# Cannabis In Tennessee

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cannabis-in-tennessee/985864>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 21, 2023, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cannabis-in-tennessee/985864 "2023-06-21T01:10:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2023, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cannabis-in-tennessee/985864/1 "2023-06-21T01:10:27Z")

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Tennesse hasn’t gotten on the legalization bandwagon yet, per NORML. [https://norml.org/laws/tennessee-penalties-2/#:~:text=2015](https://norml.org/laws/tennessee-penalties-2/#:~:text=2015))%20Web%20Search-,Possession,a%20%24500%20mandatory%20minimum%20fine. Except, I was in Gatlinburg yesterday and I walked past (and went into) a shop that said “Smoky Mountain Dispensary” (or something like that) and had jars of flower for sale, a menu on the board listing the THC content of Purple Nurple This and Nepalese Kush that. I asked the guy behind the counter how they could sell it in Tennessee, and he mentioned something about loopholes and decarbing and swore up and down that whatever I bought from him would give me the same high as what I bought in Missouri ([legally](https://norml.org/laws/missouri-penalties-2/)).

I didn’t take him up on it because reasons (mainly not wanting to get caught with it in Kentucky on the way home), so I don’t know if he’s telling the truth.

Is there a quasi-legal weed market in Tennessee where the rules are (apparently) so poorly-written that you can legally sell flower from a shop (on a busy pedestrian street in a tourist town, no less)?

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**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2023, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cannabis-in-tennessee/985864/2 "2023-06-21T01:22:18Z")

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Here’s what a Google search tells me

(I’m not in Tennessee)

> [@](#):
>
> By the end of 2019, Tennessee passed [Public Chapter 916](https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/agriculture/documents/industrial-hemp/2021/Statutory%20Authority%2011.2021.pdf), amending Public Chapter 87, which was rewritten in September 2021.
> 
> Delta 9 is legal in Tennessee, but only when it passes the following conditions:
> 
> - The product is derived from hemp.
> - The THC content must not exceed 0.3% by dry weight.

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**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2023, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cannabis-in-tennessee/985864/3 "2023-06-21T10:06:44Z")

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> [@Moriarty](#):
>
> The THC content must not exceed 0.3% by dry weight

Huh, shop guy was being economical with the truth.

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**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2023, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cannabis-in-tennessee/985864/4 "2023-06-21T11:35:32Z")

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It’s complicated. The product he was selling might actually comply with the poorly written law, because the high “THC” levels are actually canabanoids like thca and others that with heat convert to THC.