A new survey commissioned by Royal Queen Seeds found cannabis consumers are deeply concerned about pesticides, broadly supportive of home grow and increasingly willing to choose cleaner weed over stronger weed.
The weed industry has spent years training people to chase one thing: higher THC.
That pitch may be getting old.
A new Harris Poll conducted online on behalf of Royal Queen Seeds suggests cannabis consumers are growing more skeptical of potency for potency’s sake, and more focused on what is actually in the weed they buy. Among the biggest findings, 72% of cannabis consumers said they are very concerned about pesticides in the cannabis they consume, while 67% said they would choose weaker cannabis grown without pesticides over stronger cannabis with higher THC.
That is not a minor shift in taste. That is a shot at one of the laziest habits in legal weed marketing.
For years, high THC became the industry’s favorite shortcut. Stronger meant better. Bigger number, bigger flex. But if consumers are now willing to trade some potency for cleaner cannabis, that whole formula starts to look a lot shakier.
Or, put less politely, kind of stupid.
The survey was fielded March 17-19, 2026 among 2,017 U.S. adults age 21 and older, including 851 cannabis consumers. It was commissioned by Royal Queen Seeds, one of the world’s largest seed banks, so the data should be read as a snapshot of consumer sentiment, not the final word on the U.S. market. Still, some of the findings are hard to ignore.
The most interesting part is not the headline-friendly weed-versus-alcohol stat, though that one will get attention. According to the poll, 76% of cannabis consumers said they prefer the high of cannabis over the buzz of alcohol. Among respondents ages 21 to 34, that rose to 81%.
But that is old news, really. …
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Author: Javier Hasse / High Times
