Avani Dilger, a licensed counselor specializing in addiction, has worked with young people in Boulder County for decades. She runs a private practice and Natural Highs, a nonprofit she founded to help teens choose alternatives to drugs and alcohol. Recently, she noticed a change in how local young people are affected by THC products as the potency of those products has risen.
Dilger has observed more Boulder teens developing dependencies on THC products, complete with withdrawal symptoms that manifest as mental health issues such as anxiety and depression.
“We have never seen anything like this with people who use marijuana,” Dilger said. “I have worked for over 20 years with people who have used marijuana and who have gotten addicted to marijuana, but the effects that we’re seeing now, I have not seen that before.”
As part of her substance abuse prevention efforts, Dilger speaks with classrooms across Boulder and the state about the risks of THC-induced psychosis. She explains to middle and high school students that what begins as anxiety and depression can quickly escalate to hearing things, seeing things and intense paranoia. When she asks if any students have experienced these symptoms, more than half the hands go up in some high school classrooms.
Dilger and other health care professionals interviewed for this story attribute this change to the rising THC potency in some cannabis products. In the 1990s, marijuana seized by the Drug Enforcement Agency had an average THC potency of about 4%, according to a peer-reviewed scientific study. Some Boulder dispensaries offer vape cartridges with potencies nearing 90%, several businesses told Boulder Reporting Lab. Vapes use a battery to heat THC concentrates into a vapor that can be inhaled.
“It’s a totally different drug,” Dilger said.
Dilger described a cycle that can keep people hooked: “They keep using THC because, in the moment, it feels that cannabis is calming their symptoms down. But of course, the symptoms get worse.”
Frustrated by the availability of high-potency products to Boulder County’s youth, last month Anna Segur, a member of Boulder Valley School District’s accountability committee and a BVSD parent, requested the city’s Cannabis Licensing Advisory Board ban the sale of THC concentrates in the City of Boulder. Concentrates separate the psychoactive aspects of the cannabis plant from excess plant material, increasing potency to upwards of 60% to 90%, according to dispensaries in Boulder. Segur’s recommendation seeks to include shatter, wax, resin, oil and prefilled THC cartridges.
“It’s super easy for kids to get a hold of these products in Boulder,” she told Boulder Reporting Lab. “I got fed up.”
Boulder’s volunteer Cannabis Licensing Advisory Board is expected to address Segur’s policy suggestion at its August meeting. Like many of Boulder’s boards and commissions, the cannabis board does not create rules or regulations but instead provides recommendations to the city council. Yet even the council may not have the authority to ban the sale of high-potency THC products or cap drug amounts, according to Boulder’s mayor, Aaron Brockett. He told Boulder Reporting Lab he was unsure which regulatory measures cities could use to enact such a ban but expressed interest in the board’s investigation into the topic.
At the state level, there have been attempts to regulate THC potency. In 2021, legislation was introduced to cap potencies at 15%. It eventually passed with some regulation restricting how Coloradans under 21 could access medical cannabis, but all potency regulation was cut.
Members of Boulder’s cannabis board said they’re not surprised the issue is gaining attention locally.
“There’s a number of adolescents and young adults who have developed significant problems,” said Tom Kunstman, a pediatrician and chair of the cannabis board, speaking in his personal capacity. “That’s why these parents are up in arms, because it’s happened to their families.” He pointed out the lack of research on high-potency THC products. “As a pediatrician, I am concerned that it’s a problem that’s being unearthed” only now.
Brian Keegan, vice chair of the board and a professor of information science at CU Boulder, also told Boulder Reporting Lab he was aware of growing concern around the effect of concentrates on developing brains. He added that he was wary of banning any cannabis products and returning to “reefer madness” tactics. Instead, he said a cultural shift is needed around cannabis to better convey its risks to young people.
“If you want to protect your brain, you wear a helmet. You don’t consume concentrates. You don’t do hard drugs,” Keegan said. “This is what you do to protect your brain when you’re a young person.”
Keegan criticized state and municipal efforts to keep cannabis products away from young people, noting they’re easily accessible to those under 21 through social media. A failed state bill this year aimed to restrict social media platforms from targeting young people, including removing users selling illicit substances or firearms.
“Legalization of these kinds of recreational drugs always needs to be supported and augmented through greater investments in social support, public health, education and prevention, especially for young people,” Keegan said.
Science on high-potency THC in young people: ‘The cart is kind of before the horse’
THC is the main psychoactive compound in cannabis. While many studies have shown benefits for symptoms like chronic pain, chemotherapy-induced nausea and muscle spasms, federally funded studies often use cannabis with THC levels around 6%, leading to limited understanding of high-potency cannabis’ effects. A 2021 study defined high-potency THC as flower with more than 20% potency and concentrates like wax, resins and vape cartridges with potencies exceeding 60%.
Newer research has explored connections between high-potency THC use and disturbances in developing brains.
A 2023 study suggested that 20% of schizophrenia cases among young men might be prevented by avoiding chronic cannabis use. A 2024 commentary published in The American Journal of Psychiatry concluded that use of high-potency THC products in adolescence can have lifelong mental health impacts, including increased risk of suicidal behavior and attempts.
Cinnamon Bidwell, a cannabis researcher and professor at CU Boulder, told Boulder Reporting Lab that science is trying to catch up to the cannabis products available in Colorado dispensaries.
“It would have been better to know all this before we put it on the market, and were like, ‘Let’s let kids be our petri dish,” she said. “The cart is kind of before the horse. It’s already out there.”
She said there isn’t data to support a potency limit or concentrate ban, but the lack of evidence linking high-potency cannabis to mental health issues may be due to limited research. This research is difficult to conduct due to ethical issues and challenges in controlling for external factors, such as self-medicating with cannabis by those prone to mental health issues.
“Unfortunately, when it comes to mental health, when it comes to substance use, we all want one clean story,” she said. “And I’m not saying there isn’t something there. But the data we have are not strong enough for me to say there’s a true causal connection.”
Bidwell’s lab is investigating the effects of high-potency products on adults. “My guess is that high potency creates quicker and stronger dependence,” she said. She stressed that young people should not use cannabis recreationally.
Robin Noble, another member of the cannabis board, has a son who developed cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome — a vomiting syndrome caused by prolonged cannabis use. While at Boulder High in 2016, he started using cannabis. Noble didn’t think much of it. “I used marijuana in high school, and I just didn’t think it was a big deal.”
Her son’s personality changed as he continued to use what Noble found out were high-potency products. “His dad and I were just so surprised,” Noble said, “because what we were hearing from our friends who were really excited about legalization was this was medicine, and it was really healthy.”
After stopping use, Noble’s son resumed using high-potency products and began experiencing severe vomiting for 12 to 16 hours each time, leading to 11 hospitalizations over nine months. Initially in denial, her son eventually stopped using.
“He gave up the marijuana, and within two weeks the vomiting stopped,” Noble said.
Timothy Meyers, chair of emergency medicine at Foothills Community Hospital, told Boulder Reporting Lab that cases of cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome began increasing with legalization.
“It’s something we’re well aware of in the emergency department,” Meyers said. “If someone comes into the ER with unexplained vomiting, everyone is asking, ‘Are you a daily marijuana user or close to a daily marijuana user?’ Because we’ve seen how linked that habit is with that symptom.”
Meyers noted that cases of cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome are rare compared to the number of cannabis users and mostly occur in heavy users. He added that it primarily affects males aged 20 to 40, the same group that tends to present with the even rarer cannabis-induced psychosis, at Foothills Hospital’s emergency room.
Teachers and health workers at Boulder Valley School District are aware of the issues with high-potency THC. In 2021, the district published an article highlighting concerns about increased use of these products. Paula Waldhoff, a nurse at Fairview High School, said she noticed a change back in 2019 when high-potency THC vape cartridges became more common.
“When it first started happening, we really didn’t know what it was,” Waldhoff said. “These kids looked like they were overdosing and we’d send them to the ER and they would say, ‘All we tested was marijuana.’ And we’d think, ‘How can that be?’ Because it really looked like a much harder drug.”
Since then, Waldhoff’s concern has grown. She worries about the appeal of flavored vapes and branding that targets young people. Despite seeing students start using at younger ages, Waldhoff said a bright spot is the acknowledgment that cannabis can be addictive.
“Even like five years ago, people thought you could not get addicted to cannabis,” she said. “But because of the way it’s engineered now, it’s certainly happening, and a lot faster too.”
Several parents told Boulder Reporting Lab they complained to the Boulder Police Department about stores known to sell cannabis products to minors. Segur, who submitted the policy recommendation to the cannabis board, felt the police’s response to these complaints was inadequate. “We don’t see the same level of enforcement happening for dispensaries” compared to alcohol, Segur said.
The department conducted compliance checks at the shops in question, it said. According to a police report obtained by Boulder Reporting Lab through a public records request, the investigation could not verify the allegations, though it is considered ongoing.
While safety for kids may have sparked the letter, Segur also suggests that adult users shouldn’t have access to high-potency THC products either. She wrote to the board that other states, such as Vermont, and countries, like Uruguay, have imposed caps on legal cannabis products. Segur recommends a warning on products with THC levels higher than 30%, stating, “This is a high potency product and may increase your risk for acute psychosis and/or schizophrenia.”
Whitney Sherriff, a manager at The Farm dispensary in Boulder, said regular customers tend to fall into two categories. One is more concerned about product quality rather than THC potency. “But we definitely get more cartridge people,” she said, “who want the highest possible percentage.” The Farm offers a vape cartridge that is 87% THC.
The Farm also has older shoppers looking for products with THC potencies similar to those from the past, Sherriff added. “We have a joint that’s like 7%, and there are people who want it. It’s just not as popular.”
When asked about the potential impacts of high-potency THC products, Sherriff said some conversations occur among coworkers, but none with customers.
“We’re a recreational dispensary,” she said. “None of us have a medical background, so we really can’t comment on it.”
Truman Bradley, executive director of the Marijuana Industry Group, a cannabis advocacy organization, believes banning cannabis products would drive their supply underground, leading to unregulated and untaxed sales. “You are rolling out the red carpet to cartels,” he said.
Bradley noted that concentrates are sold because there is demand, and if Boulder bans them, people will buy elsewhere, bolstering illicit channels that don’t care about selling to minors like the regulated industry does. He emphasized that education is key to reducing cannabis use among kids, citing the decline in cigarette use due to education efforts.
“We all want no kids to consume any cannabis,” Bradley said. “I don’t care if it’s high concentration, low concentration or anything in between.” He also stressed the importance of parents locking up their cannabis and discussing the risks with their children, as many students admit to accessing cannabis by stealing from their parents.
“It’s the age old problem of, ‘kids want forbidden fruit,’ so how do you have respectful and age-appropriate conversation with youth?”
Education: A path forward, for now
For some parents dealing with a worst-case scenario, THC products are seen at least as the trigger, although causation is difficult to establish. Several spoke to Boulder Reporting Lab anonymously. Last summer, an Erie mother watched as her son became a different person. “His behavior changed, becoming more angry, agitated and withdrawn,” the mother shared with Boulder Reporting Lab. Later that summer, he experienced a psychotic event. “He was cutting his wrists while I was on the phone with 911, trying to kill himself,” she said.
She found high-potency THC products in his room, and his urine tests revealed THC levels over 1,000 nanograms per milliliter. Fifty nanograms is required for a positive test. After another attempted suicide earlier this year, her son is now in a residential rehab out of state due to a lack of available beds in Colorado. A Colorado nonprofit, Johnny’s Ambassadors, was formed by parents of a teen who took his life, they believe, due to the effect of high-potency products.
“I would rather just get rid of the concentrates and go back to selling flower,” said the Erie mother, “but I know that’s not possible.”
Noble of the cannabis board, like others, believes the best path forward for now is educating parents and kids about the potential impacts of high-potency THC products, in part because, due to their popularity and the clout of the cannabis industry, they are unlikely to go anywhere any time soon.
“Kids are smart, and they don’t want to hurt themselves,” Noble said. “We need to provide them and their families with more information and clearly communicate that these products can cause significant, long-term harm when used by young people.”
Not this nonsense, AGAIN. If we ban high THC , you’d better ban liquor too.
Again, we have more parents who want the state to ban something rather than do the hard work of actually being parents. And what’s amazing is that they think it’ll work too, like there won’t be black market Vitamin E oil cut carts rushing in to fill that void and instead of Jimmy having just a bad time, now he’s died of popcorn lung. Nice work, folks.
You are well over the target. I never really bought into the marijuana as a gateway drug until I started to witness it first hand in Boulder. The potency of the weed clouds the brain and changes judgement. The next thing you know it’s on to meth and fentanyl. Along with Trump Derangement and the goofy Mass Psychosis that enveloped Boulder during the covid years, legalized weed really changed the place. Boulder went from being a fairly friendly, laid back and safe community to a gritty, edgy, paranoid and unsafe place in just a few years time. Honest crime stats are difficult to find, but if you find them you’ll discover that crime rates in Boulder and other Front Range communities were steady and low for decades prior to 2012, since 2012 they have risen dramatically. Weed was legalized in CO in 2012. Draw your own conclusions, but legalizing super-potent weed was a poor choice in hindsight.
As it turns out, the National Academies of Science published a significant report in 2017 looking at all the peer reviewed literature on the known health effects of cannabis. There are indeed findings of effects on the developing adolescent brain. And clearly more research is needed. Here is the link for those who are interested. https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/24625/the-health-effects-of-cannabis-and-cannabinoids-the-current-state
Here we go again.
A ban on concentrates solves nothing but put more sketchy vapes in the drug dealers hands, parents need to be held accountable and parent their kids, we need a new education around cannabis in schools. When can see the benefits of good drug education when you look at teen cigarette use. Now that all these vape bans have gone through the black market is flooded with fake vapes getting kids sick at rates we have never seen one can only come to the conclusion that probation is just causing more problems than solutions by looking at are past experiences with probation.
I wish more research would go into what concentrate is causing chs. Everyone I’ve met working at a dispensary who got chs smoked really low quality concentrate and I really think that’s the issue to tackle not a ban. I don’t even think most people realize that those carts are made from really bad starting material like stuff covered in fungus/mold that failed testing cleaned up by a radiation machine to pass testing you get two shot to try and pass testing.. Then its blasted with ethanol/butane/propane to make the distillate usually flavored with botanical terps sourced outside the cannabis plant. Then there’s this wax/sugar shit that’s sold for under $15 gram god help people smoking that stuff. I have a major feeling that this is the major problem we’re facing with cannabis no one is talking about it and will get swept under the rug with a ban leading to a underground market filled with these horrible products and more people will get sick. Especially when the legal market is failing to keep people safe with recalls to products that were sold a year plus containing chemicals like methylene chloride or a dead rat (it’s on Reddit twice at magnolia rd)why no news outlet is ever talking about all the recalls going on is beyond me, our current system is failing us and we need real journalism on it. Not blowing up some lady on a war path because she got her son sick by not paying attention to the cannabis use she was condoning. The real story is these corporations producing low quality products cleaned with radiation and sold on the shelves to consumers blindly especially now that starting July these corporations will have less testing requirements if they have a haccp yet if you look at the recalls going on every other week it’s from this vertically integrated companies that have haccp. So now even more bad products will be hitting the shelves having god knows what effects on the consumers. Consumers need to be informed about their weed being treated with radiation and the effects that has on the body!
Makes perfect sense. Let’s make more rules for the people who aren’t already following the rules that are in place to protect them from their own ignorant selves while simultaneously making things more difficult for those who DO follow rules and happen to need this level of medicine for legit medical conditions that western medicine providers have nothing for. ::sarcasm alert:: Maybe we need to ban social media and the internet too… just look at all the bad trends that have happened since these came along. Truly… Where have all the thinking people gone?
I just moved from Boulder. 2 years ago dispensaries started selling this hemp based cannabis & they spray it with Delta 8 & THC/a. It’s not real marijuana anymore. All dispensaries need to be shut down and return marijuana to the Black Market. The Government allows this, they regulate and tax it. It’s a huge problem that needs to be stopped. Marijuana never hurt anybody
A ban on high potency THC concentrates is way overdue. Thank you to Mr Drugan for this in depth report of the current effort to educate the public about a local and immediate health crises impacting large numbers of Boulder Co families and teens. For those reading the headline and posting Pavlovian responses of “regulations are for losers”, I urge you to consider actually reading the article and then perhaps do further research. The high potency products being sold to Boulder Co youth at alarming rates are simply not products that should be sold to anyone. And despite arguments to the contrary, the thc concentrate products are certainly not products that voters approved to legalize either. Reflexive arguments against regulation simply don’t acknowledge the toxic sludge 100% of Boulder dispensaries are pedaling to our youth. There is not a single dispensary that has not sold this latest version of “crack” aka “crack dabs” “dabs” aka “cannabis meth” to underage kids knowingly and unknowingly countless times over the last 10 years. NOT 1.
The average citizen had no idea what was happening with the crack cocaine epidemic, no idea what was happening with the opioid crises and no idea what vaping was doing to peoples lungs. That is until so many died or were crippled and families ruined. The average Boulder Co citizen has no idea what our kids are being exposed to and what has happened to this industry. An industry that has devolved into a race to the bottom fueled by profit over regard for safety and ethics or community responsibility. An industry responsible for the funding of the very organization created to oversee it. Think about that. The Marijuana Enforcement Division (MED) is funded entirely by marijuana industry revenue. The Colorado MJ industry is responsible for taking a good thing and absolutely ruining it. I voted for legalization. I will likely go to my grave knowing that was the single biggest piece of mistaken legislation I was ever involved with passing.
There is zero need or purpose for 90 percent of the bastardized crank sold at Colorado dispensaries. ZERO. Please stop with the bullshit arguments that regulating crack THC and it’s derivatives will drive the product underground. It won’t. And to the gentleman shameless enough to suggest a vote to limit product potency would play into the hands of the cartels, we all see how comfortable you are acknowledging how close you and your industry really are to the bottom feeding filth that crawls amongst the darkest corners of our existence. We also see you have a dubious relationship with logic.
And for gods sake stop acting like the THC products being sold are medicine. They aren’t. And it’s not even close. And they are addictive; as addictive as Nicotine is (for many.) And they make people sick. And they make people mentally ill. And the long term problems created can’t balance the small amount of short term affects people use them for. And the studies are piling up now showing how dangerous these high potency products are. And the physicians, the first responders, the nurses, the scientists, the researchers, the teachers, the parents, the mental health professionals, the substance abuse community, and the teens…all know this. And the teens all know the adults, like some here in the comments, are once again failing the kids. Here we go again indeed.