Hacker News Reader

Comment by favourable | Hacker News Reader

I assume it's legal where you live? Because where I live, you get dragged through the courts and get a criminal record for even small amounts. Also since it's illegal, you have to have contacts in the criminal underworld, and fund criminal enterprises. Not to mention you don't know the quality of what you're getting. It could be laced with contaminants or simply low quality crap. If it's legal where you live, relish that and see it as an enormous privilege.

View on HN

In the USA, marijuana is functionally legal through most of the country due to the hemp bill and the existence of things like THCA and Delta-8 THC. Because of how a product is defined as marijuana vs. hemp, products high in THCA but below the Delta-9 THC limit are considered hemp, even though when decarbed (smoked, vaporized, cooked into edibles) THCA turns into regular old THC and Delta-8 THC is functionally a less potent form of Delta-9 THC.

Some states have enacted provisions around some or all of the Delta-9 THC analogs, but most have not.

I regularly have THCA products shipped to me via USPS in a box with marijuana leaves on it in a state where Delta-9 THC is still illegal for recreational use.

The THC-A exceptions really have not been tested against state laws where weed is still illegal. I understand that THC-A weed is openly sold in a lot of illegal states and enforcement is low. But if local/county/parish officers wanted to test using GCMS instead of LCMS, it would still show that the weed had too much D9-THC.

Maybe people could get this overturned in court in some of those states, but maybe not. I understand that there's some arguments that the federal law supersedes state law due to being on a USDA farm bill or something, but I really, really don't think any of the THC-A stuff has been tested in court.

Even at a purely federal level, I don't think I can just hop on a plane with a pound of THC-A weed and tell the TSA "oh this is just hemp."

https://www.tsa.gov/travel/security-screening/whatcanibring/...

TSA is supposed to let it through if it's below 0.3 D9-THC

GCMS will detect THCA if derivatized - https://www.cannabissciencetech.com/view/a-brief-review-of-d... - I find it hard to believe that you couldn't get a non-derivatized GCMS thrown out in court when it's known that GCMS will cause THCA to decarboxolate into THC.

I suppose I should stipulate I'm not a lawyer and there are obvious risks to possessing something that looks exactly like an illegal product.

Oh it is absolutely a privilege! Though it should not be, in the sense that it should be legal everywhere. Here in Oakland CA I can walk down the street and buy all the weed I want at the corner store. We have also decriminalized psilocybin mushrooms and other plant based substances including DMT. I had a very meaningful and healing experience aided by mushrooms with some close friends a few weeks ago, which involved opening up about some past shared trauma that a friend had been holding in, and led to a breakthrough in communication and togetherness.

California is looking at incremental steps towards broader legalization in therapeutic contexts, which is a step in the right direction: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-01-14/decrimin...

It is legal where I am, and I do relish the privilege. I truly hope decision makers pay attention and make it universally legal.

Growing it is also fairly straightforward and most growers are hardly the criminal underground.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com