If legality is defined by enforcement, then Type 1 Cannabis, Marijuana, is legal.
Since one can now buy online from many different vendors Type I 15-30% THCa flowers from Colorado and 67% delta-9 THC artisanal hash from Oregon, all with legit COAs, marijuana appears to now be legal.
The THC in all raw Cannabis is mostly the non-psychoactive acid form until it is heated starting at 185°F (or aged), which converts the THCa to delta-9 THC and other cannabinoids such as CBN.
Therefore, all marijuana and hemp is “THCa Weed.”
Type 1: THC Type 2: 1:1
Type 3: CBD Type 4: CBG
Type 5: no ‘noids
It’s basically just marijuana with an innovative Framing, a natural product of the Cannabis flower glut and courage.
Often positioned as “THCa Hemp,” it’s a regulatory anomaly enabled by various states’ interpretations of the definition of hemp; typically either 0.3% delta-9 THC or some “performance-based” protocol.
This is one way growers of Type 1s in California and Oregon can dig out of the devastating hole the state threw them into when legalizing and creating a broken system.
One supplier I talked to had a USDA license, a state license, legit COAs for every product, and they do the usual pre-harvest THC test. Sampling them, I assure you they were not “rope.”
Made in a GMP hemp lab, they offer forms such as butter, isolate, diamonds, and traditional products and tech such as bubble, static, 1:1 manala, and temple balls. They do not sell in CA, AK, OH, or MN due to state law. It appears not to be an underground wild west operation, and there are many, many more like him.
While not explicit in the federal hemp definition in the 2018 Farm Bill, in the normal course of THC testing one would naturally decarb all that acid-form THC to mostly delta-9 THC. At least the prosecutor building a case against a defendant will. The federal hemp law buries the decarboxylation language in the state/tribal plan requirements: “…a procedure for testing, using postdecarboxylation or other similarly reliable methods, delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol concentration levels of hemp produced in the State or territory of the Indian tribe; …”
The language “or similarly reliable method” leaves the states ample room, and the state’s compliance is on a best-efforts basis. That gives the state depart of agriculture enough plausible deniability to drive a truck through.
Some appear to use the “performance-based” interpretation of THC testing, although the recent Loper Bright SCOTUS decision might gut that if challenged in court:
“1. Standard and Performance-based sampling guidelines are specified for field and indoor sampling of hemp. States and Tribes shall develop their own sampling protocols in accordance with §990.3.
2. Samples are taken to obtain specimens for the measurement of total tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content, which determine whether the specimens are hemp or marijuana. …”
The international drug treaties only exempt industrial uses of Cannabis (hemp), meaning regulation by a hemp program, but the details are left to the regulating agency.
Take the current federal hemp law, remove the decarboxylation requirement and even 30% THC Haze = “Hemp.” Nothing else is needed except harmonizing state law with it. While Cannabis itself will still be Schedule 1, “hemp” is descheduled. USDA will no doubt laugh.
“Hemp” is merely a man-made legal fiction which is defined however we as a society say it is. It’s backdoor legalization but we’ll never get “our” XXIst Amendment or “our” DSHEA.
And hemp’s federal regulator, USDA, may not like it but they don’t have much choice. Everyone is hanging by their fingernails even on the hemp side. And with the next Farm Bill likely to deal a blow to “Hempnoids” like delta-8, the future for them is bleak.
The value in Hempnoids is 10-times that of actual industrial hemp such as grain and stalk, although the products of the process are quite contaminated and it typically uses cheap foreign CBD as the base material, so U.S. farmers usually don’t benefit. Sometimes delta-8 is sprayed on actual industrial hemp buds such as Kompolti. And the state loses out on taxing and regulating this multi-billion dollar market selling THC vape pens and gummies to teens in gas stations in southern states. One trick vape pen companies use is FDA’s Pre-market Notification process, the practical effect of which is they have about two years to sell out of inventory before they close that entity, incorporate a new one and start the process all over again for another two years.
But the Farm Bill is a profoundly vulnerable way to legalize what was a controlled substance for 81 years, and with “25,000 products from hemp” naturally has many powerful enemies such as cotton and pharma. Big Ag owns USDA and Congress, hemp is a competitor for many crops, and the Farm Bill is renewed (and some parts not) every 5 years.
They devastated the U.S. Cannabis industry for years yet no one is talking about this obvious and effective workaround. If legality is defined by enforcement, then marijuana is federally legal.