The Cole Memo

In this episode, I sit down with cannabis industry lawyer Tom Howard for a conversation about THCa. What exactly is THCa, and why does it deserve our attention? For those unfamiliar, THCa flower can readily be found in dispensaries, but what’s driving its widespread availability and popularity? We discuss all of that and more in this episode.

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Links mentioned

• Tom’s new video on THCa that we mentioned can be streamed here 
• https://www.instagram.com/tv/CYg076XJior/?igsh=ZDE1MWVjZGVmZQ== 

The auto-generated transcript is below.

Let’s Do It um you know I was trying to think of a joke um I want to be clear that this is a joke it’s not legal advice uh you know there’s that whole idea of the get out get out of jail free card and Monopoly right right I’m I’m wanting to come up with the term of the stay at a jail free sticker you just slap this on your weed and then and then you avoid jail time I’m just I’m joking I’ll have you oh it’s uh some thca flower I want you to explain my joke here a second it’s going to be the uh main bulk of our our topic of our show today but really quick just the pre Preamble for folks this is the Cole memo I’m your host Cole Preston every episode is released in audio video and transcript format to find the transcript audio or video version just look in the episode description that you’re listening to now within that description you’ll find a link that takes you to our website where you can find all of those versions if you’re unable to locate the episode description on whichever platform you’re listening from I get it simply note the episode number and visit the memo.com from there you can find the corresponding episode and then you’ll be able to find those audio video and transcripts uh that you might be looking for you might also find any links that we referenced during the episode today so that you might be able to do your own research folks you know that if you’re not listening to this episode of the co memo on patreon then you’re listening to this episode later than our patrons to become a patron go to the memo.com patreon it’s a great way to support our show you get the episodes right off the wire let’s jump right into it today is January 4th 2024 and I’m sitting back down with Tom Howard Tom go ahead and introduce yourself uh to our audience hey everybody who’s tuning in to the co memo my name is Tom Howard you can find me on the internet over at canvas legalization news on YouTube or.com nobody goes to that site though uh and most people find me on Canabis industry lawyer.com that has a lot more traffic and then uh the name of my consulting firm is collateral base um so that’s one of the fun things you know I’ve created a a new business this year so I’m going to now spin off because the consulting firm has also been the law firm in Illinois and now I’m gonna tell everybody hey no problem you know I can still represent you if I can but uh over here now and so I’m going to use the Cannabis industry lawyer site that I have to now hopefully create a network of uh cannabis lawyers that are barred all over the United States and um we do a lot of SEO and so like more more leads more views of pages more people subscribing to the the podcast it’s a virtuous cycle yeah and I gotta say that like people I Google the phrase cannabis legalization news every day almost literally every day and Tom and and Miggy I think are basically synonymous with that fra uh phrase you’ve got the weekly show it’s every Sund suay on YouTube and then you’ve got like weekly episodes that drop as well but definitely live on Sundays right definitely live on Sundays and one is dropping right now which is fun same topic same topic yeah and so it’s a it’s funny because I did my first video on thca flower in 2019 when uh there was you go to the dispensary and it’s technically hemp that you’re buying so I I have a dispensary I havn’t been issued I want it back in July hopefully it’s worth something by the time I can actually get it open uh because like the thca loophole is really big like you know it’s um it’s huge it because that’s what the plant makes so the plant is making hemp it’s not marijuana until you light it on fire right and that’s that’s basically the the root of my joke is I was saying you can slap it obviously again that’s not legal advice I think you would probably reiterate that as a lawyer uh I I don’t think anybody can an attorney client relationship on a podcast or mean I’m going to write the people that help and like where are the doctors with all this type of ethical obligations and professional rules how come doctors don’t have professional rules Come on but um if you read something on the Internet or you hear it on a podcast that is not your lawyer nor is it legal advice you yeah good point but I guess just to start I think the the funny joke I was trying to make is would you agree that maybe some people are just slapping on a thca sticker and selling weed right now yeah under thisle yeah and then maybe also a fake COA and that’s you know it’s one of those deals where if you go and buy weed at your medical dispensary locally or at your adult use dispensary it’s probably going to be hemp unless it’s a pre-roll and like it’s usually a little bit more decarbox by that some strains can actually be like 1% THC but uh the vast majority of the ones that you see in an Illinois dispensary qualifies as him they’ll be in Missouri too uh Michigan don’t play that Michigan just says total THC stop being cute you know and um but then the federal law doesn’t the federal law says 3% no more and so like you can go up to that line don’t cross it of Delta 9 which the plan doesn’t make that happens when you light it on fire uh and so you can like watch and because it was only 2018 uh when they had the Congressional hearings on the farm bill just every Congressman being misled so it won’t get you high no no Senator it won’t oh okay and then I could just hopefully they’re they’re laughing to themselves no it won’t and then in their head they’re like unless you let it on fire but that’s the that’s the quiet part they didn’t say out loud and so it worked um I don’t know how this is going to end but uh we’ll find out this year I think yeah and I think an important point that I just want to underscore before we move any further is that as you just said the dispensary carries these products too I think some people get confused and think that thca is some like synthetic or like it’s sprayed on or but really and in the context of thca flower it I mean didn’t weren’t you looking into doing some research isn’t it like that they just take the test earlier or something but they’re I I’m just really trying to underscore there’s no difference there’s no difference and so that yeah I do I will be following back up with them and doing a future video about that with them um it’s just that I have a deal that I’m working on that I want to get closed and and so I’ve been a little distracted on that um however you know it’s that’s what the plant makes and so as it’s growing uh you have to then test it let’s say you have a hemp license and so you call the the guys that that sell cookie seed and you buy cookie seed pursu into your house temp license and so you’re growing it and you’re putting into flour and you’re about halfway through flour you’re 99% certain because you’ve been growing weeds since you know you’re a kid uh and your third generation it’s been in your family for years right that you’ve got 29 days before you harvest it uh so not more than 30 days you take the top Cola and and you send it out to uh the lab and so then the lab will test it for total THC which is not the statute says the statute says Delta 9 but then the regs and the rules that of the force of law says um uh oh my client is calling on that deal that I just alluded to hey you want to take it um go ahead can we can we come back on that so uh yeah you were just saying the federal federal RS 30 days before that whole thing yeah and so it’s in the federal rules that they passed and so if you’re going to get because then and this will probably be happening for regular cannabis here this coming year as they’ll have final rules and whatnot but uh they passed the rule that said here’s how you test for potency before Harvest uh which is interesting because nobody who is trying to sell their weed for THC content purposes whatever test for uh potency like this so you have to test it no more than 30 days before you harvest so if you have been flowering hundreds of crops uh with the genetics that you’re working and you know them very well and you know your conditions so you would know like pretty much to the day when you’re going to be able to harvest this thing and then you’d be able to make sure it’s no more than 30 days and give them the the cola that the rules require and that it’s probably going to come back between three or less uh and for the for the total because the vast majority of the can of the the THC comes on in the last month of the flowering period uh and and that’s how a lot of the stuff that’s actually being grown to a license it pursuant to a license is is satisfying the thca or the THC uh levels because the the rules literally say you get in test for potency up to like or no more than 30 days before it’s harvested so what what’s your before we get into your stance on it I actually wanted to just back up and ask it’s interesting that this I feel like this entire conversation about Farm Bill products started around health concerns around Delta 8 and now it seems like the goalposts have shifted to uh you know a debate about open licensing and limited licensing and not so much even about delta8 anymore you don’t even really hear about that as part of the conversation and um I think it’s because of what the point I made earlier which is that they’re truly identical products I recently interviewed Charlie baell and he said the exact same thing they’re they’re truly identical products so they they are competition and since they’re sold without the same regulations and taxes these hemp operators are making much more profit than cannabis operators um I wanted to back up do you think that’s like a do do you also find that interesting that that’s how this conversation started and there was no talk about thca except for from you except for from you from back in 2019 it was just kind of like a passing mention you made well they it was not not about growing wheat it was about uh growing CBD flour and and then you know it wasn’t called Industrial Hemp anymore and so some of this hemp wasn’t going to be made for food or for clothing or for bioplastics or for industrial purposes it was going to be made for not even Horticultural purposes because if I go buy like some flowers I’m not going to just then start smoking them it was bought for like food purposes or or medicinal purposes people were going to then consume it in their bodies and uh so the that was like why they passed it they talked a lot about CBD and how it didn’t get you high and so the first crop was all this CBD stuff so much so that there was more crop than they can move and so then they needed to do something with it because it’s not selling and that’s when they realized they could make Delta 8 uh and then so then they started making all that Delta 8 and that got everywhere and then they said well you know the farm bill does say 3% Delta 9 and our stuff if you test it after it’s been harvested because we take such good care of it will beat that test according to the Lal literal definition of hemp where it’s 3% or less Delta 9 and then they ran with it and then they started just selling the thca uh somewhere before that the delta8 they started selling seeds and that was really cool uh because like I think seeds are it it is a far cry from saying a seed is marijuana as opposed to a harvested cured thca eth that had to have gone through months of of care months of attention and and um training and then harvesting and then curing and then weighing so I’m fine with seeds being hemp uh when it comes down to the purpose for why you’re growing it and the regulations that we have for the human consumption that they’re clearly doing um that’s where it gets more into a murkier area where if you’re going to be smoking this stuff has it been tested for heavy metals like has it been tested for pesticides or other chemicals that might be on it um you know you’re going to be putting it into your body and trying to enjoy it uh wouldn’t you like to know whether or not it’s it’s poisonous right yeah and I want I want to uh I wrote that down to see and testing I’d like to I’d like to get back is that kind of that’s what I was going to segue too is that kind of your stance on that is it the the lack of testing because I’ve heard you say other things that I’ve heard other operators say like the the taxes and the lack of Regulation and the two sets of rules yeah the two sets of rules and so it’s just it’s you’re not even at parody now and then it becomes um an exploitation of a loophole but you know all of those high in the sky dreams that you know people care about or not it really is like a health and safety and wellness type of U argument behind it because like you wanted those patients to be able to access that stuff and you know you’re not you give them no data on that I mean maybe some because then it’s like should we just have the industry regulate itself and so some people are going to have on their uh products like more spectrums of the tests more panels so they’re going going to do the heavy metals tests they’re going to do the um pesticide and the other residue tests and the molds so that they can adverti that you’re going to want to buy our weed because it’s clean sure maybe than that uh but then there’s the the regulation aspect of it and or this when the Republicans figure out that weed is like this they’re going to be pissed off they’re gonna be like hey and and so I think regulation’s going to catch up once they understand it uh and so that’s that’s kind of why I’m like well then it’s probably going to go this way it’s not like weed’s going to be super legal it’s going to be available at gas stations without having to have a card and it’s going to be considered an agricultural commodity like you know we don’t do that with beer we do that with the inputs to beer like wheat uh and so if it’s an input to beer fine but if it’s actually the beer no I mean there’s going to be some levels of Regulation there’s going to be um you know Li lies to do it and then also if you’re making it for food consumption there’s regs for you to do that at the federal level so you know the regulations that you have to put up with to grow cord and soybeans is a far cry difference than the regulations you’d have to put up with for doing consumer packaged Goods like you know ice cream sandwiches or something yeah yeah and again I I’ve got something like thoughts on testing itself but but lately again what I’ve seen the conversation shift from is less about a conversation about public safety and more about licensing and I even actually saw I think we’re in the same algorithm or something because everything you comment on about thca I see on LinkedIn and everything about thca I like they’re just inundating me with thca content and I love it but one of the posts I saw you make the other day um is about Lesean Ford’s recent proposal in your saying not sure why you would want to open a shop in the purp purportedly limited market state if an unlimited number or of hemp shops can be selling thca flow like regular dispensaries do Lesean Ford this would ruin the cannabis dispensary industry because of how thca hemp flow Works what what do you mean by that because I um I’m not looked at this proposal but his last maybe it is the same proposal I thought his proposal was it’s like the idea that the hemp Growers were stepping up to the plate so to say with regard to the the safety and testing and taxing and age restrictions um and it was almost like a big seemed like a challenge to the open licensing or The Limited licensing Market kind of like you were saying yeah but I just wanted to give you like what did you mean by that uh pretty much what I said like they have not included a definition of hemp that doesn’t unblur the lines for just being weed great you’re going to you’re going to card people now and so all these poor people that have a process they they’re called processor licenses infuser licenses are now super worthless if that like passes right uh because you can’t you know you could at least then buy whatever distillate you want online uh from a hemp farmer and then turn it into whatever product you want food stuff and so then you would be able to go so it seemed like it was very focused on the food but they also said for insallation but they did not say uh anything about the THC whatsoever and so like if that the inhalation is that Delta 8 then is that saying like you can do Delta eight Vapes that’s unlimited but then is it also thca flow could you then create and so there would be a license that you would buy and you would then create a hemp stop shop like a and moded out like it is a dispensary but not spent on any of the security and get open an operational for $100,000 $200,000 supposed to like 1.52 million is that is that what’s going to be happening now and then you just call up north then they they have some amendments in the rules to hemp for its farming that makes it a little bit more difficult to cultivate the thca flow in this state but you can call like Tennessee or you can call North Carolina you can call Oregon you call California call the states where it’s being actually cultivated uh and then just buy it from there yeah yeah or the inventory control right yeah what and then do we just the the fraudulent Goods right how do we know that that thca hemp pre-roll where’s it COA like who farmed that where was the license on that one you know MH I I maybe misinterpreted it I thought you were like saying that you thought that the Illinois cannabis industry should be a limited market and like I said I felt like this has been the one challenge to that structure where they’ve they’ve like they are selling a quote unquote legal product and then people have their complaints that they’re not abiding by the strictures of the crta so they’re like we’ll do those things and I get what you’re saying they still don’t have to pay all the security and such but then why do you even have the crta like well that’s actually kind of what going to ask is like it seems like the crta is kind of stupid at this point like exactly and so you’re like do you even understand what you’re doing like what are you doing and then did you legal did you do all that [ __ ] back in 2014 to legalize it just so like four years later you be like me whatever just card them make sure that you don’t give them too much and it has to be from hemp well it is interesting because I think last year in benzinga and I don’t mean by like the most previous benzinga the one before this one where JB pritsker spoke at uh I can’t think of his name but um somebody from pharmacan said something to the effect of they see limited license markets kind of being a temporary fixture in the Cannabis industry and then this came along right which you know but then but then everybody who’s holding one of those limited licenses right now would be like sell it get out of it because why are you going to put up with all that regulation if you don’t need to True have you seen I’ve talked to a few perspectives and it’s only a few it’s not like it’s like a large number of people I think maybe I could think of two or three where they’re in in Illinois at least in both they’re they’re licensed under their under the crta like River Bluff is an example and river river something I don’t know River Bluff Collective is their hemp license and River Bluff something is is their cannabis license so they got their feet in both buckets what do you think about like people doing that that’s that’s a hedge you know do you think it’s a risky bet no like do you think maybe you could get your I heard somebody float that idea like maybe if you’re [ __ ] around you could get your crta license yanked or something perhaps if you’re [ __ ] around you know but then it’s not a crime to divert hemp an agricultural commodity yeah but then if you are diverting the stuff that was bought from an actual craft grow license right that can get you in a lot of trouble but then if that craft grow license is a hemp license you’re just buying its weight you know but then you’d still probably it’d be separate shops yeah right so what what is your feeling about limited license markets at this point because I’ll be honest I credit you for radicalizing me against limited license markets oh well again it’s not that bad in the sense that the limited license markets if you’re going to require people uh to and the farmers to test like that and if you’re going to require uh the um the security where it’s going to be like A5 $600,000 security system to cultivate that stuff uh and then if you’re going to require the dispense you’re going to require seed to sale tracking like the the operational expens is at the compliance segment of the market and then if you’re going to require the dispensary to have hundreds of thousands of dollars security systems and then the municipalities are going to require you to do more than that like you know when the liquor store opens up they don’t say we we really need a new uh driveway here and we need all new parking right here and then we want we want the sign to be I mean there’s a lot that you have to put up with to operate so if you’re going to go through all of that crap uh you should not necess you should have some moat to a certain extent otherwise people will not want to get in and then they’ll be losing their shirts uh because they just won’t be able to to operate you know with the cost of compliance on that and that’s the method that they chose and that’s the method that a lot of states have chosen and so the states like uh Missouri and Arkansas and Illinois and Maryland and Ohio uh and New Jersey’s Limited in the sense of the the municipalities same with California Washington State’s another limited licensed State yeah it’s it’s just interesting because in the past I’ve heard that these systems were crafted conservatively to like make it more digestible for Republicans but now it seems these systems were crafted for like economic assur Insurance to a certain extent they were I think for their economic Assurance because of the cost of the compliance and so like if the compliance is going to push the average dispensary out of business what what if you just have the number of dispensaries well then they should be able to uh you know you can run it bad you can run it good but they should be able to be able to provide enough Supply and it’s about providing that adequate supply of the safe product so that’s kind of like the theory of the limited market States yeah yeah and I I actually have an old this is like where I feel like this hemp thing comes into play and it’s a really old uh pixelated clip uh that I took from one of your old YouTube videos uh and I posted on Instagram and I feel like it’s relevant in a different way nowadays I’m going to play it um I’m going to have to refresh my page though because it already started um look how old this accomplish that January 20202 the supply of licenses prices go up lawsuits follow legislative fixes benefit a very specific group of people and the unlawful sale of cannabis in the streets continues if your policy goal is to eradicate the illegal market then license caps are not the right tool to accomplish that goal they will greatly inflate the price of doing business but enough they do and that that’s like I say that that clip right there made me so radical against limited licenses because I understand the mechanism like I understand that people will lose their shirts yeah but from like a consumer standpoint I’m just like you know what’s funny is I never comp somebody said the other day because operators bring up price compression when we have this conversation they’re like well we want to prevent price compression and I was having a consumer a conversation with the consumer the other day and they go I [ __ ] love price compression and I was thinking I was like yeah in what other context is a consumer worried about price compression it’s totally uh from an operator’s standpoint you know what I mean that’s right it’s from an operator’s standpoint but um so Michigan does a a pretty good job you can lose your shirt there but you can also do all right but then you get a lot of that price compression so yeah big time the business owner doesn’t want to give up those fat checks yeah I mean the retailers still do pretty decent business because it’s a retail business and so the markups the markup priz compression typically hits the producer right and to give an example like I asked Charlie backel I held up one of his own cartridges that I had uh and I was like this costs a hundred bucks give or take in Illinois it C this same exact product from you Charlie costs 30 bucks in Michigan and he’s just said yeah due to economic factors we have to sell it at that price so it’s like it’s weird just because basically what it sounds like they’re saying and other companies like that are saying is like they have to sell it low to be competitive in those States but then here as you just said because they can to keep those fat checks well they sell it higher and because frankly I’ve even read reporting all the way back in the day from Mike fuche it’s questionable whether or not operating in the Cannabis industry is even profitable you know like if any of these companies are profitable you uh the retailers can make well the retail ERS if it’s not a schedule one drug so a hemp retailer can make money because it’s a retail business you know you you do your mark up and then you live in the margin if you are a good retailer and you can keep your cost down and your revenues up uh the farmers have a much more difficult you know time of keeping those prices up and so uh the the price the spot price of weed is what it is and it’s insulated from Illinois because the producers are so limited and then the cost of getting that new producer license even if it’s a craft grow on is so high that they they spend that6 s million and then they want to make that $3,000 a pound yeah yeah and um you know when you make like doesn’t cost that much to build a hemp Farm relative to what it cost to build a craft grow in compliance with all the regulations so if they really just wanted to make this thing all hemp and it’s going to be weed why did you do the legalization at all like is why did you do social Equity at all like why did you do any of these things at all I mean you could still have a market like Michigan which is fairly Limited in the sense that there’s costs of compliance which are high and then if you can even get a spot in the community which maybe you can yeah yeah yeah and just it’s what do you think the answer is to this issue it sounds like we’re talking about one set of rules and maybe like a a clearer interpretation of what’s going on um but I don’t mean to speak for you what do you think is the answer to to this in Illinois but all nationally if you can uh Federal guidance and so if there was a federal set of rules in a Marketplace for it all the operators kind of have to get in line with that you know yeah yeah it’s interesting and what do you think in Illinois would be the answer is it just like no like you can’t sell you can’t do this put this on your shelf anymore like we yeah sell it you you can’t is my answer to that one where if you just do that you’re not going to be able to have a licensed Market you’re just going to have this gray elicit Market yeah you know yeah so and then nobody’s going to want that dispensary those R3 grants aren’t going to get done you so you created this whole system and you’re just gone in in like four years yeah replaced by something that doesn’t like give back what this one was supposed to do right but then delivers the same product yeah yeah those are definitely all all valid points especially when you bring up like the purp of why this happened and you know I could go and say that I don’t feel all the different ways in which I don’t feel we’ve accomplished those goals but I just I said this to you the other day and I I via chat so I felt like you maybe misunderstood me um I I really do from a consumer standpoint and I I understand what you’re saying from an operator standpoint but if we like take that hat off from a consumer standpoint what I said the other day to you was uh this seems like a step forward I can get weed delivered to my [ __ ] house like I got weed ice cream delivered to my house like flour um I a quote I got from the cro the other day was sometimes when PE and I’m Loosely quoting right now so but sometimes I guess when people get pulled over police don’t know what to do people will say this is hemp and they don’t know what to do and they let him go and I say that’s a win that’s a win you know but I get what you’re you said the other day it’s but it’s not a step I felt like you were explaining it from the operator standpoint do you get where I’m coming from like on the consumer side where it’s like holy [ __ ] we got the the answer to the criminalization problem uh no you don’t really because like as soon as you li it on fire it’s a crime but most people Lo smoke an ounce at a time so it never is yeah but you know you saw that recent guidance from the TSA they said that you can fly with Farm Bill products so I’ll just you know slap my stickers on and start flying with we I don’t know just like it’s this level of Freedom that I feel like we haven’t attained yet and here it is and I know it’s people say interpretations and stuff but what I’ve been wondering lately is like it’s not like Mitch McConnell wrote this bill under Candlelight or any of those [ __ ] like generally speaking Am I Wrong those bills are written for them so if we’re talking about interpretation like who knows maybe somebody in a smokey room this was their end goal you know perhaps like maybe they were ahead of the science maybe but then like uh if it is that free and open mhm regulations is soon to follow because they’re going to try to put it back in the I mean they aren’t gonna the I mean that’d be hilarious if the only thing you had to do to reduce the stigma was just slap a tcaa blond and go no Mom it’s him you’re right uh we’ll see I don’t think that’s going to be how it plays out but it could yeah you know temporarily at least right you don’t think it’ll play out like that in the long run um so so yeah I guess just to close you know it sounds like what we’re saying and then I’d like to have a brief discussion about testing to like completely cap this episode because that’s I feel like the undertone of this entire episode we talk about testing and stuff right and the differences and and all that but to put a cap on it you’re basically saying you know from an operator’s standpoint it pulls the rug out from some of these systems that were basically established to you know give you a certain level of market share some assurity if you will um that’s right yeah I mean like the entire industry basically pulls the rug out of them all the ones that have a license uh and then it it gives the rug to the people that you know maybe still be in the gray or the illicit market and gives them cover do you think people uh this is my last question on this we can we can go go over to testing do you think people like Chi Chin chong and cookies and I even saw Snoop Dogg has rolled out a few now like there are some big names in this space and it’s like when you start to think about how many people are starting up businesses and stuff and then you think about the lobbyists they can maybe afford off of this yeah I just wonder if this is like the cats out of the bag what do you what do you think think they’re back uh I think it or it’ll be fine-tuned in schedule three yeah I I agree with you on that it’ll it’ll be like hey let’s stop pretending like these are two separate things are bad these are the same thing we’ll see like they did not have a farm bill last year so if they have a farm bill next year like they do typically every five years maybe it’ll get skipped again you know into the next Administration but there will be hearings on this definition yeah yeah well I I don’t know how long this this last bit will take I feel like you might you’re you’re usually pretty good at addressing these points uh but I want to lead with that I’m not saying testing is is useless because most people feel more comfortable when they when they buy legal and get products that are are tested right um but my issue with that is that like when we it’s definitely like been a a cool thing I remember when I went to Colorado and they’re like by the way you’re going to get this sticker says all this information about your weed I was like oh my gosh we’re in the future but it’s funny I didn’t even like I wasn’t thinking about that because the issue from my standpoint wasn’t that it wasn’t tested or taxed it was that I could be locked up for it right and so and one of the points for cannabis legalization was always like hey man nobody’s ever died from it and that was based on like centuries of unregulated use so I’m all for testing but and I’m I I welcome to be more accurate is actually my my final thing that I wanted to end up with and I’m curious what you think about this because there’s it was a while ago but there was that Chicago suntime story and I think I even read recently and maybe it’ll be on the next cannabis legalization news or maybe it was on the last one I haven’t watched it just yet um but I think EST State just shut down part of Some Testing Labs just to address you know THC inflation and stuff like that I bring this up because it’s like testing is used as like a back stop for legal cannabis but it’s it’s not perfect no it’s not perfect but like cannabis is a heavy metal accumulator you know there’s and then there’s mold and other stuff that can happen to that cannabis yep so if you’re going to be eating it as opposed to making a house out of it you know it should be you should know what’s in it like you know if you go and you buy food they have to kind of tell you what’s in it now if you buy talcum powder they might put some cancer in it and then you can sue them and say like you can’t put this in there and they might have a huge settlement so it’s one of those things for the consumer to ensure that they are safe and they get quality products and access to quality products there needs to be some form of testing like the THC levels come on that’s hilarious if you really cared about the THC levels why is the farm bill call for 30 days before Harvest to say what the THC level is good point yeah yeah and the weed smokes just as fine without those quote unquote THC levels right I mean you’ve smoked thca FL right oh well you just said got it from the dispensary I grow THC everybody who has like a cultivation you know in their basement is growing thca H that’s awesome unless you really [ __ ] up the GU or certain strains but like the vast majority of strains they when you harvest it there’s no Delta 9 in it good point we’re all farming thca yeah well I will end this I’ll end this with uh this um I had it pulled up and I and I just lost it um here it is I’ll share this meme I think it’s a good little note to end on it’s basically what we’ve been saying this entire time and and Tom I know you love memes so we’ll yep end it with a laugh uh wait it’s all thca always has been yep that’s right that makes me wonder like the uh person who wrote that into the farm bill in 2018 was like uh no I got this they don’t know what I’m talking about no it won’t get you high unless you all it on fire don’t say that part right just don’t say that at all yeah Will Tom do you want want to plug anything before we go oh no go check out that video that I just dropped and um you know thca is fascinating uh but I think it’ll be like I’m sorry I’ve just been alive and I’ve seen the stigma against this plant I can’t imagine the only you have to do is just say THC a hemp and it goes away you know right yeah absolutely well said yeah so I’ll reiterate for like the fourth time folks don’t just do that and Bank on that being a thing so yeah all right cool well all right thanks for having me on though absolutely absolutely thank you for coming on and folks I hope you found as much value in this conversation as I did we’ll see you in the next episode of the Cole memo take care about:blank