As far as the pissing contest: Hey, you're the one who wanted to try and call me out cause you didn't like what I was saying. I first experimented with drugs at the age of ten, by the time I was fourteen or fifteen I was the local connection. I was third in line in the distribution chain; grower, to my supplier, then from me to my people, and finally the general public. I also supplied Valium and amphetamines and just about anything else if I found a good deal on at the time.
In 1986 I moved to Arizona for the first time and became involved with a group of one-percenters that ran the methamphetamine trade in the area, it was actually a cooperative effort between some very notorious gangs. I ended up addicted to meth and coke, but I was known to take whatever was available. The fact that there wasn't much heroin/opiate use in the crowd I hung with was probably the only reason I didn't end up hooked on that crap too. The order of the day was meth, to get me awake, coke, to make me feel great, alcohol, marijuana and any type of downer/sedative (if available) when I finally started coming back down (meth, makes sleep impossible long after the high is gone). In my time I've done all kinds of amphetamines, including snorting and injecting them, I've smoked, injected and snorted cocaine numerous times and done the same with opium a handful of times. I've done LSD and psilocybin more times then I can count, been dusted once (was given PCP laced marijuana without being told) and marijuana was at least a two-to-three time a day activity for years. I've tried mescaline, used Valium and for a short time I even had access to Quaaludes. Of course I've also gotten into nitrous oxide (laughing gas) and amyl/butyl nitrates (rush) a few times as well and have tried mixing different drugs in all sorts of combinations.
I know what it's like to feel short of breath and have stabbing chest pains and still be reaching for the freebase pipe; imagine that, being willing to take another hit even though you know you're dying. Rather then thinking "Oh God! I've overdosed" I was trying to crawl to the nightstand and get another hit. When I recovered that was one of my epiphany moments, I realized I had come to love the drugs even more then living and I could finally see just how twisted and wrong that was. So your assumption that I have no experience with drugs has no merit whatsoever. My opinions are based in both technical book knowledge and tons of real life experience. When I'm outside my field of expertise I shut up or say," uh, I don't know", drugs and the effects of drugs, physiologically, psychologically and socially ARE one of my fields of expertise.
Actually, the aforementioned strains contained roughly .05-06 THC content in the 60's and 70's. In the late 70's and early 80's they were producing greenhouse grown marijuana in the Northern U.S. The climate is bad for outdoor growth, so indoor greenhouse's we're set up using the latest in agricultural science to produce marijuana with up to .10 to .14 THC content. The standard operation was to rent or buy a house seal it with plastic and set up halide lighting, watering systems, and pump the growing area full of carbon dioxide; I'm sure they still do it even today, it produces a much better product then outdoor growth (much more predictable results in yield and quality).
I don't mean to be offensive but the quality of the common marijuana in the Southern U.S. market (at least when I was into that scene) was sub par. We used to call it "dirt weed" or "headache weed" (as you ended up with a headache if you smoked enough to get a decent buzz). You may not have ever encountered anything with a real kick to it yet. When I moved to Arizona I found the quality of what I got in Arizona was nowhere near what I was getting in Seattle. Oddly enough, Wisconsin is also known to produce some high quality stuff, most people think of Hawaii and California as the hemp states, who'd have guessed?
