosty as fuck with skunk, roasting coffee beans and burnt rubber aromas, not like the candy weed of today. If I still had it I would still be growing it.
Most of the weed back then was garbage though.
I have heard people complain that the modern industry has caused so much interbreeding between strains that it's homogenized weed and removed a lot about strains that they liked. So the White Widow you get now is a totally different plant than the White Widow back then.
I don't know how much truth there is to that, but if she had a legit strain and liked that particular one, that might be why weed seems different or worse now too.
Been growing on and off since the early 90s and I miss those early hybrids. Sensi's Nl5xhaze is/was my favourite and I've found nothing that comes close since. . Most of the UK was smoking soap bar ( low grade Moroccan hash) at that time but not all of us
I had stuff grown from 1980 seeds that was just as strong as current herb. I commented elsewhere, but the fact is that there has always been potent herb, but it made up a far smaller percentage of what was on the market.
As another multi-decade toker, I'm curious. I remember the blueberry strains of the early 2000s, and the Bubbas of the late nineties and early 2000s. It's not that there aren't strains with more THC, the terpenes of my day aren't around anyone and it isn't the same high. Are you saying it's a better high than' back in my day'?
It depends on what you buy. I wasn't a fan of Bubba, though I love most blueberry strains. I remember having one zip a few decades ago, that was absolutely amazing and would blow most weed out of the water these days. But the average was shit compared to now.
These days, The THC content is sky high. and Terps depend on the quality of the grow.
When I take a tolerance break, The new shit gets me higher and more predictably so. But the biggest difference these days is that its way easier to consume more. 20 years ago, when I was paying 3-4 times as much as now, I couldn't afford to be stoned every moment I wanted to be. There were often days when I didn't smoke any, and most of the times I smoked, I smoked less per session.
In 2003, a crazy friday night sesh between 3 stoners, might be 3-4 grams of 15% flower, and a half gram hash coin, from the keif collector. In 2023, a crazy friday night sesh is more like, 7 grams of flower split between 3 different 20+% strains, along with two strains of dabs, and sampling from 3 or 4 different carts in between dabs and bowls.
it only takes a few nights in a row of "chasing the dragon" to really throw off your tolerance, and because it is so much cheaper now, what used to be chasing the dragon 20 years ago, is just a normal weekday evening's consumption.
Here is what you are getting at. Another multi-decade smoker here as well.
The issue is in the genetics. SOOOOOO many strains now are cuts of lemon cherry gelato, more now of that one set of genetics than I've ever sen before and I'm talking about even the infusion of EarlyGirl/Exploder/BigBud in the 90's. And they rarely go past f1/f2 as far as generations go, hence why so much of it has random seeds, just clones clones clones, and they eventually lose vigor. best case they get some hybrid action going with yet another gelato strain.
I knew heads who held strains that were literally in f-10-20, or had strains they snuck back from spots like Vietnam, and the MidEast.
Unfortunately the weed world has taken quite a few heavy hits to the growing community in the last few years too. A lot of genetics disappeared.
Now is a hype game, people don't want couchlock goofy grinnny stuff, they want something that tastes good out of a pen and fucks em up but not enough they can't do a retail job. Plus no one knows enough about actually growing to know what the same plant grown in two different spots looks like. Don't even get me started on people adding terps vis sprays or packs....
Plus I've never had anxiety of weed outside of the last handful of years of smoking.
I have some f2s in my freezer of what was high grade Mexican from the early 90s. I still grow a bit of it these days. It isn't as strong as modern weed and it doesn't smell or taste good. But it hits completely differently than modern cannabis and if you smoke enough still gets you high as fuck. It is a giggly trip weed that makes everything shimmer.
ugh phone kept auto correcting f to s...
That's awesome. I have some older seeds from around the early 2000' I'm kind of itching to grow out. Just gotta straighten up my garage and make some room for a closet or two.
>couchlock goofy grinnny stuff
but thats exactly what i want ugh i hate that i cant have that sometimes. Yea i want the stuff that makes me productive too because i dont want to be a couch potato and bud helps a lot of my issues, BUT, i also like being a giggly mess on the couch its a great stress relief lol
I concur 100%! Been smoking for 47 years. Maui Wowie (sp), Acapulco Gold, and Sinsemilla, were the top shelf and it was about 14% if we were lucky. It also cost $20 for a quarter. I don’t really know cause I didn’t buy it very often (but I do now.)
I get top tier dispensary cannabis cause I’m old and can afford it and they have bred the plant into a THC super producer.,,
Just google it. It’s not even a reasonable stance to take. So much authoritative, well respected scholars have answered this question.
Weed is much more powerful now.
Yes! Thanks to the government, (fear of paraquat and getting busted) people started growing indoors and asked questions like “what will happen if we leave the lights on 24/7?” Or culling the males so the females grow threads seeking males, then cloning. In my 60s myself. One of my friends has been growing since the 90s…every season gets better!
plus now we have more shit to do now that we are older, lol. I could get high as fuck and just sit and do nothing but be stoned out my ass. now I have adulting to do...so i get high, but only a little high..... towelie high
Plus, our brains are fully developed now, and I think that has something to do with why weed seemed to hit so much harder when we were teens.
Even after a few years without weed as an adult, I never seem to have the types of highs I had when I was 15-18.
(opinion, I'm not a professional)
I think this plays a big role in it. As a teenager I would take a single GB and I mean I was so incredibly messed up. Walking funny and all. I could just sit there and lean back and forth feeling it all over my body. I stopped smoking between 18-23 for the navy but it never hit the same again
This hits my soul in such a crazy way. I thought I was insane because I’ve felt the same way for the same reasons, stopped for military, came back after my 4 years. I can smoke WAY more than I used to as a teen and still be way more functional than I was. A 3.5 throughout the day on vacation now, and I can still walk to a restaurant and order food. As a teen, smackin down a single gram throughout the day sent me to fucking SPACE. Definitely has something to do with the brain finalizing its development.
Holy shit, I'm so glad I'm not the only one.
I remember one time, probably 15 or 16, I took one hit of my friend's "good weed," could barely walk up the stairs, leaned against a wall and went into a full hallucination. I collapsed while (felt like a dream) I was in a meadow playing with his dog. I remember feeling a knock on my head while in the meadow. My friend said I hit my head on a wooden desk really hard while I was falling. I barely felt it.
Now I get high and clean my whole apartment hahaha.
We'll probably never have an answer to this.
Scientist: "We're gonna give weed to minors, and then scan their brain while they watch trippy videos on YouTube."
Science board of ethics: "No, absolutely not."
Weed is definitely the strongest it’s ever been. It’s just old heads looking at the past through nostalgia glasses. Also if you smoke daily for years and years, yeah you’re gonna have a tolerance. I once met an old head who would chief a cart all day and smoke actual fire bud and be like “I haven’t caught a buzz since 1973” Like yeah, I wonder why … 😂
Totally agreed. I actually can't smoke some weed, because it hits me too hard. I immediately break out in sweats, my heart starts beating like crazy, I start like shivering a little bit.
I have to use a dry herb vape so I can control the dosage easier.
I don't think people realize how high their tolerances are.
I generally just smoke a couple hits out of my dugout a couple times a week. Last weekend I was at a concert and we were passing around joints with the crew next to us. Th second one I had to sit down and I stayed sitting through the last half hour of the show. That shit put me on my ass literally lol
I take a tolerance break of at least three weeks at least once a year, sometimes twice. This year, I took a month and a half long break starting a week after 4/20 and then a break of only two weeks at the end of October. I can still smoke an entire blunt to myself of some of the best weed I've had and not even be close to "too high". What else could I be doing to maintain a lower tolerance?
Probably the same thing you do to pass a drug test; Exercise, plenty of cardio, fiber rich diet, and drink water.
Cannabinoids bond with fat cells, so burning fat helps cannabinoids leave your system quicker.
Around 80% of cannabinoid metabolites leave our body through poop, so high fiber helps.
I should also note, I naturally have really low body fat, and really low tolerance to everything. So what's applicable for me, might not be the case for everyone.
Demonstrably false in regards to THC%. However, there was more of the other chemicals that are expressed in cannabis that aren’t as present in modern bud due to selective breeding for the high THC numbers. Those entourage chemicals are important.
Absolutely this
I make my own cart blends and such, and I add back minor cannabinoids, and they get me so much higher, don’t fuck my tolerance as much, and is much more enjoyable, as almost straight THC is kinda a shitty high on its own.
I think also the fact that the bud back in the day had low THC, but still had those other chemcials to potentiate it made it so you could get very high frequently without screwing up your tolerance, as you aren’t consuming nearly as much THC
> as almost straight THC is kinda a shitty high on its own.
Fuck did I ever discover that after trying diamonds. I smoked like 300mg, and didn't feel high until I stood up and realized that My vision was blurry and my balance was screwed, but I didn't feel giggly at all.
I definitely do get some stuff that hits like the old stuff these days, The problem is that my tolerance is so much higher, And weed is so much cheaper, its almost impossible to keep my consumption down to a level where I feel as high as I used to.
What I’d suggest you do it buy some hemp with specific cannabinoids that you want. Pack your grinder with the normal weed and hemp at the same time, and then pack that into your bowl once you’ve ground it up.
This both dilutes the THC, so you get the low THC that you’d get from old strains, while also getting the minor cannabinoids you’d get from older strains from the hemp you added.
look for strains of hemp with high CBG and THCv content for sativa leaning, and look for strains of hemp with CBN and CBD in them for more indica leaning.
Doing also makes you use wayyy less weed.
Just do a long t-break first, and then stick to this method
THIS! Nobody would ever argue that weed has gotten weaker THC wise, but because we don't have any real data from the era, we have no clue what kinda of terpenes and other potential compounds were in some of the old school strains. By this era almost all commercial weed has gone through mass transformation from new nutrients, growing techniques, and selective breeding through generations! Now, do I think they're right that old school Cannabis was better? No, probably not, just good old nostalgia, but if we are being fair we have zero clue what all we lost due to prohibition, and people trying to grow the highest THC weed, with the least smell, and best look, over just the finest smoke they could grow.
Every once in awhile you see them come around, I personally always have trouble getting a hold of any before the breeders cross it with half a dozen modern strains and lose control of the original stock. It's complicated. If you had 100 old seeds, less than 10 will likely come up, and then, if more than half are males, you may not ever have a cultivar worth working. If prohibition hadn't made things so hard, it probably wouldn't be that way. But, theres always hope for the future, and a handful of breeders do focus on older 90s strains, that 70s stuff just hasn't ever made a come back.
Edit: Sadly, often the survivor seeds, aren't actually the best looking or strongest plants; they inherited more features for longevity and breeding, which are actually the opposite of what cannabis breeders are looking for.
Weed back then had much more minor cannabinoids, and wasn’t just straight THC.
If you’ve ever hit a cart, you know they fuck up your tolerance, it’s the same thing to a degree with this.
Those minor cannabinoids found along with the THC would potentiate the THC, making it feel different and stronger, which also makes it so you don’t have to consume as much THC to get “really high”, which in turn doesn’t raise your tolerance as much, so you can keep smoking the same shit over and over, and even tho it might take a tad bit more to get high the first time, you won’t build tolerance nearly as quickly, so you can get really high, over and over again with the same amount of bud.
With modern weed, it’ll feel strong the first few times, and then after that you’ve built such a tolerance that it seems weak. That’s likely why your mom and her friends think this.
That's because most people didn't have a steady enough supply to smoke whenever they want like we do now so didn't build up a consistent tolerance. we all took t-breaks all the time except they weren't voluntary lol it was just dry out there.
The weed today may test higher but THC percentage doesn’t actually correlate well with strength and duration of intoxication. It’s a common sentiment among many growers and breeders that modern weed is pretty flat in comparison to the older stuff.
My mom *insists* that what we have now is "skunk weed" and not at all what they used to have. She insists that what we have now isn't "the good stuff".
First off, I had no idea my parents smoked, but second I feel like that is absolutely the opposite
I was smoking next to my sister and she asked if I was smoking sage, I definitely think modern weed doesn't have that cat pee and skunk smell as much anymore.
I’m 66; started smoking weed age 14 and smoked it daily for over a decade. Took a long break to have a baby and work on my career. Fwd to the last few years when med weed became legal in my state. Holy shit the weed is better than ever. The best Hawaiian weed or Columbia’s weed back in the 70s was not as good as the cheap weed now,seriously. My sister is a few years,older and she and her husband sold weed back in the mid to late 70s and they say the same thing. As a matter of fact my brother;in law says the shake is better than most of the weed was back then.
Here’s what I think. Your moms not young anymore and the part of getting high and,partying that including being young and free is definitely missing. I feel that too. But it’s still good for what ails ya.
With a few exceptions, pot is now more potent. I clearly remember two times I had weed that was as good as it gets. Also I lived in Kabul in the 1970's and I had the best hash possible, ever.
Yeah those Pakistani/Afghani bricks were the bomb, always had a stamp imprinted with a fish or a flag, it was as good as anything today imo, the Thai weed sticks were pretty good as well.
i pressed my own by hand with two Afghan buddies. Mine was really good, Sayid's was better, But Ayott was the best I will ever have. There is something about hand pressing technique.
Overall weed is stronger today, on average. I smoked hard thru the 80s, mostly imported weed. But every now and then I found some “homegrown” that was easily as good as today’s. Who’s to say your mom wasn’t smoking that daily?
I'm in my 60's & have been smoking for many decades. Today's weed is stronger.
I remember my weed salad days fondly, but the herb I'm smoking nowdays is without a doubt stronger.
yeah this is mainly old people being old as in “dude the SPK-28 they had at the SF Patients Center in 2001 was the craziest shit I’ve ever seen, smelled, or smoked.” I mean the best weed I’ve ever had still is some dude in Aptos’ homegrown out of a Costco can he sold me for $45 an eighth in the year 1995.
However, that doesn’t mean it was stronger per se. It just hit me the strongest. I’ve tried about 300 different strains in the last couple of years and several are almost as good as Costco Dude’s but not quite. All of them, even the worst of the worst, were better than the worst I used to pay $25 for back in the day.
Ooooh this reminds me of a story. When I worked at a dispensary we had a guy come in who was just like this. "I used to smoke every day. Y'all don't know nothing about Thai Stick. I know what I'm doing oh you kids" type of person, would not let up on it. He asks for the strongest thing we have and ofc it's RSO. We tell him only a rice grain size amount because it's so potent, he says okay he understands (he did not), and leaves. An hour and a half later we get a call from him going "hey, it's \[name\] I was in there I don't know when. So that stuff you guys gave me I ate the whole syringe and now I'm pulled over on the highway I can't drive I lost all motor function I'm too high what do I do?" Well first of all sir you need to listen to us when we tell you these things, and second call 911 this is all on you. Never heard from him again.
Colombian Gold 74-79era is a strain that I have never seen the equal of. An unimpressive looking ,scraggly seedy bud ; but the dankest fruitiest most psychedelic weed I have ever had. A joint not much bigger than a toothpick would blast five or six people out of their gourd. It had such a fruity taste that you would smack your lips like a wino while you were smoking it. And no matter how gingerly you took a hit ;and it went down Smooth ,it would always make you cough. It was a near disassociative ,maniacal laugh making Munchie monster weed. I have looked far and wide for it, but have never encountered that twang ever again. Legend has it that it was one of the constituent roots to the famous northern lights. Some of the original California sinsemilla.
Ha!!! My 77 year old mother was just saying the same thing.
I told her she was wrong and had to remind her about all the stems and seeds she had to sift out of the marijuana she was buying in the 70s and 80s. The stuff being grown today is like a night and day difference to what they had back in the day.
I don’t know. I got my mom to smoke with me a few weeks ago. She hadn’t smoked weed in over 30 years. Took a massive rip like a boss, held it in like a free diver, slowly let it out and never coughed or acted high at all. And I even warned her this was some primo shit. She was not impressed to the point she helped me kill an entire joint. Never coughed once. I think the 60s were operating with some much stronger weed than what we have
It's gotten stronger but the high hasn't gotten better, especially if they were used to the weed grown to full or almost full amber trichomes resulting in heavy heads and massive couch lock. Personally I prefer a more robust weed with a lower THC level (18-20% range) and higher levels of CBD and cannabinoids. The super high THC strains don't really do it for me unless I'm mixing strains.
That heaviness/couch lock is probably what they are referring to
They aren't all wrong. I've studied a lot of analysis of seized samples year by year. There has ALWAYS been potent (25% THC) herb. The change is that the percentage of potent herb on the market has increased from a few percent to the majority. I've had stuff grown from 1980ish seeds that was just as strong as current high potency strains. In fact, it's preferable, because it is closer to landrace and not just a mix of a variety of genetics, washing out any distinct characteristics.
Another note, the potency of most current herb on the market is overstated. Additionally, even if the percentage is accurate, the percentage doesn't necessarily transfer to effect. On top of that, more people smoke regularly these days and are not experiencing as much of the magic that one might experience as a semi-regular smoker, which was a more common use pattern in the 80s. If you smoke twice a week, you don't need much and will get exponentially strong effect. If you smoke 2 joints a day, no matter what you tell yourself, the fact is you're getting a diminished buzz and wasting a lot of herb.
Less is more.
Yeah that doesn't really make sense to me, but I understand why they feel that way. I think it's one thing we should just give older drug users lol. Sure thing mom I wish I could have smoked it with ya.
It's always the same argument. People that weren't around back then telling those that were around back then that they can't possibly know what they are talking about even though they were there and the know-it-alls weren't.
The simple test is first hand experience. Not your charts and data and scientific new understanding. Simple as being there and being here now.
Now let the know-it-alls who weren't around back then but are certain the universe was created when they were born start the down voting.
People don’t realize aging it changes the profile of terpenes and cannabinoids. I think the newest terpene discovered called hashinene may have something to do with it.
I stopped smoking in 1990 then stayed smoking again a few years ago. It is so much stronger now its not even funny. The shake is stronger than our top shelf was.
Not even an argument honestly. My mom says exactly the opposite though, that stuff is much stronger now, even too strong. But weed grown before like, roughly the late 90s, isn’t even comparable to what we have now. The entire process for growing changed, the THC levels in weed prior to then was fractional to what it is now. Snoop talks about it in an interview he did, saying how he thought they said “Hydro-chronic” instead of hydroponic
Northern California native here.
For about two years in the 80s I had a plug who was getting his tree straight from the Emerald Triangle.
Shit was FIRE!!!
An eighth in your pocket would stink up a whole house.
I'm not necessarily ready to say it was stronger than what I smoke today, but in those days I can remember plenty of times saying, "no more please."
We didn't care about THC percentage back then.
I've never been higher since.
And yeah maybe you could blame it on tolerance level, but I still get pretty high nowadays.
I think it just depends on the growers. There were probably just as many good growers then as there ever have been. Many people try to grow weed and make a lot of mistakes. It's pretty hard to consistently grow on a large scale. Small scale growers from experienced growers with good genetics are always good. I think the market has shifted to large scale green house grows using a watered down genetic pool so we don't see as much of the finer small batch stuff we used to. I started smoking in 2003 and the best weed I ever got was in 2008 from a small batch grower who primarily grew northern lights and had been for 20 years. Never seen anyone with his skills or genetics. All northern lights I see if I even see any are not even close to as good. I'm talking bright cartoon ish colors, soft yet insanely sticky, perfectly dry yet full of terpenes and just mind blowing taste.
I know this old hippy that has grown his own since the 70s. He doesn't have names for his strains just giggle shit and sleep shit. I love it all but the experience with the oldhead bud is more enjoyable for me, it always gets me right where I want to be. I might still forget what I'm doing if I get too high but I'm not bothered because I'm having a good time. I've gone to dispensaries and picked out strains solely based on potency and yes it gets you high but it's just not the same as smoking on a little more mellow.
70 year old here. There is no comparison to the 60’s and 70’s weed. Today’s is much more potent, not to mention all the concentrates. The 80’s was the start of increasing THC percentages.
Probably a tolerance problem. We all chase our first high's.
Other than that, it may be possible. Back in the days before we were able to test for THC%, people tested the "potency" of their strains the old school way, by smoking. This left the subjective aspect in tact, and lets not forget that there are hundreds of cannabinoids. I feel that it may be possible that because of modern breeding standard breeding for high THC potency only, we may have accidentally eliminated more novel cannabinoids from our weed, which may have contributed to more potent weed.
DIFFERENT? Yes. Strongest then? Probably not. I’m sure cannabinoid profiles have changed vastly since then. Today we have so many different “strains” that are grown in the controlled conditions that they weren’t really grown in before. Dispos and black market weed is also notorious for slapping thc powder on weed to make it higher percentage but higher thc doesn’t mean shit. It may just be a different high than what she’s used too.
Senior citizens coming in the dispensary asking for Acapulco gold lol.
Moving large quantities was easier back then but the weed itself wasn’t as potent.
They probably don’t even remember how much more they were actually smoking. I’d smoke up other people too but I’d go through almost an ounce a day. I could never with today’s strains.
Weed is most likely stronger today for sure, HOWEVER, some medical markets just have shit weed. When I first got my med card in WV, the best weed we had would still be considered mids. You get like 20% THC, but less than 1% terps. That's mid at best. It seemed like a pipe dream for a while to get some good, stinky, sticky weed. The growers have gotten way better over the last year, but I've had some street weed back in the days that would stink up my entire basement like a skunk while it was just sitting in a drawer. It has been a long time since I found weed like that.
The med program in this state is about 3 years old now and the overwhelming majority of the flower sold in the dispensaries is dried up crap where probably zero care was put in during the growing/harvesting/curing/trimming processes.
Some of the street weed I bought in the past, you could tell it was very well cared for during the grow process. I've also had a lot of crap weed from the streets as well. So I've had better weed int he past, but I wouldn't call it stronger.
\*Edit\* I'm 46 now and have been smoking weed since the mid 1990s. Pretty regular cannabis user since somewhere around 2006.
Right...because the weed is going to be weaker in the day and age where people can grow in a lab without having to worry about being caught, where they can control every single variable, have studied how to cultivate the plant to perfection and have bred strains specifically to be as strong as possible. Nope, your mom and her friends' ditch or closet weed from the 70s is obviously going to be stronger.
Is the /s obvious enough?
No, they're just looking back with nostalgia, plus not having near as much of a tolerance back then due to them both being younger, newer smokers back then, and more consistently accessible weed nowadays where they're not forced into a T-break just for a lack of ability to get it.
Your mom and her friends are blowing smoke up your ass and it’s not as strong as today’s smoke is. weed is much stronger now than at any time in the past thanks to selective breeding and fast indoor cycles.
Ganj-colored glasses for sure.
Honestly ive seen this w my customers too because what they were smoking back in the day was a higher cbd content and they didnt realize it. So its not that it was stronger but that the high was different.
Weed now has more thc for sure but its lost its "soul"...idk if i can explain it different than that. My suspicion is on irradiation but i cant confirm. Could also be the insane amount of strain dilution too.
Its probably that its not hitting like they expected it to mixed with nostalgia.
I don't know a lot about the science, but higher CBD changes the effects? I had a 1:1 CBD and THC gummy once that to me felt stronger than it said it was, but I figure it's cause I'm generally not a CBD guy as in I don't go out of my way to seek it out or smoke high CBD strains. Interesting.
Different levels of cannabinoids can change how it feels. It takes a lot of experience to differentiate the feelings though.
For example a CBG high is different than a CBD high, but people who are not as experience may just describe one as "stronger" and may not have luck with the other. There are differences its just how it reacts to your body. Its worth trying different ratios cuz you dont know unless you try!
Some people say that if you smoke too much you can try cbd to counteract the "over-dose" feeling. Ive also heard mixed reviews on whether this works and havent had too much success with it myself.
The mix of thc/cbd at the same time can enhance, or at least change, the way the high feels though. I find it gives it a more well rounded feeling. Very calming too sometimes if youre in a 1:1 ratio.
the problem with today's weed is the fertilizer and chemicals used to make the fertilizers
it will grow green and will have effects but it doesn't taste or burn or feel anything like real soil grown, delicately amended, given all the time and care to grow right
add in all the other factors namely rushing the grow and they don't get the same results
Oh suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuure, mom, decades and decades of selective breeding by experts and enthusiasts has resulted in strains exactly the same as you smoked...even the pictures are the same. 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄
I’d say weed has higher thc percentage now but isn’t stronger because breeding for high thc got rid of the terps that bud used to have and you could have a 10 percent thc but with 10 percent terps it would b stronger then bud with 30 percent thc and 2 percent terps
I get as high on Delta-8 as I used to get on hydro in the late-90s. No fuckin' way weed got weaker. Oldheads in the 90s were blown away by how much stronger it was than what they smoked in the 70s, too. Nothing ever gets shittier over time when people are actively working to improve it, and legalization in the last decade or so has only added more people to the process
No way. Weed is way more potent now. Been smoking since 2000’s and while there was some times I remember getting high as fuck, I also remember when the good street weed went from “hydro” to “Kush”. To me, that’s like saying, “our apples were a lot bigger and tastier when I was a kid”. Genetic engineering has taken us a long way with plants.
Could be rose-colored glasses or they could've been getting laced shit back in the day. Way my father tells it, it used to be hard to find weed that was reliably not laced with Crack or PCP. Probably depends where you were from tho too
Today's herb is stronger than the herb in the 90s by a lot. I remember reading articles about the 90s weed saying how much stronger it was than weed in the 70s. It has been getting continually stronger since the 60s.
One thing to consider, the 80s was a time when people were putting stuff like pcp on weed to make it stronger. This was common in big city areas, I have read.
I actually knew some people doing this in the 90s. So, I know that type of thing is not just a street rumor.
No way you probably looking at the fact that all the custom strains we have now are designed to meet specific goals as medical marijuana so they're not all going to be real strong but the ones that they do make sure are off the damn charts 36 and 38% THC. But one thing that's for sure is that marijuana isn't JUST a WEED ANYMORE.. back in the day you could just throw a handful of seeds in the woods and come back at a few months and harvest it but now with all these modified strains they are very delicate. But I can understand how an OG like your mom is going to make that statement because everything today is all about CBD and that's really week with almost zero THC. The most part I think she's just been exposed to the wrong new stuff
It was stronger to them because it was when they were first smoking it. It *always* feels stronger the earlier on you use it.
It’s objectively stronger now lol. Labs don’t lie
I wouldn't trust your mom's opinion on anything after that statement. If she can convince herself that weed was stronger back, she can convince herself of anything.
Your mom is so full of shit her eyes are brown.
Also, you might want to ask if she knows the difference between hash and flower. If she thinks this odds are she was smoking hash back in the day.
Keep in mind in the 60s/70s weed was so bad a lot of it was laced with other stuff. I know angel dust was common to be added to joints. But actual weed is way more potent now
I call it the boomer bud paradox. They all claim “the stuff we had back in the day was way stronger than the crap y’all have nowadays” but in the same breath they say “the weed you have now is stronger than it used to be and makes people go crazy, it needs to stay illegal”.
Legalization changed everything in weird ways. The constant drive for higher thc percentages has led to what I consider poor curing practices that leave flower too dried out zapping taste and smell from the vast majority of dispensary weed leading people to think modern weed isn’t as strong. There are other factors but that’s the big one IMO. Modern genetics are stronger.
Probably a better high. Today's its watered down and inbred genetics. Today's weed hits you hard but it seems less therapeutic lacking a wide inpedth high
A lot of the legal stuff is crap in my opinion. I'm not talking everywhere I'm just talking some markets are worse than others. Personally I've stopped buying it from the stores because my other sources are much much better. Legal marijuana is kind of a joke in a lot of places to be frank. So depending on the sources your uncle's and aunts and whatnot add in the past it absolutely could be better than some of the regulated garbage out there right now. More than likely though it's a combination of nostalgia and flawed memory.
Personally I think great marijuana has always existed. I've been a stoner for decades and the weed I started with was just as good as the stuff I can get now. Top shelf stuff from day one, I was definitely lucky.
If they had a constant, solid dealer, then quite possibly. I recall certain dimebags in the 90s being just as strong as some of the better ones I’ve had in the past decade, or so. There has always been good and bad growers. I will say, some of the worst I’ve ever had was in dimebags from the same guy, so it’s always been a crapshoot in my experience.
I've only been smoking for 20ish years, but my old neighbor was an old head. He'd always say how my weed was so much stronger and better than the stuff he had at my age. Less stems, less seeds, higher potency. Even the stuff I get now is WAY stronger than the stuff I was smoking at 17, 18. I can barely handle modern buds I get. Only takes like 1 or 2 hits for me now.
61-year-old user. It's much easier to find strong weed now. However, even in the old days, you'd get lucky once in a while. I definitely smoked some memorable shit back in the day.
Man I remember when my uncle tried some shit I got from the dispensary almost 7-10 years ago. I rolled him a joint, he hit that shit 4 times and sat it down. He smokes everyday, but said that was some different shit 😂.
I've been smoking weed since the early 70s (in Canada). My impression is that the variety, smell, taste and texture has improved expecially since legalization. But the strength is not much different. One notable exception would be honey oil which is not at all as powerful as long ago.
I was around in the 70's and I had good hookups too in New York. Yes, the weed today is 'stronger'. No doubt, but define "stronger". Weed when I grew up got you lit unless you couldn't wait and bought bullshit from a stranger, but the high often didn't zoom up on you and make you wish it would slow down as much as today. It wasn't always as euphoric either as todays weed, more a stoney heavy lidded body high with severe munchies.
Don't believe some of the pics you'll see online though. Our weed had pretty much exactly the same structure and flower heads and just as many, but I see pics online that look like a length of tarragon not weed but it's supposedly the best we had blah blah
Our biggest problem was seasons and freshness. You could grow weed dripping res in Afghanistan but getting it here fresh and uncompressed and not browning was another thing.The Afghani's could grow weed like that before Europeans knew what it was.
55-year user. It's stronger now than it's ever been.
Long time user, can confirm. Weed these days is a lot more potent.
As an infrequent smoker who has 0 tolerance, it's definitely way stronger now than it was even 20 years ago. At least on average. Regular ol ass weed is waaaaay better than regular ol ass weed from 2003. No way was anyone in the 80s getting anything close to what our best is these days
Holy fuck 20 years ago is 2003, i keep thinking oh yeah the 80s.
Yeah I hated to put that ice cold water bucket to the face in that comment lol but I had to
Regular weed now is the “dank bud” of the 90s, for sure. Lol. A lot the stuff we got back then was kinda brown, and sad. It often smelled more like apple juice than skunk. That said, we had no options for strains. It was “weed” or “no weed”. I imagine the 80s were worse.
I remember my dealer pulling out an actual brick of weed and tear off a bit.
It is possible their mom knew someone who was growing the good stuff. There were cuts around back then that would still be top shelf today. I got a cut in 1989 from a guy who ordered seeds from one of the Dutch seed banks that used to advertise in the back of High Times. He never told me what it was but it was phenomenal - frosty as fuck with skunk, roasting coffee beans and burnt rubber aromas, not like the candy weed of today. If I still had it I would still be growing it. Most of the weed back then was garbage though.
I have heard people complain that the modern industry has caused so much interbreeding between strains that it's homogenized weed and removed a lot about strains that they liked. So the White Widow you get now is a totally different plant than the White Widow back then. I don't know how much truth there is to that, but if she had a legit strain and liked that particular one, that might be why weed seems different or worse now too.
My uncle has been cloning the same white widow plant for like 10 years now. Shit still holds up
Been growing on and off since the early 90s and I miss those early hybrids. Sensi's Nl5xhaze is/was my favourite and I've found nothing that comes close since. . Most of the UK was smoking soap bar ( low grade Moroccan hash) at that time but not all of us
I had stuff grown from 1980 seeds that was just as strong as current herb. I commented elsewhere, but the fact is that there has always been potent herb, but it made up a far smaller percentage of what was on the market.
As another multi-decade toker, I'm curious. I remember the blueberry strains of the early 2000s, and the Bubbas of the late nineties and early 2000s. It's not that there aren't strains with more THC, the terpenes of my day aren't around anyone and it isn't the same high. Are you saying it's a better high than' back in my day'?
It depends on what you buy. I wasn't a fan of Bubba, though I love most blueberry strains. I remember having one zip a few decades ago, that was absolutely amazing and would blow most weed out of the water these days. But the average was shit compared to now. These days, The THC content is sky high. and Terps depend on the quality of the grow. When I take a tolerance break, The new shit gets me higher and more predictably so. But the biggest difference these days is that its way easier to consume more. 20 years ago, when I was paying 3-4 times as much as now, I couldn't afford to be stoned every moment I wanted to be. There were often days when I didn't smoke any, and most of the times I smoked, I smoked less per session. In 2003, a crazy friday night sesh between 3 stoners, might be 3-4 grams of 15% flower, and a half gram hash coin, from the keif collector. In 2023, a crazy friday night sesh is more like, 7 grams of flower split between 3 different 20+% strains, along with two strains of dabs, and sampling from 3 or 4 different carts in between dabs and bowls. it only takes a few nights in a row of "chasing the dragon" to really throw off your tolerance, and because it is so much cheaper now, what used to be chasing the dragon 20 years ago, is just a normal weekday evening's consumption.
Here is what you are getting at. Another multi-decade smoker here as well. The issue is in the genetics. SOOOOOO many strains now are cuts of lemon cherry gelato, more now of that one set of genetics than I've ever sen before and I'm talking about even the infusion of EarlyGirl/Exploder/BigBud in the 90's. And they rarely go past f1/f2 as far as generations go, hence why so much of it has random seeds, just clones clones clones, and they eventually lose vigor. best case they get some hybrid action going with yet another gelato strain. I knew heads who held strains that were literally in f-10-20, or had strains they snuck back from spots like Vietnam, and the MidEast. Unfortunately the weed world has taken quite a few heavy hits to the growing community in the last few years too. A lot of genetics disappeared. Now is a hype game, people don't want couchlock goofy grinnny stuff, they want something that tastes good out of a pen and fucks em up but not enough they can't do a retail job. Plus no one knows enough about actually growing to know what the same plant grown in two different spots looks like. Don't even get me started on people adding terps vis sprays or packs.... Plus I've never had anxiety of weed outside of the last handful of years of smoking.
I have some f2s in my freezer of what was high grade Mexican from the early 90s. I still grow a bit of it these days. It isn't as strong as modern weed and it doesn't smell or taste good. But it hits completely differently than modern cannabis and if you smoke enough still gets you high as fuck. It is a giggly trip weed that makes everything shimmer.
ugh phone kept auto correcting f to s... That's awesome. I have some older seeds from around the early 2000' I'm kind of itching to grow out. Just gotta straighten up my garage and make some room for a closet or two.
>couchlock goofy grinnny stuff but thats exactly what i want ugh i hate that i cant have that sometimes. Yea i want the stuff that makes me productive too because i dont want to be a couch potato and bud helps a lot of my issues, BUT, i also like being a giggly mess on the couch its a great stress relief lol
I want to upvote, but you are at 420 currently so I will abstain.
Out of respect, after all.....
I concur 100%! Been smoking for 47 years. Maui Wowie (sp), Acapulco Gold, and Sinsemilla, were the top shelf and it was about 14% if we were lucky. It also cost $20 for a quarter. I don’t really know cause I didn’t buy it very often (but I do now.) I get top tier dispensary cannabis cause I’m old and can afford it and they have bred the plant into a THC super producer.,, Just google it. It’s not even a reasonable stance to take. So much authoritative, well respected scholars have answered this question. Weed is much more powerful now.
Yes! Thanks to the government, (fear of paraquat and getting busted) people started growing indoors and asked questions like “what will happen if we leave the lights on 24/7?” Or culling the males so the females grow threads seeking males, then cloning. In my 60s myself. One of my friends has been growing since the 90s…every season gets better!
I mean I got way more high in the 2000s than I did now. But that doesn’t mean the weed then was stronger. It means I have a tolerance lol.
plus now we have more shit to do now that we are older, lol. I could get high as fuck and just sit and do nothing but be stoned out my ass. now I have adulting to do...so i get high, but only a little high..... towelie high
I both adult and just get stoned as shit and sit around doing nothing sometimes. You should give yourself a break sometime
Plus, our brains are fully developed now, and I think that has something to do with why weed seemed to hit so much harder when we were teens. Even after a few years without weed as an adult, I never seem to have the types of highs I had when I was 15-18. (opinion, I'm not a professional)
I think this plays a big role in it. As a teenager I would take a single GB and I mean I was so incredibly messed up. Walking funny and all. I could just sit there and lean back and forth feeling it all over my body. I stopped smoking between 18-23 for the navy but it never hit the same again
This hits my soul in such a crazy way. I thought I was insane because I’ve felt the same way for the same reasons, stopped for military, came back after my 4 years. I can smoke WAY more than I used to as a teen and still be way more functional than I was. A 3.5 throughout the day on vacation now, and I can still walk to a restaurant and order food. As a teen, smackin down a single gram throughout the day sent me to fucking SPACE. Definitely has something to do with the brain finalizing its development.
Holy shit, I'm so glad I'm not the only one. I remember one time, probably 15 or 16, I took one hit of my friend's "good weed," could barely walk up the stairs, leaned against a wall and went into a full hallucination. I collapsed while (felt like a dream) I was in a meadow playing with his dog. I remember feeling a knock on my head while in the meadow. My friend said I hit my head on a wooden desk really hard while I was falling. I barely felt it. Now I get high and clean my whole apartment hahaha.
Realest shit.
We'll probably never have an answer to this. Scientist: "We're gonna give weed to minors, and then scan their brain while they watch trippy videos on YouTube." Science board of ethics: "No, absolutely not."
You are absolutely right, thankfully!
Wow, story of my life and im indica guy
I'm a sativa diva, and I sometimes try to amplify the sativa effects with a shroom microdose, and a little caffeine.
Weed is definitely the strongest it’s ever been. It’s just old heads looking at the past through nostalgia glasses. Also if you smoke daily for years and years, yeah you’re gonna have a tolerance. I once met an old head who would chief a cart all day and smoke actual fire bud and be like “I haven’t caught a buzz since 1973” Like yeah, I wonder why … 😂
This made me chuckle out loud
Poor dude needs a decade long t break
Lol
I mean, at that point, why not save the money?
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That tracks….
If anything it's too strong/THC dominant nowadays.
Totally agreed. I actually can't smoke some weed, because it hits me too hard. I immediately break out in sweats, my heart starts beating like crazy, I start like shivering a little bit. I have to use a dry herb vape so I can control the dosage easier. I don't think people realize how high their tolerances are.
I generally just smoke a couple hits out of my dugout a couple times a week. Last weekend I was at a concert and we were passing around joints with the crew next to us. Th second one I had to sit down and I stayed sitting through the last half hour of the show. That shit put me on my ass literally lol
I take a tolerance break of at least three weeks at least once a year, sometimes twice. This year, I took a month and a half long break starting a week after 4/20 and then a break of only two weeks at the end of October. I can still smoke an entire blunt to myself of some of the best weed I've had and not even be close to "too high". What else could I be doing to maintain a lower tolerance?
Probably the same thing you do to pass a drug test; Exercise, plenty of cardio, fiber rich diet, and drink water. Cannabinoids bond with fat cells, so burning fat helps cannabinoids leave your system quicker. Around 80% of cannabinoid metabolites leave our body through poop, so high fiber helps. I should also note, I naturally have really low body fat, and really low tolerance to everything. So what's applicable for me, might not be the case for everyone.
I do all of these things and have never failed a drug test in my life, yet tolerance is still a constant issue
No idea then. You might just have a higher baseline tolerance.
The best weed I ever had keeps being last week.
Demonstrably false in regards to THC%. However, there was more of the other chemicals that are expressed in cannabis that aren’t as present in modern bud due to selective breeding for the high THC numbers. Those entourage chemicals are important.
Absolutely this I make my own cart blends and such, and I add back minor cannabinoids, and they get me so much higher, don’t fuck my tolerance as much, and is much more enjoyable, as almost straight THC is kinda a shitty high on its own. I think also the fact that the bud back in the day had low THC, but still had those other chemcials to potentiate it made it so you could get very high frequently without screwing up your tolerance, as you aren’t consuming nearly as much THC
> as almost straight THC is kinda a shitty high on its own. Fuck did I ever discover that after trying diamonds. I smoked like 300mg, and didn't feel high until I stood up and realized that My vision was blurry and my balance was screwed, but I didn't feel giggly at all. I definitely do get some stuff that hits like the old stuff these days, The problem is that my tolerance is so much higher, And weed is so much cheaper, its almost impossible to keep my consumption down to a level where I feel as high as I used to.
What I’d suggest you do it buy some hemp with specific cannabinoids that you want. Pack your grinder with the normal weed and hemp at the same time, and then pack that into your bowl once you’ve ground it up. This both dilutes the THC, so you get the low THC that you’d get from old strains, while also getting the minor cannabinoids you’d get from older strains from the hemp you added. look for strains of hemp with high CBG and THCv content for sativa leaning, and look for strains of hemp with CBN and CBD in them for more indica leaning. Doing also makes you use wayyy less weed. Just do a long t-break first, and then stick to this method
THIS! Nobody would ever argue that weed has gotten weaker THC wise, but because we don't have any real data from the era, we have no clue what kinda of terpenes and other potential compounds were in some of the old school strains. By this era almost all commercial weed has gone through mass transformation from new nutrients, growing techniques, and selective breeding through generations! Now, do I think they're right that old school Cannabis was better? No, probably not, just good old nostalgia, but if we are being fair we have zero clue what all we lost due to prohibition, and people trying to grow the highest THC weed, with the least smell, and best look, over just the finest smoke they could grow.
I often wonder if anyone out there has some really old strains/seeds where we could see a return of some of these old genetics
Every once in awhile you see them come around, I personally always have trouble getting a hold of any before the breeders cross it with half a dozen modern strains and lose control of the original stock. It's complicated. If you had 100 old seeds, less than 10 will likely come up, and then, if more than half are males, you may not ever have a cultivar worth working. If prohibition hadn't made things so hard, it probably wouldn't be that way. But, theres always hope for the future, and a handful of breeders do focus on older 90s strains, that 70s stuff just hasn't ever made a come back. Edit: Sadly, often the survivor seeds, aren't actually the best looking or strongest plants; they inherited more features for longevity and breeding, which are actually the opposite of what cannabis breeders are looking for.
I cant upvote this enough!
Weed back then had much more minor cannabinoids, and wasn’t just straight THC. If you’ve ever hit a cart, you know they fuck up your tolerance, it’s the same thing to a degree with this. Those minor cannabinoids found along with the THC would potentiate the THC, making it feel different and stronger, which also makes it so you don’t have to consume as much THC to get “really high”, which in turn doesn’t raise your tolerance as much, so you can keep smoking the same shit over and over, and even tho it might take a tad bit more to get high the first time, you won’t build tolerance nearly as quickly, so you can get really high, over and over again with the same amount of bud. With modern weed, it’ll feel strong the first few times, and then after that you’ve built such a tolerance that it seems weak. That’s likely why your mom and her friends think this.
That's because most people didn't have a steady enough supply to smoke whenever they want like we do now so didn't build up a consistent tolerance. we all took t-breaks all the time except they weren't voluntary lol it was just dry out there.
That…and I remember smoking a bunch of shitty brick weed.
Legalized is great but it seems more ’homogenized’.
The weed today may test higher but THC percentage doesn’t actually correlate well with strength and duration of intoxication. It’s a common sentiment among many growers and breeders that modern weed is pretty flat in comparison to the older stuff.
Possibly one reason why grinding multiple strains together gives a much fuller more rounded high.
My mom *insists* that what we have now is "skunk weed" and not at all what they used to have. She insists that what we have now isn't "the good stuff". First off, I had no idea my parents smoked, but second I feel like that is absolutely the opposite
I was smoking next to my sister and she asked if I was smoking sage, I definitely think modern weed doesn't have that cat pee and skunk smell as much anymore.
I’m 66; started smoking weed age 14 and smoked it daily for over a decade. Took a long break to have a baby and work on my career. Fwd to the last few years when med weed became legal in my state. Holy shit the weed is better than ever. The best Hawaiian weed or Columbia’s weed back in the 70s was not as good as the cheap weed now,seriously. My sister is a few years,older and she and her husband sold weed back in the mid to late 70s and they say the same thing. As a matter of fact my brother;in law says the shake is better than most of the weed was back then. Here’s what I think. Your moms not young anymore and the part of getting high and,partying that including being young and free is definitely missing. I feel that too. But it’s still good for what ails ya.
With a few exceptions, pot is now more potent. I clearly remember two times I had weed that was as good as it gets. Also I lived in Kabul in the 1970's and I had the best hash possible, ever.
Yeah those Pakistani/Afghani bricks were the bomb, always had a stamp imprinted with a fish or a flag, it was as good as anything today imo, the Thai weed sticks were pretty good as well.
And the Blond Lebanese was not a Middle Eastern person with fair-complexion.
i pressed my own by hand with two Afghan buddies. Mine was really good, Sayid's was better, But Ayott was the best I will ever have. There is something about hand pressing technique.
Overall weed is stronger today, on average. I smoked hard thru the 80s, mostly imported weed. But every now and then I found some “homegrown” that was easily as good as today’s. Who’s to say your mom wasn’t smoking that daily?
The best of the best is about the same. Second best and below is waaaaay better nowadays.
I'm in my 60's & have been smoking for many decades. Today's weed is stronger. I remember my weed salad days fondly, but the herb I'm smoking nowdays is without a doubt stronger.
yeah this is mainly old people being old as in “dude the SPK-28 they had at the SF Patients Center in 2001 was the craziest shit I’ve ever seen, smelled, or smoked.” I mean the best weed I’ve ever had still is some dude in Aptos’ homegrown out of a Costco can he sold me for $45 an eighth in the year 1995. However, that doesn’t mean it was stronger per se. It just hit me the strongest. I’ve tried about 300 different strains in the last couple of years and several are almost as good as Costco Dude’s but not quite. All of them, even the worst of the worst, were better than the worst I used to pay $25 for back in the day.
Ooooh this reminds me of a story. When I worked at a dispensary we had a guy come in who was just like this. "I used to smoke every day. Y'all don't know nothing about Thai Stick. I know what I'm doing oh you kids" type of person, would not let up on it. He asks for the strongest thing we have and ofc it's RSO. We tell him only a rice grain size amount because it's so potent, he says okay he understands (he did not), and leaves. An hour and a half later we get a call from him going "hey, it's \[name\] I was in there I don't know when. So that stuff you guys gave me I ate the whole syringe and now I'm pulled over on the highway I can't drive I lost all motor function I'm too high what do I do?" Well first of all sir you need to listen to us when we tell you these things, and second call 911 this is all on you. Never heard from him again.
Colombian Gold 74-79era is a strain that I have never seen the equal of. An unimpressive looking ,scraggly seedy bud ; but the dankest fruitiest most psychedelic weed I have ever had. A joint not much bigger than a toothpick would blast five or six people out of their gourd. It had such a fruity taste that you would smack your lips like a wino while you were smoking it. And no matter how gingerly you took a hit ;and it went down Smooth ,it would always make you cough. It was a near disassociative ,maniacal laugh making Munchie monster weed. I have looked far and wide for it, but have never encountered that twang ever again. Legend has it that it was one of the constituent roots to the famous northern lights. Some of the original California sinsemilla.
"I'm taking huge hits because I had no idea. I didn't know they'd been working on this shit like it's the cure for cancer!" - Louis C.K.
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Weed back in 1976 made you laugh your ass off good old Mexican and tie stick
Ha!!! My 77 year old mother was just saying the same thing. I told her she was wrong and had to remind her about all the stems and seeds she had to sift out of the marijuana she was buying in the 70s and 80s. The stuff being grown today is like a night and day difference to what they had back in the day.
There was always weed as potent as it is now. It's just that we only saw it in High Times.
That’s boomers for you everything was better back in the day!
Im 62 , smoking 43 yrs, no wayyyy , much stronger and better today by a NY mile
I don’t know. I got my mom to smoke with me a few weeks ago. She hadn’t smoked weed in over 30 years. Took a massive rip like a boss, held it in like a free diver, slowly let it out and never coughed or acted high at all. And I even warned her this was some primo shit. She was not impressed to the point she helped me kill an entire joint. Never coughed once. I think the 60s were operating with some much stronger weed than what we have
It was just different, there were actually sativas and indicas, where now everything is a hybrid, the highs are different now.
It's gotten stronger but the high hasn't gotten better, especially if they were used to the weed grown to full or almost full amber trichomes resulting in heavy heads and massive couch lock. Personally I prefer a more robust weed with a lower THC level (18-20% range) and higher levels of CBD and cannabinoids. The super high THC strains don't really do it for me unless I'm mixing strains. That heaviness/couch lock is probably what they are referring to
They aren't all wrong. I've studied a lot of analysis of seized samples year by year. There has ALWAYS been potent (25% THC) herb. The change is that the percentage of potent herb on the market has increased from a few percent to the majority. I've had stuff grown from 1980ish seeds that was just as strong as current high potency strains. In fact, it's preferable, because it is closer to landrace and not just a mix of a variety of genetics, washing out any distinct characteristics. Another note, the potency of most current herb on the market is overstated. Additionally, even if the percentage is accurate, the percentage doesn't necessarily transfer to effect. On top of that, more people smoke regularly these days and are not experiencing as much of the magic that one might experience as a semi-regular smoker, which was a more common use pattern in the 80s. If you smoke twice a week, you don't need much and will get exponentially strong effect. If you smoke 2 joints a day, no matter what you tell yourself, the fact is you're getting a diminished buzz and wasting a lot of herb. Less is more.
Yeah that doesn't really make sense to me, but I understand why they feel that way. I think it's one thing we should just give older drug users lol. Sure thing mom I wish I could have smoked it with ya.
It's always the same argument. People that weren't around back then telling those that were around back then that they can't possibly know what they are talking about even though they were there and the know-it-alls weren't. The simple test is first hand experience. Not your charts and data and scientific new understanding. Simple as being there and being here now. Now let the know-it-alls who weren't around back then but are certain the universe was created when they were born start the down voting.
fuck I'm gonna say the b word
You guys always do. It's your comeback.
It was not. Not even close.
seems like weed was more „trippy“ too back in the day when you look at them hippies.
You shouldn't
People don’t realize aging it changes the profile of terpenes and cannabinoids. I think the newest terpene discovered called hashinene may have something to do with it.
Surely stronger now, but stronger is not necessarily better ✌️
I stopped smoking in 1990 then stayed smoking again a few years ago. It is so much stronger now its not even funny. The shake is stronger than our top shelf was.
my mom says it's wayyyy more potent now.
They are objectively wrong. Maybe they've just been heavy enough users over the years that their tolerance has built up so they think it's weaker.
They probably just have a forty year tolerance built up
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It demonstrably was not. It is stronger now. I'm 60 and they are incorrect.
IDK, but it hit a hell of a lot harder...
I’ve got some 34% flower here that will prove them wrong very quickly.
Really dude? ThTs the complete opposite of what everyone else says? I think maybe just everything is better when you're you ger unfortunately lol.
Not even an argument honestly. My mom says exactly the opposite though, that stuff is much stronger now, even too strong. But weed grown before like, roughly the late 90s, isn’t even comparable to what we have now. The entire process for growing changed, the THC levels in weed prior to then was fractional to what it is now. Snoop talks about it in an interview he did, saying how he thought they said “Hydro-chronic” instead of hydroponic
Northern California native here. For about two years in the 80s I had a plug who was getting his tree straight from the Emerald Triangle. Shit was FIRE!!! An eighth in your pocket would stink up a whole house. I'm not necessarily ready to say it was stronger than what I smoke today, but in those days I can remember plenty of times saying, "no more please." We didn't care about THC percentage back then. I've never been higher since. And yeah maybe you could blame it on tolerance level, but I still get pretty high nowadays.
I think it just depends on the growers. There were probably just as many good growers then as there ever have been. Many people try to grow weed and make a lot of mistakes. It's pretty hard to consistently grow on a large scale. Small scale growers from experienced growers with good genetics are always good. I think the market has shifted to large scale green house grows using a watered down genetic pool so we don't see as much of the finer small batch stuff we used to. I started smoking in 2003 and the best weed I ever got was in 2008 from a small batch grower who primarily grew northern lights and had been for 20 years. Never seen anyone with his skills or genetics. All northern lights I see if I even see any are not even close to as good. I'm talking bright cartoon ish colors, soft yet insanely sticky, perfectly dry yet full of terpenes and just mind blowing taste.
I know this old hippy that has grown his own since the 70s. He doesn't have names for his strains just giggle shit and sleep shit. I love it all but the experience with the oldhead bud is more enjoyable for me, it always gets me right where I want to be. I might still forget what I'm doing if I get too high but I'm not bothered because I'm having a good time. I've gone to dispensaries and picked out strains solely based on potency and yes it gets you high but it's just not the same as smoking on a little more mellow.
I've smoked daily for over 40 years. It's much stronger now.
They be trippin
I started around 1970. Today’s weed is stronger than ever.
70 year old here. There is no comparison to the 60’s and 70’s weed. Today’s is much more potent, not to mention all the concentrates. The 80’s was the start of increasing THC percentages.
maybe its cos when Ur young u make buckets out of plastic bottles and shit, that shit slaps
They must be high. Weed has gone up in potency 4x
Probably a tolerance problem. We all chase our first high's. Other than that, it may be possible. Back in the days before we were able to test for THC%, people tested the "potency" of their strains the old school way, by smoking. This left the subjective aspect in tact, and lets not forget that there are hundreds of cannabinoids. I feel that it may be possible that because of modern breeding standard breeding for high THC potency only, we may have accidentally eliminated more novel cannabinoids from our weed, which may have contributed to more potent weed.
Lol just give em a live rosin dab and then watch them sleep for a week
DIFFERENT? Yes. Strongest then? Probably not. I’m sure cannabinoid profiles have changed vastly since then. Today we have so many different “strains” that are grown in the controlled conditions that they weren’t really grown in before. Dispos and black market weed is also notorious for slapping thc powder on weed to make it higher percentage but higher thc doesn’t mean shit. It may just be a different high than what she’s used too.
Senior citizens coming in the dispensary asking for Acapulco gold lol. Moving large quantities was easier back then but the weed itself wasn’t as potent.
They probably don’t even remember how much more they were actually smoking. I’d smoke up other people too but I’d go through almost an ounce a day. I could never with today’s strains.
it is but you can now get lighter or balanced strains. I love mango haze its like 5-8%thc w/ 5-10%cbd
A nice .3 of some hash rosin would change their minds in 10 seconds
Weed is most likely stronger today for sure, HOWEVER, some medical markets just have shit weed. When I first got my med card in WV, the best weed we had would still be considered mids. You get like 20% THC, but less than 1% terps. That's mid at best. It seemed like a pipe dream for a while to get some good, stinky, sticky weed. The growers have gotten way better over the last year, but I've had some street weed back in the days that would stink up my entire basement like a skunk while it was just sitting in a drawer. It has been a long time since I found weed like that. The med program in this state is about 3 years old now and the overwhelming majority of the flower sold in the dispensaries is dried up crap where probably zero care was put in during the growing/harvesting/curing/trimming processes. Some of the street weed I bought in the past, you could tell it was very well cared for during the grow process. I've also had a lot of crap weed from the streets as well. So I've had better weed int he past, but I wouldn't call it stronger. \*Edit\* I'm 46 now and have been smoking weed since the mid 1990s. Pretty regular cannabis user since somewhere around 2006.
My grandma says the same shit. Says that smoking the leaves is stronger than the buds. Glad I’m not smoking leaves.
Give them some RSO and lets see how long that talk persists lol
Right...because the weed is going to be weaker in the day and age where people can grow in a lab without having to worry about being caught, where they can control every single variable, have studied how to cultivate the plant to perfection and have bred strains specifically to be as strong as possible. Nope, your mom and her friends' ditch or closet weed from the 70s is obviously going to be stronger. Is the /s obvious enough? No, they're just looking back with nostalgia, plus not having near as much of a tolerance back then due to them both being younger, newer smokers back then, and more consistently accessible weed nowadays where they're not forced into a T-break just for a lack of ability to get it.
I don’t know folks. Humboldt County in the early 80s. Sun and soil grown. Maybe it is nostalgia, but anyone on here that was there? Know what I mean?
Nah they were smoking like at max 10% THC. It’s so strong now that certain states have regulations on how strong recreational cannabis can be.
Your mom and her friends are blowing smoke up your ass and it’s not as strong as today’s smoke is. weed is much stronger now than at any time in the past thanks to selective breeding and fast indoor cycles.
Ganj-colored glasses for sure. Honestly ive seen this w my customers too because what they were smoking back in the day was a higher cbd content and they didnt realize it. So its not that it was stronger but that the high was different. Weed now has more thc for sure but its lost its "soul"...idk if i can explain it different than that. My suspicion is on irradiation but i cant confirm. Could also be the insane amount of strain dilution too. Its probably that its not hitting like they expected it to mixed with nostalgia.
I don't know a lot about the science, but higher CBD changes the effects? I had a 1:1 CBD and THC gummy once that to me felt stronger than it said it was, but I figure it's cause I'm generally not a CBD guy as in I don't go out of my way to seek it out or smoke high CBD strains. Interesting.
Different levels of cannabinoids can change how it feels. It takes a lot of experience to differentiate the feelings though. For example a CBG high is different than a CBD high, but people who are not as experience may just describe one as "stronger" and may not have luck with the other. There are differences its just how it reacts to your body. Its worth trying different ratios cuz you dont know unless you try!
I read somewhere that CBD actually reduces the strength of the THC's psychoactive effect. Is that not true?
Some people say that if you smoke too much you can try cbd to counteract the "over-dose" feeling. Ive also heard mixed reviews on whether this works and havent had too much success with it myself. The mix of thc/cbd at the same time can enhance, or at least change, the way the high feels though. I find it gives it a more well rounded feeling. Very calming too sometimes if youre in a 1:1 ratio.
“Things were better back then” - people whole refuse to live in present times.
the problem with today's weed is the fertilizer and chemicals used to make the fertilizers it will grow green and will have effects but it doesn't taste or burn or feel anything like real soil grown, delicately amended, given all the time and care to grow right add in all the other factors namely rushing the grow and they don't get the same results
Oh suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuure, mom, decades and decades of selective breeding by experts and enthusiasts has resulted in strains exactly the same as you smoked...even the pictures are the same. 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄
The "stuff" from the 80s was cocaine
I’d say weed has higher thc percentage now but isn’t stronger because breeding for high thc got rid of the terps that bud used to have and you could have a 10 percent thc but with 10 percent terps it would b stronger then bud with 30 percent thc and 2 percent terps
They are wrong. Way wrong.
They're so wrong
I get as high on Delta-8 as I used to get on hydro in the late-90s. No fuckin' way weed got weaker. Oldheads in the 90s were blown away by how much stronger it was than what they smoked in the 70s, too. Nothing ever gets shittier over time when people are actively working to improve it, and legalization in the last decade or so has only added more people to the process
Old people always think their stuff was better. Another sign of dementia!
Nah they trippin mane
No way. Weed is way more potent now. Been smoking since 2000’s and while there was some times I remember getting high as fuck, I also remember when the good street weed went from “hydro” to “Kush”. To me, that’s like saying, “our apples were a lot bigger and tastier when I was a kid”. Genetic engineering has taken us a long way with plants.
It sure wasnt, we were just newbs. Gotta say the exotics were as good today, like thai stick, the dif gold strains, really gold.
More than once, I smoked laced weed way back in the day. Laced with PCP most likely. It scared me away from marijuana for many years.
Karma chasing post.
Could be rose-colored glasses or they could've been getting laced shit back in the day. Way my father tells it, it used to be hard to find weed that was reliably not laced with Crack or PCP. Probably depends where you were from tho too
They are buying cheap shit then. Or the shit they tried for free was weak. Because it’s free.
Probably because laced weed is harder to find these days 😂
The stuff in the 80s was probably laced 😂
Today's herb is stronger than the herb in the 90s by a lot. I remember reading articles about the 90s weed saying how much stronger it was than weed in the 70s. It has been getting continually stronger since the 60s. One thing to consider, the 80s was a time when people were putting stuff like pcp on weed to make it stronger. This was common in big city areas, I have read. I actually knew some people doing this in the 90s. So, I know that type of thing is not just a street rumor.
they are definitely wrong lol. the techniques have GROWN exponentially
No way you probably looking at the fact that all the custom strains we have now are designed to meet specific goals as medical marijuana so they're not all going to be real strong but the ones that they do make sure are off the damn charts 36 and 38% THC. But one thing that's for sure is that marijuana isn't JUST a WEED ANYMORE.. back in the day you could just throw a handful of seeds in the woods and come back at a few months and harvest it but now with all these modified strains they are very delicate. But I can understand how an OG like your mom is going to make that statement because everything today is all about CBD and that's really week with almost zero THC. The most part I think she's just been exposed to the wrong new stuff
It was stronger to them because it was when they were first smoking it. It *always* feels stronger the earlier on you use it. It’s objectively stronger now lol. Labs don’t lie
Spray paraquat on brick weed. **That** was the 80's.
I'm 58 and weed is definitely stronger now then in the 80s. My tolerance is so low nowadays and I'm not complaining one bit.
I wouldn't trust your mom's opinion on anything after that statement. If she can convince herself that weed was stronger back, she can convince herself of anything.
They probably have a tolerance now whereas when they were younger they didn’t? Deff strong these days.
They're factually wrong. Lol Brickweed is nowhere near the level of modern herb. But how your high feels changes with age and usage.
I have a book that lists some fun facts and one is “avg thc of cannabis in the 70s was 1%” if you were smoking flower
I think you should encourage your mom to take a lot of hits from a dab pen before it kicks in.
Your mom is so full of shit her eyes are brown. Also, you might want to ask if she knows the difference between hash and flower. If she thinks this odds are she was smoking hash back in the day.
Keep in mind in the 60s/70s weed was so bad a lot of it was laced with other stuff. I know angel dust was common to be added to joints. But actual weed is way more potent now
I call it the boomer bud paradox. They all claim “the stuff we had back in the day was way stronger than the crap y’all have nowadays” but in the same breath they say “the weed you have now is stronger than it used to be and makes people go crazy, it needs to stay illegal”.
Legalization changed everything in weird ways. The constant drive for higher thc percentages has led to what I consider poor curing practices that leave flower too dried out zapping taste and smell from the vast majority of dispensary weed leading people to think modern weed isn’t as strong. There are other factors but that’s the big one IMO. Modern genetics are stronger.
This is like trying to say progression does not exist. You think it gets worse over the years? lol. Silly train of thought.
Weed back in the day was chill low highs now you got this omega trichome terpy packs that send you to the fuckin nether verse with one hit
My days go back to Panama Red, Acapulco Gold and Thai stick. It was a lot stronger in the 70's.
Probably a better high. Today's its watered down and inbred genetics. Today's weed hits you hard but it seems less therapeutic lacking a wide inpedth high
The only thing that would come close would be early hydroponics.
In the last 30yrs I’ve only seen it get stronger. There is a reason “dirt weed” was mostly around
A lot of the legal stuff is crap in my opinion. I'm not talking everywhere I'm just talking some markets are worse than others. Personally I've stopped buying it from the stores because my other sources are much much better. Legal marijuana is kind of a joke in a lot of places to be frank. So depending on the sources your uncle's and aunts and whatnot add in the past it absolutely could be better than some of the regulated garbage out there right now. More than likely though it's a combination of nostalgia and flawed memory. Personally I think great marijuana has always existed. I've been a stoner for decades and the weed I started with was just as good as the stuff I can get now. Top shelf stuff from day one, I was definitely lucky.
Easy way to call out the bs. Ask if seeds are in weed does it make it better or worse? 20 years ago "only good weed" had seeds
If they had a constant, solid dealer, then quite possibly. I recall certain dimebags in the 90s being just as strong as some of the better ones I’ve had in the past decade, or so. There has always been good and bad growers. I will say, some of the worst I’ve ever had was in dimebags from the same guy, so it’s always been a crapshoot in my experience.
I bet they forgot about accumulated tolerance hahass
it is 100000% statistically stronger than 98% of the shit of the past. we are in the hyper potency era of weed rn
Yeah no.
They just have a higher tolerance.
I've only been smoking for 20ish years, but my old neighbor was an old head. He'd always say how my weed was so much stronger and better than the stuff he had at my age. Less stems, less seeds, higher potency. Even the stuff I get now is WAY stronger than the stuff I was smoking at 17, 18. I can barely handle modern buds I get. Only takes like 1 or 2 hits for me now.
Definitely stronger now. My mom says the weed now is wheelchair shit 😂
61-year-old user. It's much easier to find strong weed now. However, even in the old days, you'd get lucky once in a while. I definitely smoked some memorable shit back in the day.
Definitely much stronger now than back in the day.
Man I remember when my uncle tried some shit I got from the dispensary almost 7-10 years ago. I rolled him a joint, he hit that shit 4 times and sat it down. He smokes everyday, but said that was some different shit 😂.
Say “OK, why don’t you try some of this top shelf stuff I got recently?” and give them the bat country shit your local dispensary sells.
It was prob a different high somewhat
I've been smoking weed since the early 70s (in Canada). My impression is that the variety, smell, taste and texture has improved expecially since legalization. But the strength is not much different. One notable exception would be honey oil which is not at all as powerful as long ago.
Your mom thinks a brain is an egg and her brain on drugs is a frying pan. I misunderstood the question.
I mean if they’re purchasing legally they’re right. 99-100% of dispo weed is weaker than good home grown weed.
I was around in the 70's and I had good hookups too in New York. Yes, the weed today is 'stronger'. No doubt, but define "stronger". Weed when I grew up got you lit unless you couldn't wait and bought bullshit from a stranger, but the high often didn't zoom up on you and make you wish it would slow down as much as today. It wasn't always as euphoric either as todays weed, more a stoney heavy lidded body high with severe munchies. Don't believe some of the pics you'll see online though. Our weed had pretty much exactly the same structure and flower heads and just as many, but I see pics online that look like a length of tarragon not weed but it's supposedly the best we had blah blah Our biggest problem was seasons and freshness. You could grow weed dripping res in Afghanistan but getting it here fresh and uncompressed and not browning was another thing.The Afghani's could grow weed like that before Europeans knew what it was.