CORRECTS THC NUMBERS

To the editor:

I read a copy of an article from The Times Record on ABOUT.COM (April 6,
"The seductive allure of pot and alcohol"). The article said that today's
marijuana is far stronger than that available in the 1960s and 1970s, when
THC, the active ingredient, was about 3 percent, and that today's marijuana
contains 70-80 percent THC.

That is not only just wrong, it is totally unbelievable. Think about it. If
some substance was 80 percent drug, then that leaves 20 percent for a
medium (i.e., green vegetable matter). Dried herb contains mostly vegetable
matter, which is pulp, water and other foreign material.

A quick check with the National Institutes of Health, National Institute
for Drug Abuse found this page:
http://www.nida.nih.gov/MarijBroch/parentpg3-4N.html

It notes that most ordinary marijuana has an average of 3 percent THC; and
that even hashish oil, a highly concentrated form of liquid marijuana, has
only about 16-43 percent THC. Other links produce similar estimates.

Perhaps the Web version of your article contains a typo, off by a decimal?
Either way, I cannot urge you enough about checking such facts. Substance
abuse is a highly sensitive topic. Absurd claims (intentional or not) tend
to reduce the believability of the press, medicine and efforts to reduce
substance abuse. Once your credibility is damaged, efforts to warn and
educate people are severely impaired.

That is exactly the wrong thing to do.

Stephan Arndt, Ph.D., Iowa City, Iowa