Mailing cannabis across state lines is a federal offense, so why are people are seeing ads to buy weed online? What is THCa? Today, we are covering new cannabis trends, why gas station edibles are risky, and why a dispensary is the way to go if you are over 21.
Mailing cannabis across state lines is a federal offense, so why are people are seeing ads to buy weed online? What is THCa? Today, we are covering new cannabis trends, why gas station edibles are risky, and why a dispensary is the way to go if you are over 21.
Marissa: Welcome to the last Call podcast. My name is Marissa Whitaker, and I'm the prevention educator at SUNY Cortland.
Sarah: And my name is Sarah McGowan. I'm the assistant director of student health and wellness at Onondaga Community College. Our jobs are to educate students about potential risks associated with substance use.
Marissa: We approach substance use from a neutral stance, and our episodes are rooted in public health with a focus on science and harm reduction.
Sarah: Welcome back to the last Call podcast. So, Marissa, I'm not sure if you are aware, but in a couple of days, it's going to be the three year anniversary of New York state legalizing recreational cannabis. So our episode today is going to focus on some topics that we've seen come up on our campuses, but also some things that we think may need a little bit of clarification in terms of some confusing aspects of, you know, what, happiness, legalization, but also just some educational topics that we think may be helpful. So, Mariss, I was on my social media, and I noticed that there were a couple ads that popped up where companies were selling what appeared to be, you know, weed and either drinks or edibles, and they were saying, like, get the buzz of alcohol, but with cannabis. And I was just wondering, what's this about? And what actually is this stuff?
Marissa: Yes, I've seen that, too. And at first I thought it was just the algorithm of, with the work that we do, what was, like, popping up? But, yeah, so I was asking some co workers, same thing. On a lot of people's social media, you're seeing not only gummies for sale, but vape carts. You're seeing flour for sale. And at first, I was kind of taken aback. You know, I know weed's legal in New York, but how are people able to sell this online? Mail it, which, you know, if you were mailing cannabis, that would be federal drug trafficking. So how are these companies not only able to do this, but able to sell it and publicize that they're doing it? So how they're essentially able to get away with this is they're selling THC a. So THCA is tetrahydrocannabinolic acid. That's what the a stands for. It occurs naturally in raw cannabis products and when it's consumed in its unprocessed form, doesn't have any psychoactive qualities. So THC has the psychoactive qualities. That's why you can't just eat a nug of weed and get high from it because you're eating it in its unprocessed form. The difference between THC and Thca truly is heat. Adding heat to something, or the scientific word is decarboxylation. So that's why if somebody's making edibles, you have to heat it up before you can cook with it, before it's processed, how it's heated. When someone's smoking cannabis, the difference between THCA and THC is. Is a lighter. So once that cannabis is ignited, the acid converts to THC. Are you with me? That was a lot.
Sarah: Yes. I was gonna say super troopers would say otherwise. Did you ever see that where they eat the weed and then all of a sudden.
Marissa: Yeah, but that's what's wild. And I don't mean to be like a fact check, I don't think it works that way. And so, you know, but I actually. I should be very upfront that it not for humans giving cannabis to an animal, which, please don't do that. But if an animal eats cannabis, it could be a different outcome than if a human just eats a raw flower. You know, it's that federal hemp farm bill in 2018, that was the legal loophole that allowed this to happen. So if someone's into cannabis law, the regulation is over delta nine THC, where it can't be more than three tenths of 1% THC in hemp that's being sold, purchased, consumed. THCA was not mentioned in the. In the farm bill. So that's how they're able to get away with selling it. That's how a lot of the sticker shops are able to get away with selling cannabis, which we'll talk about. But, you know, I really think it's important that a huge caveat to this is that this cannabis legalization is very complex.
Sarah: I was just going to say. So we know that it does occur naturally in rock cannabis, but can it also be manufactured? So can people also call something THCA, but it doesn't actually come from the cannabis plant?
Marissa: Yes, but you would need to use a solvent to strip the THCA so it can be done. But this is why it's super important, and, you know, we'll discuss it more later. But why it's super important that if you are getting THCA, like, the THCA diamonds, is that what you're referring to, how you can get, like, rocks of THC A. Yeah, so that it can be done. However, thing that already doesn't look like cannabis when it. It literally looks like.
Sarah: Like crystal Matt.
Marissa: Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But at the same time, getting that from a dispensary that's licensed from New York state or whatever state someone may live in is very different than getting it from a gas station. Kind of. My rule of thumb is the flashier the packaging, the more likely it's either not legit or not manufactured with a third party testing, when I think.
Sarah: So, that kind of leads us into an interesting next topic, which is something called spray. So this is something that's popping up more and more. It's sold. It's marketed to kids, basically. So it's sold in cartoon like packages, you know, flavored as, like, candy or, you know, different types of fruit, you know, different dessert type flavors. And is it even legit? Because what I'm seeing in the research that I'm doing is showing that most of these packages don't even display the THC content in what you're. What you're getting or what you're, you know, buying from supposedly legalized weed.
Marissa: Yes, you hit the nail on the head. A huge red flag for consumers of cannabis. You're gonna. That sticker varies. Cannabis THC content is gonna vary from batch to batch, flower to flower, cultivation to cultivation. So if you're seeing a package where it's very much on the package, that it's 90% THC, 30% THC, it doesn't matter the number if that's just something that the packaging naturally says, that that's not being tested on a regular basis, because that number will always fluctuate, even, you know, legitimate dispensaries. Some products will be 25% Thc. The same strain could be 28% Thc. See, it varies. So that's something always to look for on the packaging for cannabis.
Sarah: And this sets off huge red flags in my head because I don't know about, you know, Cortland Morris, but in Syracuse area, we had a huge problem with synthetic cannabis, you know, a couple years back, and there's still stores that are selling it around here. But that's what this reminds me of, you know, a synthetic cannabis, because truly, you know, these. These companies and places aren't sending this stuff off to be third party lab tested. So you could be getting some sort of weed product, but you could also be getting potpourri that's sprayed with chemicals that people are calling, you know, cannabis terpenes specifically, just because they want other people to think it's a legitimate product.
Marissa: Yeah. And, you know, especially for people who are 21, cannabis being legal in New York state, there's no reason to be using synthetics. You know, from a harm reduction lens, there's always going to be some you know, risk associated with using cannabis, there's a lot higher risk with using synthetic cannabis. So with a state that has legal cannabis don't use the synthetics, there's nothing advantageous about using that.
Sarah: And, you know, that comes back to a lot of conversations, you know, that the reasons why students are using, you know, cannabis versus alcohol in the first place is because they feel that it's more natural that it's from a plant. But if you're taking into account all these, you know, sprayed products, what are you actually getting? And you said this earlier, Marissa, but, you know, the more things are chemically altered, whether it's delta eight, whether it's hemp, whether you know, it, there could be some cannabis product in there. That's not a chance that I would want to take just to have some weed that tastes like a marshmallow, actually.
Marissa: Yes. And also, too, while we're talking about sprays, if you're seeing products like spray sprints, marshes, things like that, that just doesn't seem like if it's. Yeah, it sounds like it's marketed for children, there's a chance that it's not being marketed to adult use cannabis consumers, especially when looking.
Sarah: Looking at, like, the packaging, like, you know, people don't usually buy things with cartoon characters on them unless they're, you know, of a younger age. So who are you really trying to get to be a lifelong consumer here? And what is that costing the actual consumer? So what's that loyalty going to cost you if you're consuming products that. That are synthetic, that there's no accountability for?
Marissa: So, yeah, yeah, and too, you know, we've covered this in another episode, but if you're seeing products like Cheerios, Mario Karts, Trix, things that have already an established name brand, chances are it's not legit. And also, do you think heart healthy Cheerios is in cahoots with the weed industry? Do you think Trix for kids? Probably not. And so I'm not saying that they're not products that are out there, but it's definitely not third party tested.
Sarah: You know, it's really funny that you say that, because I was thinking about that earlier. I went into a gas station, um, in a location that's close by where I live, and I saw that they were selling kind of like, you know, potentially underground THC or CBD products that said 1000 milligrams, um, and they look just like Reese's. And I'm thinking to myself, there is no way that that is a legitimate THC product. But you can't tell me that a kid looking at that wouldn't think you know twice about. What is that? But also the thousand milligram THC content, so nothing should have that high of a percentage.
Marissa: Right. It's problematic no matter how much you look at it. So, like, best case scenario, it's not regulated. Worst case scenario, too. Like, nobody needs a thousand milligrams. So if you do, let's talk maybe about a tolerance break or what genetic anomaly someone might have. So it's probably not even a thousand milligrams, but if it is, that's going to almost ensure that someone's going to have a bad time. And again, if you're getting at a gas station.
Sarah: Well, going back to the marketing piece, though, I went off on a little bit of a tangent. But, um, the marketing piece, you know, all those trademarks. If you have a product that looks just like another product that you can buy to grocery store, you know, you said it. Wellmeris. That's probably not a legitimate product that's been, you know, tested or even regulated in any way whatsoever. So could literally be anything that you're getting.
Marissa: Yeah. And, you know, I'm not here to say it doesn't work, but at the same time, I guess what I'm trying to say is you might feel something, but it's probably not an actual cannabis high that someone's feeling. I have real concerns. What is it that they're putting on that? Because there's no way, like, a thousand milligrams of THC costs a dispensary a lot of money, which is why, if you're paying $25 for a pack of edibles, that's 100 milligrams, $250, in theory, is what it should cost. And if you're paying 599 for 1000 milligrams or even 2099, something like that, it's just. It's kind of concerning, like, knowing what you're putting in your body.
Sarah: Well, this is a gas station that I never go in. I went in there for, like, a candy bar, and then I walk up to the counter, and underneath the register, they had all these things I wanted to say. What exactly is that that you're selling?
Marissa: This is setting back perceptions of cannabis, consumers perceptions of the cannabis industry, so much farther back, because it's all about making a quick buck rather than selling products with integrity. And it's.
Sarah: Yeah, no, absolutely.
Marissa: Whether you're for or against weed, it's just. It's just bad business.
Sarah: Yeah. And what is the accountability? So if you have a legitimate dispensary, and you sell a bad product that gets people sick, you can trace it back and say, okay, I, you know, it came from this place. This is, you know, like, what happened? Like a mold issue, you know, a discrepancy in the amount of THC. But if you're getting something from a gas station and you have a bad reaction, what do you think? Like, there's no accountability. And you're not going to ask for a refund or, you know, report it to anyone because you're buying a product that no one has regulated you. There's no accountability.
Marissa: Right. Well, and that's why, you know, yeah, it's expensive to buy weed at a dispensary, but you're paying for peace of mind. You're paying for the fact that there is exactly that accountability. You know, some discretion, some work that's gone into this. So now that we've talked about how widely available cannabis is, how it's sold online, how it's sold all over towns and in gas stations, still not allowed on campuses, can you explain why this is, Sarah, even though it's so widely available everywhere else? Yeah.
Sarah: MarISSA so even though, you know, cannabis has been legalized in New York, we, as you know, colleges of New York state who receive federal funding still have to comply with the Drug Free Schools and Communities act, which means we can't condone, encourage, or allow any drug use on any of our campuses that are receiving federal funding. You know, there's additional things that we have to do, but it's wild because you step foot off of a college campus and, you know, the rules are completely different. So that can be hard for people in general. But I think college students to comprehend is why is it so different on a college campus, which is kind of.
Marissa: Wild, that, like, it really is the wild, wild west with cannabis law right now. Like it's one loophole after another, one thing popping up. It's like whack a mole with. With dispensaries that are not legitimized, popping up dispensaries that are legitimate, it's harder to pop up. The only thing that's been consistent about this is that it's never been allowed on a campus since legalization. Prior to legalization, unless things change federally, it's going to be like this for the foreseeable future, which can absolutely be confusing for students that you can have it pretty much everywhere else, you can't have it on campus. So for all those reasons that Sarah said that, that's why. But it is very confusing for people as to just how available it is in places, yet you can't have it in your residence hall even if you're 21.
Sarah: So that is all for this episode of the last Call podcast. Join us next week for our next exciting episode.