August 2024

By Russell Gold

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.

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