POTENT POT WORRIES OFFICIALS

Marijuana is more potent now than at any point during the past 30
years, fueling concerns about how it's affecting users.

"It's very scary when you see adolescents smoking especially potent
marijuana because they're going through a developmental period for
parts of the brain," said Brad Lander, a psychologist at Ohio State
University Medical Center. "It's unlikely they're going to catch up
with that development."

A study by the University of Mississippi's Potency Monitoring Project
found that the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, called THC, is at
9.6 percent in samples from 2007. Ten years earlier, it was at 5 percent.

Marijuana use can cause difficulties with concentration, memory,
learning and sexual performance. Long term, it can cause cancers of
the lung and lip.

Lander, who helps treat people who have failed in other recovery
programs or failed screenings for jobs or sports, has noticed an
increase in the plant's potency firsthand.

"It's been rising steadily since the '70s," he said.

"(Most users) tend to be adolescents, anywhere between 13 and early
20s," Lander said. "After that, you still see a lot of people smoking
marijuana, but it's usually a mix with other drugs."

Last year, the Columbus police narcotics unit confiscated 7,439 pounds
of marijuana, 1,397 indoor plants and 207 outdoor plants with a
combined street value of almost $16 million.

With the help of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, the
police recovered more than 2,000 plants in raids last month.

"The amount of marijuana being seized is up," said Jay Evans,
commander of the narcotics bureau. "I think that it's quite
substantial in central Ohio."

The Office of National Drug Control Policy said there are 14.8 million
current users of marijuana who are 12 or older.

"Particularly worrisome is the possibility that the more potent THC
might be more effective at triggering the changes in the brain that
can lead to addiction; however, more research is needed to establish
this link between higher THC potency and higher addiction risk," Dr.
Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, said in
a statement.

The increased potency is not surprising, said Anthony Marotta, the
Drug Enforcement Administration assistant special agent in charge of
Ohio.

"With fertilizers, you're going to get better corn and you're going to
get better marijuana," he said. "It's not something that all of a
sudden they came out with this new hybrid. It takes time."

The University of Mississippi researchers collected more than 64,000
samples from 48 states, predominantly seized by law enforcement,
including cannabis, hashish and hash oil.