After returning test results from THC-A products purchased at two businesses in Chatham County, the sheriff’s office announced charges against the operators and warned the community of their marketing toward minors.
A release from the Chatham County Sheriff’s Office on Monday detailed a recent investigation that led to sheriff’s deputies seizing items that tested over the state’s legal limit for THC-A (tetrahydrocannabinolic acid), which can become psychoactive when exposed to heat. In July, the narcotics unit of the office completed controlled purchases of products from P’s Vape Escape off Sanford Road in Pittsboro and Smokerz Depot on 11th Street in Siler City. The items returned from a nearby laboratory with THC levels more than 10 to 200 times the legal limit and “far above what was advertised,” according to the alert.
Investigators brought charges against business operators in both cases, in part because each had previously receiving warnings during an earlier investigation when law enforcement found the shops to be out of legal compliance. The Chatham County Sheriff’s Office emphasized its concern of these products, and similar ones, being marketed toward children — as the bright packaging, flavors and variety of vaping devices are often made to be attractive to young buyers, despite the contents being more potent than advertised.
“Our office is especially mindful of these cases as students head back to school,” Chatham County Sheriff Mike Roberson said in Monday’s release. “We respect the right of adults to purchase legal products. But when products are disguised as safe or legal while actually containing high levels of THC, or when they are packaged in ways that appeal to kids, that’s unacceptable and dangerous for our community.”
After obtaining the lab results, sheriff’s deputies took out search warrants for both businesses and executed them on Friday, Sep. 12. According to the law enforcement office, deputies seized 124 packages of Terp Tech THC Flower and 10 packages of Cookies Flower from Smokerz Depot, and 27 “Nice” brand vapes at P’s Vape Escape.
The two business operators charged in the case are 37-year-old Omar Ahmed Alwahisi of Sanford and 23-year-old Yaseen Abdullah of Siler City. Ahmed Alwahisi faces one count of felony possession with intent to sell or deliver a controlled substance, one count of felony maintaining a place for the sale of a controlled substance, and one count of felony selling a controlled substance within 1,000 feet of a child care center. Abdullah, meanwhile, faces one count of felony possession with intent to sell or deliver a controlled substance and one count of felony maintaining a place for the sale of a controlled substance. As of Monday afternoon, neither have been served their charges.
While recreational marijuana is not legal in North Carolina, hemp has been decriminalized because it is under the 0.3% limit of delta-9 THC that creates the psychoactive high. Many items classified as hemp, though, are not regulated beyond that limit and do not have a minimum legal purchasing age. While some proposals of state government laws to curb delta 8 and delta 9 THC were debated in the North Carolina General Assembly earlier this year, nothing was approved before elected officials went on summer break. Gov. Josh Stein, meanwhile, created the State Advisory Council on Cannabis in June and tasked its members with creating “a comprehensive approach to regulate cannabis sales,” while urging the General Assembly to prohibit sales of high-THC products to anyone under 21 and requiring packaging that explicitly lists THC levels in cannabis products.
Featured photo via the Chatham County Sheriff’s Office.
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