WFAE
North Carolina is one of the strictest states in the nation for regulating marijuana. Even medical use is prohibited.
But the state has a legal, freewheeling, and totally open market for smokable cannabis products with psychoactive effects. Stores openly sell THC-A (tetrahydrocannabinolic acid) products. Billboards advertising cannabis delivery services are plastered all over the interstates. From the Conference Drive bridge over Independence Boulevard, you can see a CMPD substation on one side and a new cannabis superstore on the other.
Here’s the trick: If you eat a THC-A flower, nothing happens.
But once you burn it — through a process known as decarboxylation — THC-A converts to regular THC. In other words, it gets you just as high as the illegal stuff, through the exact same process (smoking). You can also buy THC-infused gummies, drinks and other consumables.
Chris Suttle of Chapel Hill, who worked with Gaskins to file the complaint, said he believes minorities are being disproportionately arrested for traditional marijuana, while many THC-A stores are in white communities.
“We keep seeing a trend where minorities are being targeted more,” he said. “We would like a legal opinion from Jackson as to whether continued enforcement of cannabis laws violates state and federal constitutional protections.”
That potential disparity was on display in Charlotte at the end of 2023. Police confronted a woman at a bus stop in southwest Charlotte who they believed was smoking marijuana. She said it was legal THC-A. The confrontation escalated and ended in a violent arrest, though charges were later dropped.
