THCa flower, the stakes are high and the chances are slim...

Dateline 1-3-24

It’s cold outside here in Middle Tennessee, so The Old Hemp Farmer is nursing a wonderful hot cup of organic Indonesian coffee and noshing some Costa Rican Cacao fortified with Tennessee homegrown Cannabis extract. Which is just one of the many Tennessee homegrown Recreational Cannabis edibles that’ll remain legal after July 1st of this year, which is a good thing because we will probably lose three different revenue streams - D8 Vape cartridges, THCa Pre-rolls and D8/D9 Tinctures unless…

So this morning’s blurb is about how possibly the high THCa Industry can be salvaged here in Tennessee. There are two scenarios that can possible save the Cannabis “cash cow” that is known as THCa. The first scenario that could save your THCa favorite product could start January 9th when the 2024 Tennessee legislative session commences. During this upcoming legislative session the House and Senate could simple rewrite HB0304 to state that all testing would be for Delta 9 THC only and this would apply to Cannabis grown by licensed Tennessee farmers. Lee Crabtree and I have been compliantly growing Cannabis in the state for going on eight years and presently we have to watch the majority of THCa flower being sold in Tennessee being Black Market grown other states. There is only one way to battle Black Market Cannabis and that is to have a Vertical (grown, processed, packaged and inspected in state) Cannabis program that provides relatively inexpensive high THCa flower that can be accessed easily. Which is an easily understood concept but I strongly doubt the Republican Super majority that control the Tennessee House and Senate are going to be comfortable with basically sensible Cannabis laws. So The Old Hemp Farmer doesn’t see HB0403 rewritten to save high THCa Flower because the majority of folks in the Tennessee Statehouse still harbor animosity against marijuana, which is basically what high THCa Flower actually is, so that ship probably won’t sail.

The other way that could possibly salvage the high THCa flower Industry in Tennessee is the ongoing campaign of petitioning the Tennessee Department of Agriculture with letters, phone calls and texts to amend the methodology (testing for Delta 9 THC from post decarboxylation to pre decarboxylation) of testing Cannabis products. (Doesn’t seem like much but the difference is everything to wholesalers and retailers.) With the Culmination of this “Save The THCA flower” campaign being hopefully a mass of Cannabis folks attending the town hall meeting where Public comment is scheduled for Feb. 6, 2024, at 10 a.m. at the Tennessee Department of Agriculture’s Porter Building Atrium. So let us say a gang of folks actually do contact their legislators and the TDA to plead for high THCa flower and products, will this approach work? Maybe, maybe not. I’m not sure if people realize that the Tennessee Department of Agriculture was founded in 1854 and is the oldest state agency in Tennessee. This Cabinet-level agency is one of the largest and most firmly entrenched bureaucracies in Tennessee executive branch and supposedly only answers to the Governor. Which means the TDA can’t be voted out of office so they know their jobs are safe. Assured longevity has its rewards. Also know that the forthcoming lack of the public’s access to high THCa flower and the loss of revenue at Cannabis companies isn’t a crisis at the Tennessee Department of Agriculture. But be assured that the TDA will listen attentively but in the end these civil servants will do what they think is best for their agency and their pensions. Anyway as always, Hemp Dawgs and Hemp Puppies keep one eye on the weather and the other eye on the market.

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