Summary
As Californians prepare to vote on legalizing recreational marijuana, innovations in cultivation practices are pushing the plant’s psychoactive properties to unprecedented heights — packing a powerful punch that delights some but alarms others.
Levels of the chemical that produces a high — known as THC — used to average 3 to 4 percent. But now — because of improved breeding, growing, harvesting, packaging and shipping techniques — it’s rare to find THC content below 20 percent.
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“If I were designing a legalization ballot initiative, I’d be inclined to propose taxing marijuana by its THC content,” said Robert MacCoun, a behavioral scientist who teaches at Stanford Law School and studies drug policies.
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