If you know 4/20, you probably have questions about its lesser known cousin. So what is 710? It's a cannabis holiday celebrated every July 10th, and it's built around concentrates and oils rather than flower.
At Chunky Academy, we get asked about 710 every summer, so here's the full story: where it came from, what it means, and how people actually celebrate it.
What Is 710? Where the Holiday Came From
710 traces back to the early 2010s, when cannabis concentrates started moving from a niche corner of the market into the mainstream. As extraction methods improved, dabbing culture grew a real following, and that community wanted a day of its own.
The date started showing up in cannabis-friendly outlets like LA Weekly around 2013. That same year, Denver hosted the 710 Cup, widely considered the first organized celebration built specifically around concentrates. From there, the date spread fast. Dispensaries picked it up. Extract brands built entire marketing calendars around it. Now July 10th sits alongside 4/20 as one of the industry's biggest sales days, and it's typically the single biggest day of the year for concentrate purchases specifically.
How "710" Became Code for Oil
Here's the fun part of what is 710: flip the numbers upside down, the way they'd appear on a calculator or digital clock, and "710" reads as "OIL." That visual trick is the entire reason the date exists. It gave the concentrate community a shorthand that felt like an inside joke, similar to how 420 became code among earlier generations of cannabis users.
Oil is the broad term for concentrated cannabis extracts: wax, shatter, live resin, rosin, budder, sauce, and diamonds all fall under that umbrella. These products are made by pulling cannabinoids and terpenes out of the plant material, which produces something far more potent than flower. That potency is exactly why the community wanted its own holiday. Smoking flower and dabbing concentrate are different experiences, and extract fans wanted a day that reflected that.
What Is 710 Compared to 420?
People often lump these two dates together, but they mark different things. 420 is the broader cannabis holiday. It covers the whole plant, the whole culture, and decades of advocacy history. 710 is narrower and more product focused. It exists specifically to celebrate oil and concentrate culture: dab rigs, vape carts, and the extraction techniques behind them.
Think of it this way. 420 is cannabis culture's big tent. 710 is the room inside that tent reserved for extract enthusiasts. Plenty of people celebrate both, but 710 tends to draw a crowd that's more dialed into terpene profiles, extraction methods, and potency than the average flower shopper.
How People Celebrate 710
Celebrations vary by state and by community, but a few patterns show up every year. Dispensaries run concentrate-specific deals, since July 10th tends to be the busiest day of the year for that category. Extract brands release limited drops timed to the date. Dabbing meetups and pop-up events happen in legal markets, often centered around specific strains or extraction styles.
For home celebrations, people typically set up a dab rig or a concentrate-compatible vape, then work through a lineup of different extracts to compare terpene profiles and effects. Some people treat it as a tasting event, similar to a wine flight, moving through different concentrates from different producers over the course of the day.
Where THCa Fits Into the 710 Conversation
You might be wondering how a THCa flower retailer fits into a holiday built around oils. The connection is closer than you'd think. THCa, or tetrahydrocannabinolic acid, is the raw cannabinoid found in the cannabis flower before it's exposed to heat. When THCa flower gets smoked, vaped, or otherwise heated, a process called decarboxylation converts THCa into THC, the compound people associate with cannabis's more familiar effects.
That same conversion happens with concentrates. A THCa diamond or a live resin extract still relies on decarboxylation once heat hits it. So while 710 started as a flower-adjacent holiday celebrating a different product category, the underlying chemistry connects directly back to what makes THCa flower work in the first place. Many people who celebrate 710 with concentrates also keep quality THCa flower in rotation for a different kind of session. If you're curious about the chemistry behind that shift, the National Institutes of Health has published research on acidic cannabinoid decarboxylation that breaks the process down at the molecular level.
Why Lab Testing Matters on 710
Concentrates are potent by design, which makes quality control especially important. A poorly made extract can carry residual solvents or contaminants that never show up until someone actually tests the product. That's true for concentrates, and it's just as true for flower.
At Chunky Academy, every product goes through third party lab testing before it reaches a customer. That applies to our THCa flower selection, not just concentrates. Lab reports confirm cannabinoid percentages and screen for contaminants, so shoppers know exactly what they're getting. On a day built around potency, that kind of transparency matters more, not less.
It's also worth noting that hemp-derived THCa products are legal under the 2018 Farm Bill when they contain less than 0.3% delta-9 THC by dry weight, which is the standard framework most online THCa retailers operate within. For a closer look at how that legal structure works, the USDA's hemp program page lays out the federal guidelines directly.
Celebrate 710 with Chunky Academy
You don't need a dab rig to take part in 710. A well-cured, high-potency THCa flower can be its own kind of celebration, especially when you know exactly what's in it. Chunky Academy ships lab-tested THCa flower nationwide where legal, and every order is placed online with standard credit card checkout. No guesswork, no unmarked jars, just tested product and a straightforward ordering process.
Browse the current lineup on the Chunky Academy shop and pick something worth setting aside for July 10th. New batches move quickly around the holiday, so it's worth checking early. We also carry Snowcap flower that's infused with 100% pure THCa isolate for an extra dose of power.
710 might live in the shadow of 420 for now, but its influence keeps growing every year. Whether you're a longtime dabber or someone who just discovered what those three numbers mean, it's a good excuse to slow down and actually taste what you're smoking.
