High-Potency Marijuana Doesn’t Lead to Higher Intoxication

A new study found that smoking high-potency marijuana or concentrates does not result in a higher level of intoxication.

“Surprisingly, we found that potency did not track with intoxication levels,” said the lead author on the new study, New Atlas reported. “While we saw striking differences in blood levels between the two groups, they were similarly impaired.”

Over 100 regular cannabis users were tested after smoking either a high-THC marijuana flower or concentrate. The flower contained either 16% or 24% THC while the concentrate contained 70% – 90% THC. Participants consuming the high-THC concentrates had significantly high blood THC levels compared to those smoking high-THC flower. Shockingly, all the participants reported having similar feelings of intoxication and had similar results on cognitive and balance function tests.

“People in the high concentration group were much less compromised than we thought they were going to be,” said the co-author on the study. “If we gave people that high a concentration of alcohol it would have been a different story.”

Lawmakers will hopefully use data from studies such as this one to determine a proper level of THC that a person can legally have in their blood when driving a vehicle.