Why does Ireland produce stronger cannabis?

Apparently cannabis cultivated in Ireland is dangerously potent compared to the stuff that's imported from abroad. We delved a little deeper - but we didn't inhale.

By Shane Breslin

So I see that Ireland produces stronger cannabis than those pesky foreigners. The rest of the world has been kicking us when we're down the past few years, so is this something we should be proud of?

Eh, not exactly. It’s not something we – or the more illicit amongst us, anyway – actually set out to do. But it’s true, it turns out that among the many attributes of the Irish climate is the wherewithal to grow cannabis plants so pungent they could knock you over. Literally.

Let me guess, it’s because hash plants are being grown indoors here, yeah? That the particular microclimate created by a locked and bolted room in the upstairs of a house in the arse end of Cork is what gives Irish cannabis its pungency...

You'd think that. The only things you can grow outdoors in Ireland are spuds, weeds and horrible apples, unless you’re in Wexford, where by some quirk of geology strawberries seem to be a big, er, growth industry. But no, it's not necessarily the case that it's behind-locked-doors-and-windows syndrome. Studies of home-produced cannabis in the UK and Holland also suggest that the imported variety is less potent. Just like a keg of the black stuff might not be at its best when it pitches up on the other side of the world, it seems that cannabis doesn’t take too well to travelling either.

And who’s telling us all this?

It’s all come out in a report commissioned by the National Advisory Committee on Drugs (NACD). Of rakes of drug seizures made by the Gardai between September and December 2010, a total of 20 samples, split evenly between herbal cannabis plants and cannabis resin, were analysed by the Forensic Science Laboratory, and they discovered that Irish-cultivated plants are stronger, sometimes as much as three times stronger, than their weaker, imported rivals.

So people who get their hands on this stuff will get a more pronounced high. Presumably that just means this report has given home producers - excuse the pun - a shot in the arm?



Well, that’s one way of looking at it, but the NACD is telling us there’s a real danger attached to this more potent stuff. As Jennifer Aniston might say, here comes the science bit. In home-cultivated plants there are higher volumes of THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), which is the main psychoactive component in cannabis, and reduced quantities of CBD (cannabidiol), which tends to counteract it.

As the NACD report puts it, in the peculiarly jargon-filled way of scientific journals: “This is of much concern as a recent study has shown that there is a higher risk of psychosis in those who smoke high-potency cannabis products. Whilst it is the high THC and frequency of use of these products that may cause psychotic episodes, it is also thought to be attributed to the amount of CBD or lack thereof, in these products, as CBD is thought to decrease the effects of THC when ingested together.”

So Irish weed could, quite literally, drive you mad.