So, you may have seen stores and signs popping up over the last couple years for Cannabis Dispensaries in states like ours (North Carolina), which do not have a medical or adult-use cannabis program.  How can this be, you ask, I thought it was illegal?

Well (and this may be old news to some, but I think information is a good thing), what Mitch Mcconnell and his friends did in the 2018 Farm Bill, which opened the hemp thing up at the national level, was write the law to state that Hemp was Hemp, and NOT CANNABIS, if it contained less than .3% DELTA 9 THC by weight.

Delta 9 THC (∆9 THC) is the ‘classic’ THC, the one that got you high from weed.  Putting aside the common confusion that Delta 9 THC is somehow different from ‘WEED THC’ (it’s not), let’s dig into what’s actually in cannabis flowers.

Cannabis flowers DO NOT produce Delta 9 THC in any meaningful quantity.  They produce ∆9 THCA.  THCA is the acid form of THC, and is not bioavailble, meaning that you could take as much as you want, but it won’t do much.  The flower we grow for our full spectrum CBD products does not contain much CBD either, it contains CBDA, which again, is not bioavailble.

So how does cannabis get you high?  Because when you apply heat to ∆9 THCA, it decarboxylates the THCA into ∆9 THC, which is very bioavailable.  In the extraction process for our flower, it is heated along the way which turns the CBDA and THCA into CBD and THC.

So when someone smokes cannabis, the THCA which is present IN ALL CANNABIS, turns into regular THC and gets to work doing things inside your body.  All products that contain THC or CBD in their bioavailable forms are decarboxylated though smoking, vaping, or heating while making edibles.  So all cannabis is techincally ‘THCA FLOWER.’

The USDA has always used what’s known as the TOTAL THC test, which adds the ∆9 THC amount with the ∆9 THCA amount to come up with the total number.  After North Carolina ended it’s Hemp Pilot Program, the state decided to follow USDA rules, so that means we are subject to the TOTAL THC testing on our plants.  This means that any flower, once decarboxylated, must be below .3% ∆9 THC by weight, so we could not grow ‘THCA Flower’ cannabis and stay on the right side of USDA rules.

Some states did not follow along with the USDA, and made their own hemp rules.  They did not require the TOTAL THC test, and allowed a different test, which does not require heating in the process.  So, if you test your cannabis flower quickly after harvest with a test that does not use heat, before time and ambient heat start turning the THCA into THC naturally, your cannabis can have a test result that says it’s actually hemp, since it contains less than .3% ∆9 THC.  Of course, once you smoke it, the large amount of THCA becomes THC, and you feel the THC.

So this has been the law of the land since 2018, but it took a few years for enterprising grey area types to figure this out.  Around 2022 the word started spreading around hemp producers that we could get away with this, and folks started in, growing cannabis and testing it so that it legally was hemp, until it was smoked or heated, which legally turns it into cannabis, but that doesn’t happen in the store, so in the store it is still legal hemp.

Of course there are states and counties that have raided these folks and made them jump through hoops after confiscation, etc to try and stop this ‘grey area’.  I don’t consider it a loophole or grey area, because it is the law as written, but there’s certainly an argument to be made that maybe they DID NOT INTEND TO LEGALIZE CANNABIS NATIONALLY IN 2018, even though they actually did.  It took everyone a few years to realize what they had actually done, and by now, there are dispensaries all over the place selling cannabis as legal hemp.  I’m fine with this as long as the products are safe and tested, like we do with our products, even though it bums me out that we cannot grow it in NC, as it’s been sold hand over fist here.

Now this part is just my opinion, but I’m ok with full legalization.  I’m a fan of freedom.  Adults should be able to decide what they want to consume, as long as it’s not impeding the rest of us going about our days.  However, there are lots of folks that want to keep cannabis illegal for lots of reasons.  Alcohol producers hate us because people drink less when they can relax with cannabis.  Attorney Generals aren’t fans because their job is putting people in jail, and legalization makes that harder (if you’re a hammer, everything is a nail).  And legal cannabis states hate this current state of things the most, because they consider cannabis sales a form of state revenue, with their ridiculous taxes that push people back to the ‘black’ or ‘legacy’ market.  Federally legal ‘hemp’ THCA flower, which is just cannabis tested differently, gets in the way of their state cannabis program money grabs.

So, quick check in on where we are.  THCA Flower is just weed.  Regular weed.  Same same.  Cannabis, ganja, pot, that’s what it is.  Tested in a way to make it fit the legal definition of hemp.  Since 2018.  This is widely misunderstood, and folks will tell you all sorts of nonsense, but that’s the deal.  It’s weed that’s not heated before it’s tested, plain and simple.  A large source of ‘THCA Flower’ is excess cannabis flower from legal states, tested without decarboxylation, and sold as hemp in states like NC.

We would have loved to have grown some ourselves, but NC is under USDA Total THC rules, so even though there are people growing it in NC, they are a bit in the grey.  We did not want to jeopardize our future by getting in trouble and losing our hemp license, which may effect our ability to get a license in the future to grow cannabis.  We would like to be able to produce our CBD products and breed a line of ‘adult cannabis’ that doesn’t try and hit super high THC numbers, but rather leans into terpenes, CBD and other minor cannibinoids to produce the best wellness effect, not the craziest high, but I disgress.

Back to Mcconnell.  With the federal gov’t shut down, and everyone itching to open it back up, the alcohol lobby and legal cannabis state lobbies made a smart move and pounced, getting the Hemp Ban written into the bill to reopen.  Not a ‘nice’ move, or a ‘good’ move, but pretty smart.  Mitch put in a section that not only stops that THCA/Nationwide Cannabis Legalization thing he ‘accidently’ did, but also destroys the entire US CBD and Hemp industry, by putting a cap on potency of .4mg THC PER PACKAGE.  ONE of our Easy Chill gummies, our lowest strength full spectrum gummy, has about .4mg of THC in it.

This of course would put us and everyone else who does stuff like we do out of business, even though we never played the THCA flower game.  We are all trying to get this changed before next November when it takes effect, so please let your reps know that you do not want your access stripped from you.  North Carolina has a Cannabis Council that I have been following, and their ideas aren’t all bad, but the current political climate may not be conducive yet.  We will see.

Did anyone think that THCA flower would last at the federal level?  No, it was bound to be stopped; it flies in the face of all the folks who hate cannabis, and doesn’t generate any more tax revenue than a bar of fancy soap so the money-hungry legal states are against it.  And yes of course, as with anything, there are bad actors taking advantage and making companies like us that are doing it right look bad.  So we knew there was a window, but we didn’t expect to be thrown out that window with the THCA flower bath water.

Mcconnell is retiring, and does not want to go down in history as the guy who accidently legalized weed.  Plus the alcohol lobby has made his retirement pretty nice. Aren’t politics wonderful?

Sam