You can take our THC, but you can never take our FREEDOM.

Question: Do you think Colorado's weed is too strong?

Sure, it's probably laid you out a time or two, but if you're anything like the average smoker, you've tolerated it many more than not. To hell with tolerance though; enjoyed is a better word. You enjoyed the high. How if affects you and how high you get all depends on the strain and what's going on in your body that day.

Well, not everyone agrees with this. In fact, certain people think Colorado's world-renowned, industrial-strength Hulk-weed is WAY too strong for safe use. And now, they've gone ahead and proposed a ballot and an amendment to a bill in the state House that would cap the THC potency of recreational weed and its affiliated products at a ridiculously low level; one that is far below pot's average THC potency.

The initiative would limit the potency of “marijuana and marijuana products” to a measly 15 percent or 16 percent THC. That's a bit lower than the average THC potency of the cannabis flower (17.1 percent), but a galaxy's width lower than for extracts, which average about 62.1 THC. It would also require all recreational pot to be sold in child-resistant, opaque containers, and that edibles only be served in single-serving amounts. A single serving amount would contain just 10 mg of THC.

But wait! There's more!

In addition to castrating legal weed's potency, the measure would also require that recreational labeling essentially tell you that using marijuana is the worst thing you could ever do.

As The Cannabist reports, "The initiative would also require all retail marijuana products to contain labels identifying the potency and providing warnings about  'identified health risks,' including 'birth defects and reduced brain development,' risks to the brain and behavioral development of babies, breathing difficulties, 'permanent loss of abilities,' mood swings, impaired thinking and body movement, depression, temporary paranoia, anxiety, and 'potential for long-term addiction.'"

Of course, none of these things have been clinically proven. Some studies have shown a correlation with some of these symptoms in some people, but it would be a grave and irresponsible mistake to apply them so generally on recreational weed labels when there has been nowhere near enough data to back those claims up. In fact, an equal amount of science has demonstrated resounding positive benefits of marijuana use. So, putting fear-based and inaccurate wording seems more like a tactic to dissuade people from using it at all then to encourage them to use it safely.

There's some clemency here, however: while these proposed changes would amend the state constitution, they'd only apply to recreational weed, not medical. Medical weed can get you as high as it wants to, forever and always.

Supporters of the proposed measure, which was introduced by Republican state Rep. Kathleen Conti, say "they’re being cautious [with THC levels] until more research has been done and protecting the brain development of adolescents."

“All the studies that have been done on THC levels have been done on THC levels between 2 and 8 percent,” said Conti to The Cannabist. “Most of the marijuana coming in now, the flowers are being rated at a THC count of about 17 percent on average, so this is dramatically over, and we really don’t know that we’ve gotten the true feel on the health risks associated with that marijuana.”

That's a nice thought, but opponents to the measure, aka everyone who smokes and sells weed, say it's unreasonable and could strangle some of the legal cannabis industry’s most popular categories.

If you're thinking what we're thinking, that a measure like this could wipe out concentrates from the market, you're spot-on.

“We would have to dilute our products to get them to 15 percent,” said Dabble Extracts' Josh Hindi. He estimates his extracts test between 70-80 percent THC and cater to patients who prefer the more potent product.

And really, what's wrong with that kind of preference? People can chose to consume and purchase higher ABV booze if they want to, despite the fact that it's proven to cause fatalities whereas weed has never caused one. They sell Everclear in stores, and that shit blinds people. People can also chose to opt for higher prescription strength drugs, the same legal pharmaceuticals that are the leading cause of accident-based death in the U.S. Yep; more than car accidents or guns.

So, if weed is both recreational like alcohol, and medical like pills, why shouldn't people have the option to chose the THC potency that makes them feel the best?

Don't even get us started on the whole question of how THC strength affects people in different ways depending on their individual tolerance and biology. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to see that a THC potency cap would make it so some people reap no high at all. And what's the point of even having recreational marijuana if it doesn't get you high? This could be a huge loss for the weed industry whose customers rely on them to provide the THC potency they need. What's stopping people who can't get the potency they want at dispensaries from going to the black market? Or cartels from capitalizing on this potential THC cap by producing extra high potency bud?

"I don’t think a lot of thought was put into the proposals,” said iComply CEO Mark Slaugh, who is also the executive director of the Cannabis Business Alliance. “This bill threatens to wipe out most infused product manufacturers, and its language is unclear as to what to do with edibles.”

To us, this measure feels like marijuana opponents trying to squash legal weed any way they can. They lost the war on medical, they lost it on recreational, and they've lost nearly every attempt to regulate it into meaningless oblivion. Trying to cap recreational weed's THC content feels like the last, resigned ankle nips of a dying animal who is trying to inflict some harm on you even though you've already sealed its fate.

But in weird times like these, it's important to remember that this is just a proposed measure that hasn't even made it into a ballot yet. In order to qualify for ballot status, it must survive a series of hearings, then proponents must collect 98,492 signatures from registered Colorado voters. It's just another, endearingly sad attempt to criminalize a legal substance.

We're not saying that safe THC concentrations and accurate labels shouldn't be a priority, but if the weed opponents are going to push the industry in that direction, we're sure there are much better ways than the ones proposed on this piece of toilet paper.

Photo cred: Daily Leaf Deals