A joint that was not rolled by Cheech or Chong (see above) contains roughly .32 grams of weed, according to stats published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence. Who cares? Well, you if you
Who cares? Well, you if you’re a guy who smokes lots of joints. Also, nerdy types and policy wonks who are trying to figure out how much people are consuming to see if it has lasting or negative effects on public safety or taxation care, too.
How’d the eggheads come to the .32 grams figure? Welp, they asked a bunch of potheads to estimate the size of a joint by comparing it to household objects. It didn’t work out so well because, well, potheads. Instead, as told to the Washington Post:
[Reearchers] gathered high-quality data on over 10,000 people arrested for marijuana possession in various U.S. cities between 2000 and 2010. This data came from a now-defunct federal program known as ADAM, which interviewed arrestees in jail about their drug use. It contains detailed information on the quantities of marijuana people were caught with, as well as the price they reported paying for it. “Some arrestees report the weight of loose marijuana purchased and the purchase price, while other arrestees report the number of joints purchased and the purchase price,” [the researchers] write.
When they carried the one and moved the decimal point they came up with an estimate of .32 grams. So that $20 you spent on a gram will get you three joints. Not a great return on investment, which is why you should probably fork over $50 for an eighth instead. Or go to vaping, or edibles, or grow your own. Anyway, more from the WP:
If that number’s accurate, it underscores just how cheap it is to get stoned on weed, relative to the cost of intoxication via other means such as alcohol. Highly potent weed — 18 percent THC content — is being sold legally in Washington at about $95 dollars an ounce. There are 28 grams in an ounce. So that ounce could be turned into roughly 84 joints, each enough to “get three naïve users wrecked out of their gourds (if you’ll allow me the use of technical terminology) for about three hours each,” according to drug policy expert Mark Kleiman.
What Does This Mean For Consumers?
This study has implications for both consumers and dispensary owners alike. For consumers, it suggests that they have likely been smoking smaller amounts of marijuana than they had thought they were: if you’ve been assuming a 0.5 gram joint contains half a gram of cannabis, you’re actually only getting around 0.3 grams per joint! For dispensary owners, this information can help them better understand the size and contents of their products so they can provide an accurate representation to customers when marketing their products or providing information about pricing.
