Testing of smokable hemp at eight dispensaries around the state found that all were selling cannabis with potent levels of the psychoactive compound THC.
The first thing I notice on entering the store is the smell. It is an earthy sandalwood mixed with some type of citrus, perhaps sour lemon. It tells me I am in the right place, because I am here to buy cannabis. On my left sits a smoking lounge with four booths facing large windows that look out on an upscale South Austin shopping center. To my right, behind a glass window, is a demonstration grow room—more for show than large-scale cultivation. Straight ahead, on the back wall, a large lacquered-wood cabinet looks like something out of an old-fashioned drugstore. Its shelves hold a cannabinoid cornucopia: cookies, gummies, tinctures, machine-rolled joints, and glass containers half-filled with tightly clumped plant buds.
Another customer enters and makes a beeline to the counter. He orders a strain of cannabis called Blueberry Muffin. The salesman, Nick, uses plastic tongs to fish out a few buds and places them on an electric scale. As he does this, he sizes up my wide-eyed incredulity.
What he’s selling isn’t marijuana, he tells me. It is hemp containing a chemical compound called THCa. Lighting it on fire transforms the THCa into another compound, THC—delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, to be exact. “It’s a little less potent than what you would find in California, but it still gets the job done,” Nick says. “Rest assured, everything in the store will get you high.” [Read More @ Texas Monthly]