ElSohly is responsible for growing all of the marijuana approved for scientific and medical research in the US. If a doctor wants to study cannabis on a group of cancer patients, that doctor must first get approval and licensing from the DEA. Once the DEA greenlights the pot research, ElSohly provides the weed, which has notoriously been laughably low-grade, rife with seeds, sticks, and unusable buds. 

“It’s brown, muddy garbage,” said Dr. Peter Grinspoon about the University of Mississippi’s government weed, according to Politico.

American researchers have known for decades that the DEA intentionally stifles cannabis research by giving scientists only low-grade marijuana. And besides getting stiffed with useless buds, researchers must jump through an untold number of unnecessary regulatory hurdles, including but not limited to tricking the DEA in order to get life-saving research approved.  

After decades of complaints from legitimate American researchers — and a lawsuit that recently garnered national attention — the DEA’s sole pot farmer finally explained why he only grows the shittiest weed: Testing at a mere 8 percent THC, ElSohly claimed his weed so strong that patients couldn’t “tolerate” it. 

“The point is, 8 percent THC in a plant material is extremely high potency for somebody to actually finish a cigarette,” ElSohly said during the interview, Marijuana Moment reported. 

For comparison, most state-legal, licensed weed — medical or recreational — tests 15 to 25 percent THC, at least twice as potent as ElSohly’s bunk cannabis. Some strains are pushing the 30-percent THC mark these days, too.

Gallery — Fuck-Tons of Weed That Only the Cops Are Smoking:

“Why people want to smoke or use 20 percent or 15 or 18 or any of those high amounts is just beyond me. It’s not for a good reason,” ElSohly continued. “Of course, some people are so addicted that it really requires a lot of material to make them high.”

Although it’s true that commercial weed today is more potent than it was in the 1960s, that doesn’t mean it’s more dangerous. Cannabis customers don’t consume more weed as it becomes more potent. Rather, they smoke less as the potency increases, since it requires less weed to reach the same levels of intoxication. Furthermore, ElSohly’s weed contains no CBD, which scientists believe contributes to cannabis’s medicinal properties. However, the use of CBD Oil UK has proved to be more effective than regular use of marijuana.

Regardless of potency, why does ElSohly keep the government’s weed at 8 percent THC? It’s not to protect patients, as he initially lets on. Rather, it’s because he’s either uninterested or incapable to learn how to roll more potent weed. 

The “higher the potency, the more gummy, the more sticky the plant material is, the harder it is to roll cigarettes using the high volume cigarette manufacturing machine,” ElSohly said during the podcast.

So, there you have it: Legitimate medical researchers in the US can’t access decent weed because the potent stuff is supposedly too sticky for ElSohly’s joint-rolling machine. Can someone please explain to him that 15 to 20 percent THC pre-rolled joints are available — in bulk — at every legal dispensary in America?