STRONGER MARIJUANA MAKES MORE ADDICTED

ATLANTA -- Marijuana abuse and addiction have increased over the past
decade, even though the percentage of people using pot has remained
roughly the same, a new study says.

The reason: It's not your parents' marijuana.

A 25 percent increase in serious problems with marijuana from 1992 to
2002 is likely explained by a 66 percent increase in the potency of
the drug, researchers from the National Institute of Drug Abuse report
in today's Journal of the American Medical Association.

Marijuana today has nearly five times the level of THC -- the drug's
most active ingredient -- than was in the pot of the 1970s, government
figures suggest. Marijuana has become so strong that the liberal
government of the Netherlands is considering classifying it as a
"hard" drug to be banned from the "coffee shops" of Amsterdam, where
it has been sold openly for years.

Hydroponic growing techniques and the selective use of seeds from
powerful strains contribute to the higher levels of THC, researchers
say. Superstrong "BC Bud" from British Columbia can easily be
obtained, especially in the northwest United States.

"People still have a naive approach to marijuana and think of it as a
harmless substance," said Dr. William Compton, lead author of the new
study and an epidemiologist with the National Institute of Drug Abuse,
one of the National Institutes of Health. "It's not as innocent as
they might expect."

About 4 percent of Americans age 18 and older say they smoked
marijuana in the past year, the same as a decade ago, the study found.
But use of the drug among African-Americans and Hispanics increased
significantly, with use among blacks now surpassing that by whites.