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In the last several months, my colleagues and I have noticed rising levels of THC in the urine of our young patients \u2014 but the average increase I present here surprised even us.<\/p>\n
THC, which is short for tetrahydrocannabinol, is the active ingredient in marijuana that gives users a high and is chiefly responsible for making the drug addictive (yes, it\u2019s addictive; responsible and respected scientists no longer debate this). In the last 40 years, growers have worked steadily to spike THC levels in marijuana \u2014 taking a page from the playbook of Big Tobacco, which was caught spiking nicotine and adding chemicals to make cigarettes more addictive.<\/p>\n
Marijuana\u2019s THC levels have increased substantially in the last 40 years. In the 1960s and \u201970s, marijuana\u2019s THC levels averaged around 2 percent. Today, they easily exceed 10 percent. In medical marijuana states, including Colorado, where I live, potent strains frequently falling into adolescents\u2019 hands top 40 percent THC.\u00a0 Then there\u2019s the concentrated form of THC, commonly called hash oil, that is extracted from the plant and added to foods and drinks and inhaled through smokeless vaporizers. THC concentrate can exceed 90 percent.<\/p>\n
At the same time THC has risen, so has adolescent marijuana use. Consider this from the University of Michigan\u2019s Monitoring the Future Survey:<\/p>\n
* In 1991, 8 percent of the nation\u2019s high school students reported past-month marijuana use. The past-month use rate reported last year was 15.5 percent.<\/p>\n
* In 1991, 0.9 percent of the nation\u2019s high school students reported daily use. Last year it was 3.5 percent.<\/p>\n
With all of this top of mind, my colleagues and I examined the results of approximately 5,000 urinalyses of adolescents treated in a downtown Denver clinic where I practice. The patients were ages 13 to 19.<\/p>\n
As you\u2019ll see in the chart below, from 2007 through 2009, the average rate was 358 nanograms per milliliter of urine. This time period immediately preceded the opening of hundreds of marijuana dispensaries in Colorado.<\/p>\n
From 2010 through February 2013, the average THC rate registered at 536 nanograms per milliliter of urine. This time period coincides with a boom in access to, and social acceptance of, marijuana in Colorado, where voters in November 2012 approved a constitutional amendment legalizing the drug for recreational use.<\/p>\n
Why should we care about this rise in THC rates? What do they mean? Here are some preliminary thoughts as I continue my research:<\/p>\n
* Young people are using marijuana more frequently, or they\u2019re using more potent marijuana, or they\u2019re using more potent marijuana more frequently. I suspect the third option is most likely.<\/p>\n
* When young people report for treatment, their marijuana addiction is more serious. It takes longer to treat them and requires more resources to do so \u2014 which means their treatment is more costly.<\/p>\n
* Typically, the more severe the addiction, the poorer the prognosis for recovery.<\/p>\n
* I am increasingly concerned about concentrated THC, which is infused into an ever-growing number of edible products and pushed to users in other smokeless forms that are billed as safer and healthier to use because they don\u2019t involve smoking. My colleagues and I also have found that these smokeless forms of ingesting THC are increasingly popular with young people who are eager to hide their drug use.<\/p>\n
It is reasonable now to question how much longer it will be before we see injection use of THC \u2014 especially as marijuana is legalized.<\/p>\n
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