New Hampshire is the last state in New England to put forth any sort of common-sense cannabis policies. Even when it decriminalized cannabis, it only did so up to 3/4 an ounce of weed. While the surrounding states are all enjoying a legal cannabis market, New Hampshire is still creating “black market” cannabis. But is this issue actually as scary as we make it out to be?
New Hampshire “Black Market” Cannabis Is “White Market” Everywhere Else
There was a time, years ago, and before the big legal boom across the United States when cannabis had a shady undertone to it. While not to be put in the same category as other hard drugs that ruin peoples lives, cannabis still had the potential to have additives in it. Someone could have thrown other harsh materials in the bag of weed that you bought. This wasn’t a widely an issue that everyone thought it would be, it was still a serious issue to be adressed if the thought of legalization were to happen.
Even in 2017-2019 there was a large number of people learning how to do cannabis extractions in their garage. This created some issues not only in the end result, but in creating the process. At the time, everyone was trying to use butane to extract cannabis. Instead of extracting the butane from the wax, they just let it sit out overnight thinking that it would just evaporate out of the mix. This didn’t happen as thoroughly as a regular lab would have done. This resulted in issues of unclean extraction methods.
Times are changing and continue to change as the legal market is overtaking many of these backyard chemists.
Legal Cannabis Is Sold Across The Border
You can start anywhere in New Hampshire and drive in any direction for a certain amount of time and you will end up in a legal state. Every state that surrounds NH is legal. This means that purchasing legal cannabis is just a 20-45 minute drive across the border to Maine, Mass or Vermont.
Most people who are purchasing cannabis in NH are either simply driving across the border. This means that the white market cannabis that they are buying is black market across the line. These products have all the product test sheets and lab results due to them being legal and sold in a legal state.
While there are still arguments that these products are still unsafe for consumption, technology has improved to where no legal market wants to be responsible for injuring someones health. Nobody in the legal industry is trying to sell someone a fentanyl-laced weed pen.
Most Cannabis Products Are Legitimate
The stigma of purchasing a vape pen filled with oil that could be laced with something else is fading away. While Mass, Maine and Vermont have been rolling into the legal weed industry, there was a time for speculation. This was due to many illegal growers and sellers were already doing what they were doing, but in a legal state. Now that these states are fully legal, nobody wants to purchase weed from their friend when they can just go to the store and buy it. Now there are some drawbacks which has the potential to influence bad grow trends. Most of this comes form the high taxes that come from purchasing legal weed in Mass.
Most of the pre-filled vape pens that we purchase here are directly from retail stores across the border. They come wrapped, sealed and with all the lab results necessary to prove that they are, indeed, legal.
How To Spot Black Market Cannabis
To start, buying regular cannabis buds might be difficult to tell, but you can check the quality to be sure. Most cannabis will look clean and processed. Even then, most will come in a package with lab results. Buying your neighbors shitty ditch trim might be a good way to save money, but it has the potential to have issues. Black mold is one of the biggest and shouldn’t be smoked if it is noticed.
While regular buds can be from anywhere. Its better to do some research on what your friend is selling you.
Cartridges are a totally different matter. First of all, cartridges have developed like crazy to adequately handle cannabis oil. Not only that, but the overall focus for this hardware is on quality. The better the quality – the more notable the brand. We’ve been seeing a lot of Brass Knuckle THC cartridges around Manchester for the past few years.
These cartridges also go through extensive testing and have quality control standards. If they are not up to the quality control standards, then these do not get sold. Looks for a barcode that you can scan on the package to give you the full lab report rundown. If your cartridges aren’t sealed, or have this barcode, then it truly is a black market cannabis cartridge in New Hampshire.