The 1960s and 70s are over, and marijuana is here to stay — even in Mississippi.
Two years after the state rolled out its medical marijuana program, a new type of cannabis is sweeping the market in Oxford. Advertised as a legal high, tetrahydrocannabinol acid, or THC-A, is sold in several local smoke shops to people aged 21 and over.
Not to be confused with THC, the primary appeal of THC-A is that it can be bought without a state-issued medical marijuana card.
THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, is the federally regulated compound in marijuana. According to the Drug Enforcement Agency, THC is believed to be the main ingredient that produces cannabis’s psychoactive effect.
The federal Agricultural Improvement Act of 2018, commonly known as the Farm Bill, classified cannabis flower containing 0.3% or less THC by weight as hemp, and legalized it. This opened the door for derivative products such as Delta-8 THC to be synthesized and sold.
THC-A cannabis flower also fits into this category as it contains 0.3% or less THC.
Leading the charge in Oxford’s legal, non-medicinal weed game is shopkeeper James Funk.
Funk owns Slackers Supply, a smoke shop he opened 14 years ago when he was 22 years old. Slackers is known for selling high-quality incense, glassware and now THC-A cannabis flower.
Funk explained how THC-A is synthesized.
“The biggest difference is a two-month grow cycle versus a six-month grow cycle,” Funk said.
If cannabis is harvested before full maturation, it remains within federal guidelines regulating THC percentages.
According to experts, heat makes all the difference.
“THC acid will not produce euphoria or get you high,” Robert Welch, the director of the National Center for Cannabis Research and Education, said. “You have to decarboxylate it by applying heat to convert it to THC.”
According to Funk, this is why it is so popular and what protects customers on the legal front.
“Say the cops come and test it,” Funk said. “It tests like hemp sandals, but when I light it on fire and smoke it, my lungs say, ‘This is weed.’”
Funks claims that Slackers sources all of its THC-A marijuana straight from Oregon, and they keep it as fresh as possible.
Cannabis cultivation in Mississippi is regulated by the state and allowed only for medical use.
“Every store in town that sells Delta-8 is going to start selling this,” Funk said. “So we have to make sure we have the freshest, cheapest and best quality.”
Although Funk was the first to bring THC-A to town, he never sold Delta-8 products in his store.
“When we found out about this, I did a ton of research on it to make sure it was legit,” Funk said. “Because we never sold any of the Delta-8 or whatever that may have been poisoning people.” Welch, too, is skeptical of Delta-8 and other Farm Bill-legal products.
“These products have been synthesized by these folks,” Welch said. “It’s a way for them to create highly intoxicating products, and it is fairly cheap.”
Welch explained that many companies were selling products with very little idea of what was in them. According to Welch, sourcing is everything. If companies could source the flower from a reputable source that was not adulterating it with other substances, then it would be fine.
The problem is that not all smoke shops are transparent about their sourcing. Sunmed CBD on University Avenue, also known as Your CBD Store, has recently started selling THC-A flower in addition to their hemp-based health and wellness products.
“We get our THC-A from a friend, err, like a trusted resource,” Cyrus Reynolds, an employee at Sunmed CBD, said of the store’s sourcing.
Reynolds did not say that their THC-A was harvested in two months rather than six months, but that it was possibly derived from a chemical process.
Welch explained that companies are not yet legally required to inform customers about where these products come from.
“That’s the problem with a lack of regulation,” Welch said. “These companies can tell you anything.”
There is also conflicting information depending on whom you ask. A budtender at Magnolia Cannabis Dispensary, located two doors down from Slackers Supply, explained the effects of THC-A differently. They chose to stay anonymous for fear of repercussions.
“THC-A is just premature weed that college kids and people who can’t get med cards smoke to say they smoke it,” they said. “It will not get you high or produce any of the desired medicinal effects as dispensary weed.”
Despite the lack of regulation, purchasing THC-A from a trusted establishment may be better and safer than other unregulated options.
“If you’ve got to get high but don’t have a med card, then buying THC-A from reputable stores with reputable sources may be safer than buying it from the guy on the corner, but it is not risk-free,” Welch said.
