Economy

Patrick Callahan on growing potency of legal THC products

Marinette County Sheriff's Office narcotics investigator Patrick Callahan describes the marketing and sale of refined THC products, particularly oils and edibles, in states where cannabis is legal.

By Zac Schultz | Here & Now

October 30, 2023

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Patrick Callahan:
On the commercial side, packaging and whatnot, you know, obviously it's not FDA controlled, but you get the similar kind of information when you buy a product that's tells you the potency, but you know, that's for the conscious user, if you will. But, you know, there's also kind of this trend on how strong can we make our product or what can we do to make this the strongest possible, most pure form of THC, you know, you can get? I mean, you look at some of the DEA statistics, you know, your standard THC was 4% Delta-9, which is the active ingredient. And then you look at, you know, current trends on some of the edibles and gummies, you know, we can go over to Michigan, to Lume right now, and I can find 98.7% pure THC Delta-9 on the shelf. So, you know, there's been no studies on what is 98.7% of the active ingredient, you know, do to an individual versus, you know, 4%. I think there's a little bit of disconnect, especially with lawmakers and those who maybe, you know, tried or used marijuana, especially flower, right? We don't see a lot of flower anymore, you know, even on traffic stops and whatnot. Most of our seizures are THC vape oils, dab, you know, edibles and stuff that have a much, a remarkably higher concentration of Delta-9 than, you know, than the flower product does. And that's on purpose. It's advertised that way. And that's kind of the, you know, the marketing for it in those dispensaries.


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