It's all purely anecdotal, but as a cannabis smoker of 30+ years that lived in an area with a large variety of cannabis types and strengths, there is definitely truth to 'skunk' causing problems.

I don't believe there is anything special about the makeup of it, other than it's too strong for the way people smoke today. The tolerance range for cannabis is very large. A new smoker can take a single tiny puff and need to take the rest of the day off. A long term user can smoke 5 grams, probably 100x the quantity the new user did, and feel sober within an hour. It's too much build up over time that your brain is never really cleared out. And then you go crazy.