The marijuana kids smoke at Snoopp Dogg concerts today
is not the same pot their parents or grandparents used
at Woodstock. Hydroponic growing techniques, in
which the marijuana plant is cultivated in nutrient-rich
solutions, and the selective use of seeds have produced
a more potent form of marijuana that is showing up in
cities and small towns across the country. Pot
confiscated by police today has 66 percent more THC, its
active ingredient, than the pot seized in the 1980s.
It has five times the THC of marijuana smoked in the
1970s.
As the potency has increased for one of the nation's
most popular and widely used illicit drugs, there has
been a correspondingly sharp increase in the number of
marijuana-related emergency room visits by young pot
smokers. The number of 12-to 17-year-old youths
admitted to hospitals because they had an adverse
reaction to marijuana tripled between 1994 and 2001, the
last year for which federal officials provide figures.
They cite a number of different reason for the
hospitalization. "Unexpected reaction"
to the drug is the most common, followed by
"overdose, chronic effects and accident or
injury."
