A good friend of mine was telling me the same thing as we were hitting my bong. I blew his mind when I told him we were smoking the very stuff he was claiming wasn’t real. He admitted he could not tell any difference at all and would not have known had I not told him. I had to show him the packaging because he thought I was kidding.
He couldn’t tell a difference because there is no functional difference the instant heat is applied to it. THCa is the natural precursor to THC in cannabis. It becomes regular old THC the instant heat is applied to it.