If you are as smart and educated as Carl Sagan, I’m sure weed isn’t doing the heavy lifting.

Maybe weed isn’t relevant in that case, let’s not forget that in the US, weed was promoted by liberals and opposed by the MAGA crowd.

There's already plenty out there to keep a population complacent. Also, the prison industrial complex and all that surrounds it is big business.

Don't forget "from scratch" lol

I mean… if you are always high then that isn’t wrong is it?

You still can. You probably have at least one atom from Carl in you by now.

K2-18b is a nothing burger. The scientist who made the announcement has done similar before, he seems to really want to be THE person who discovers life on another planet so he skews facts and ignores other facts just for the small chance of being right. Watch this: https://youtu.be/HYjYvKoQVeM

A consequence of its prohibition. History keeps on repeating itself, yet we never learn.

you know you can just smoke/vape 5x less material, right? i'm personally not a fan of the "high THC-A % at all costs" commercial grows and there is a wonderful variety of 3% or less CBD hemp or type 2s with 4%

And this rising potency is a direct consequence of cannabis being illegal. Producers are breeding stronger and stronger strains with higher THC content and lower CBD to get the most bang for their buck. This is true for all illicit drugs, as they tend towards becoming more potent when they need to be smuggled (e.g. why fentanyl is often added to heroin, as it delivers more potency per gram).

If you legalise and regulate it, suddenly that pressure is taken away. Cannabis is produced in consistent and known strengths, distributed in packaging that clearly states the potency so people can make informed choices about what they take.

I keep hearing that it's supposed to be much stronger these days, but my experience is just the opposite.

I was a heavy weed smoker in my young years, smoking standard generic pressbud, and it got me nicely stoned. I even had a couple of years where I was growing my own, so I'm very experienced with fresh homegrown weed, which was beautiful. Tasted great, with a very satisfying intense high. Then I quit smoking for a few decades.

I recently started smoking again in my retirement, and was looking forward to trying this stronger weed I was hearing about. I've tried legal weed from various states, and none of it gets me nearly as stoned as the cheap pressbud of my youth.

This is just anecdotal, but that's been my experience.

Edible packaging informs of THC content in milligrams.

I've been a huge pothead for decades and I honestly haven't noticed an increase in content while smoking regular weed. I think that's the branded stuff that sends you out of orbit.

But if it has changed, that just means I smoke less to get to the high I like by smoking the equivalent of one joint during the day. It's so much less smoke for my lungs this way, I'm not complaining. Lol