MARIJUANA'S RISING POTENCY SPARKS DEBATE

It's a dangerous, highly addictive drug whose skyrocketing potency
has only increased its stranglehold on our nation's youth. Or it's
mostly harmless, a substance not much worse than caffeine - with
medicinal value to boot.

It's marijuana. And the polarized debate about its safety has been
rekindled by two reports released separately this month by the
federal government and a leading drug prohibition group. Both studies
conclude that marijuana's potency has increased, which they link to
reports of more addiction, mental health problems, and emergency room
admissions related to marijuana use among teenagers.

Advocates of less punitive marijuana laws immediately decried the
reports as alarmist, saying there's no evidence linking greater
potency to a rise in health problems among pot smokers.

Academics say both sides are guilty of selectively presenting data to
bolster their positions.

In a field with limited research, partisans tend to create paper thin
arguments, as easily made as they are countered, said Roger Roffman,
professor of sociology at the University of Washington.

"I think [both sides] do a disservice to the general public," said
Roffman, who has written papers and edited books on marijuana use and
dependence. On websites of drug policy reform advocates, "you'll find
lots of information about the very adverse consequences of
criminalizing marijuana and very little mention of the very real harm
associated with marijuana among some people in some circumstances," he said.

Meanwhile, on government and prohibitionist websites, he said,
"you'll find plenty of information on the harmful consequences of
marijuana abuse and very little information, perhaps, on the harmful
consequences of criminalizing marijuana."

On the same day the government released its report, a peer-reviewed
British scientific journal, "Addiction," sent out a press release
that got much less attention, announcing the publication of a study
in its July issue.

"More research is needed to determine whether increased potency . . .
translates into harm for users," principal author Jennifer McLaren
wrote in the study, which was conducted by four Australian scientists
affiliated with university drug research centers and based on a
review of the scientific literature and statistics on worldwide
marijuana potency.

The study notes that "claims about escalating potency [have been]
made as far back as 1975; yet we know little about cannabis markets
that can help support or reject recent claims."

Two weeks ago, the National Institute on Drug Abuse reported that the
psychoactive ingredient in marijuana - THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol -
has reached an all-time high average concentration of 9.6 percent.
Then last week, Columbia University's National Center on Addiction
and Substance Abuse reported that levels had reached 8.8 percent,
which it said was a 175 percent increase since 1992. The report noted
that during the same period, there was a similar rise in admissions
for teenagers who abused marijuana.

"Many of the parents who smoked pot in the '70s and even the '80s,
when it was less than 1 percent potency, really don't understand that
it's a very different drug," Joseph A. Califano Jr., founding
chairman and president of the center at Columbia, said in an
interview. In a statement accompanying the report, Califano wrote,
"The striking and parallel increases in marijuana's potency" and teen
treatment and emergency room admissions "together sound an alarm for
parents and teens across the country."

Marijuana use among adolescents is a problem, said Michael
Botticelli, director of the Massachusetts Bureau of Substance Abuse
Services, but since 1996 there's been little change in the number of
minors seeking drug treatment in this state who cite marijuana as the
main drug they abuse.

He said the US numbers showing increasing problems among teen
marijuana abusers "gives us some pause," but because of the many
variables involved "I would be somewhat hesitant to jump to the
conclusion that that is definitively linked to a potency issue."

Higher potency may not even be harmful, according to Craig Reinarman,
professor of sociology at the University of California at Santa Cruz,
who conducted research with Dutch colleagues on the habits of smokers
in Amsterdam, where marijuana is de facto legal, and San Francisco.
He found that the majority of users, when presented with more potent
pot, reduced how much they smoked.

"It's true that hard liquor will get you drunk much faster with less
liquid than beer or wine, but usually people are seeking a certain
level of intoxication, not to be fall-down drunk - so they drink
smaller amounts," said Reinarman, whose research was funded by a
National Institute on Drug Abuse grant. "There's no evidence that
suggests that people who use other drugs, however illegal, behave any
differently."

But Dr. David Murray, chief scientist for the Office of National Drug
Control Policy, said while more research is necessary, public health
policymakers often have to use a "precautionary principle."

"At some point in public policy there is always that imperative that
you have to make that judgment that enough is known now to justify
certain precautions without unduly raising public alarm," Murray said.

Of course, that's precisely what those on the other side of the
debate think the government is doing.