With the increasing relaxation of marijuana laws in various US states and around the world, THC products are becoming more mainstream than ever.

However, when buying weed or anything else containing THC, you need to remember that this is still a drug, and it still needs to be respected – so to help you enjoy your THC safely, in this post, we discuss the THC percentage chart, THC content and weed potency in general.

What is THC?

Before we come to the THC percentage chart, let’s take a step back and ask a more basic question – what is THC?

THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol to give it its full name, is the compound found in the cannabis plant that is mainly responsible for the psychoactive effects of marijuana.

It isn’t the only cannabinoid in cannabis – there are over 100 others – but it’s the one recreational users of cannabis are most interested in since it’s the one that gets you high.

Consequently, it would seem to follow that if THC is the psychoactive compound in weed, then the higher the THC content, the more potent the weed.

As it turns out, this is indeed the case to a certain extent – but it isn’t the whole story, as we’ll see in a moment. But before we come to that, let’s have a look at how much THC cannabis has in it and how you can expect it to affect you when you consume it.

How much THC is in weed?

For the moment, let’s stick to weed – as in marijuana, the dried flowers of the cannabis plant that are meant for smoking.

Smoking marijuana really got going in the 1960s, and back in the 60s, 70s and 80s when your parents or perhaps even your grandparents were doing it, the weed available usually had a THC content of around only 2%.

However, since then, cannabis growers have selectively bred their plants to steadily increase the amount of THC it contains, and modern weed now commonly contains around 10-30% THC.

Knowing how much THC weed contains is important for several reasons.

First, it gives you an idea of the potency of the weed and what kind of effect you can expect from it – this is the same reason you find the percentages of alcohol written on alcoholic beverages because you need to treat a can of beer and a bottle of whisky differently.

However, with the growing trend towards decriminalization and legalization, the permitted amounts of THC may also be regulated by law, so vendors in a particular country or state may only be permitted to sell cannabis products containing up to a certain percentage of THC.

How does the percentage of THC affect your experience?

Now let’s look at how the THC content of weed can affect your experience in the form of a THC percentage chart – and after that, we’ll go on to talk about why seeing things like this can sometimes be a misleading oversimplification.

THC Percentage Chart

% THC	THC in mg/g	Expected effects
0-1.99	0-19.9	None or very mild
2-6.99	20-69.9	Very mild
7-11.99	70-119.9	Mild
12-16.99	120-169.9	Medium
17-19.99	170-190.9	Strong
20+	200+	Very strong

So this all seems very simple, right? Wrong. So now let’s think about why.

The first thing to understand is that if you live in a place where you can buy legal marijuana in a dispensary, the percentage written on the pack is only an estimate with a fairly wide margin of error, and there are several reasons for this.

Variation due to growing conditions and genetics

Although the potency of marijuana is tested before sale to ensure it conforms to local regulations and to provide consumers with a guide to what they are buying, many things can affect the content of the actual weed you have in your hand.

Growing conditions can affect the final potency of a weed plant, and even plants grown in the same field might have different potencies due to slightly different conditions and genetic variation between plants of the same strain.

As a result, unless you test the weed from every single plant you grow, you can’t place an accurate number on how much THC it contains.

The transformation of volatile cannabinoids

This is not all, though.

Cannabinoids are volatile compounds, and they can be affected by things like light, oxygen and humidity, all of which can cause them to convert from one form to another.

All cannabinoids start as the precursor cannabigerolic acid. This then converts into tetrahydrocannabinolic acid, the precursor to THC, along with the precursors to all the other cannabinoids, which in turn convert into the cannabinoids themselves.

However, with time and exposure to light, oxygen and humidity, these all decay further and eventually disappear.

So in short, the THC content of a particular bag of weed can change over time, and how quickly this happens depends a lot on how it is stored.

Even this still doesn’t give you the full picture of the effect weed will have on you, as we’ll see in just a moment – but first, let’s talk a bit about the THC content of other cannabis products.

What about other forms of marijuana?

Long gone are the days when people mainly smoked their weed and may also have occasionally made a few cookies from it – nowadays, cannabis is available for consumption in a whole range of other forms, so how much THC do these usually contain?

1. Distillate

One of the most recent developments in the world of cannabis consumption is the appearance of THC vapes.

These devices allow you to vaporize THC distillate to inhale, and with the advent of legal cannabis, this is becoming an increasingly popular consumption method.

Distillate is THC in its purest form, and these oils only contain a few other ingredients as thickeners. As a result, the THC content is very high, as much as 85-90%.

2. Live resin

Live resin, on the other hand, is produced with an eye to preserving many of the other natural compounds found in cannabis, and as a result, the THC content may sometimes be lower, although it can also be very high – the range can be around 65-95%.

3. Others

Other forms of cannabis for smoking or vaping, such as shatter, crumble, wax, diamonds, budder and hash fall somewhere in the middle of the same range of 65-95%.

4. Edibles

Edibles are usually measured differently – rather than being given a percentage, you are usually given a total weight of THC in the whole edible, and this will be measured in milligrams per gram.

The permitted amounts will vary according to where you are, but a typical maximum will be around 10mg of THC in a 100g edible.

5. Regular vapes

Regular vapes don’t contain THC, so if you want to enjoy the flavors of a vape or a nicotine hit without getting high, this is your best option.

For example, the Jack’s Flask 9000 Puffs disposable vape from Spiritbar provides users with up to 9,000 puffs of high-quality vape juice with 50g/ml of nicotine per device.

It’s currently available in eight exciting and original flavors and gives you an alternative to smoking or vaping THC when it’s not the right moment to get high.

Is THC the only compound that does anything?

So we’ve seen how much THC is present in weed and other cannabis products and how this may vary, but as we’ve alluded, looking at THC content alone doesn’t give you the full picture.

This is because cannabis contains many other compounds, and these can also have a major impact on how you experience your high. Two of the most important are CBD and terpenes, so let’s talk about these next.

CBD

An extremely important cannabinoid found in cannabis is cannabidiol, commonly referred to as CBD. This cannabinoid is often legal in places where THC still isn’t and is thought to have many beneficial medical effects.

Interestingly, it also seems to counteract the effect of THC, so a strain with a high CBD content will not get you as high as one with much lower amounts of CBD, regardless of the amount of THC in the strain.

However, in modern recreational weed, many growers have sought to reduce the amount of CBD as they have tried to increase the THC content in an effort to maximize the high you get from smoking it.

Terpenes

Terpenes are compounds that are found in lots of plants, and they are responsible for many of the aromas and tastes we associate with these plants.

For example, pinene is the terpene that creates the distinctive scent of pine while limonene is the terpene associated with the smell and taste of citrus fruits such as lemon or lime.

Both of these terpenes are also present in the cannabis plant along with a particularly rich assortment of others, and these are what give cannabis its unmistakable odor.

However, terpenes don’t just affect the smell. Due to the so-called “entourage effect”, terpenes, alongside THC, CBD and all the other cannabinoids, combine to create different highs depending on the type of weed you’re smoking.

For example, the well-known differences between the energetic effects of smoking sativa-based strains and the more chilled high associated with indica-dominant strains are likely to be partly due to the suite of terpenes they contain.

Similarly, the tastes, aromas and highs associated with various individual strains of weed are likely to be affected by the combination of the terpenes and the other cannabinoids they contain as much as purely by the percentage of THC they pack.

THC is important – but it isn’t everything

So as we’ve seen, the THC content of weed is important, but a simple percentage chart doesn’t tell you the whole story – since the other cannabinoids and the blend of terpenes contained in any particular strain also have a role to play.

As a result, you shouldn’t only look for weed with the highest THC content just to get as high as possible – because weed with more interesting cannabinoid and terpene profiles can often provide richer, more rewarding or more enjoyable experiences.

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