Tasting/Testing Journal, Ep. 5 “Red Devil Knockout Gummies"
The clerk said they were the best-selling gummies in the store, with “all the kinds of THC.” The “4000 mg” emblazoned at the top of the label explained why they sell – but not what compounds they contain.
The store was “DJ’s Smoke Shop” in St. Petersburg, Florida, a state with a medical cannabis program but no adult-use. Countless stores sell products containing “hemp-derived cannabinoids.” These intoxicating compounds are chemically synthesized from CBD that came from hemp, as defined in the 2018 Farm Bill.
On staff recommendation, I bought “Red Devil Knockout Gummies,” manufactured by Red Devil Labs in Orlando, FL. The package mentions “D9 Live Resin + HHC + THCP” on the label, as though these are the cannabinoid compounds it contains. The website describes the contents as “The amount of Delta 9 THC in each of our gummies is 200 milligrams, a very substantial serving size to offer you the entire range of effects the cannabinoid is capable of.” The text on the website doesn’t mention HHC or THCP. [https://lnkd.in/eEyZb5Vy]
We don’t know what D9 Live Resin means in this context; a textbook THC live resin 1) isn’t a hemp-derived product, and 2) isn’t a suitable ingredient for edibles. HHC is hexahydrocannabinol, which can be made by hydrogenating mixtures of THC isomers, and THCP is tetrahydrocannabiphorol, a longer-sidechain homolog of THC that requires laborious chemical synthesis. The information on the website and label are inconsistent, and likely to confuse consumers. These compounds have different dosing; a lump total of all cannabinoids gives little help.
We bought Strawberry flavor, to honor “Red Devil.” The gummies were light pink, smelled like strawberry candy, and had a pectin texture – soft and moist, not stretchy or tough. Jill Carreiro said they were tasty, but I didn’t care for them as much. To me, the strawberry candy flavor twisted to medicinal, leaving a bitter aftertaste until I cleansed my palate.
I have felt relaxed and soothed after eating each one. It’s a typical edible high, with physical relaxation, relief from anxiety, and eventual hunger, over the course of several hours.
We used Jill’s hashtagLightLab from Orange Photonics, Inc. to test the ingredients of these mysterious gummies. We determined that a single gummy contains HHC (131 mg), and no other cannabinoids!
These Red Devil Gummies illustrate a couple of points about hemp-derived products in non-recreational states. Many list multiple cannabinoid ingredients without specifying doses of each. Total milligrams per package (of whatever compound) is used in marketing. The consumer can’t know the true contents, and we’ve found packages that list several active ingredients but contain just one. The websites are cookie-cutter ChatGPT-jobs.
It looks like someone throwing all the s*** available against a wall to see what sticks.
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TL;DR
🔥😈 Tasting/Testing Ep. 5: “Red Devil Knockout Gummies”
The clerk said, “They’ve got all the kinds of THC.”
Turns out? Just HHC. And a lot of it — 131 mg per gummy, to be exact.
Sold in Florida (a non-recreational state), these gummies scream “4000 mg” on the label but say little about what’s actually inside. The packaging mentions Delta-9, HHC, THCP. The site contradicts that. We ran it through the Orange Photonics Inc, and cut through the marketing smoke.
⚠️ This is what unregulated hemp-derived products look like: vague claims, inflated numbers, and consumers left guessing. We’re here for clarity.
Full testing breakdown and lab data on ICS.
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