About eight years ago, Jay Barrios opened a vape shop in Florida. He started to sell nicotine then CBD until last year when he launched a Delta-8 THC brand that sells vaporizers, edibles and flowers.
Delta-8 THC is a cousin compound to Delta-9 THC the main ingredient in cannabis. The substance has the power to get you high, legally. Delta-8 THC is legal thanks to a legal loophole made by the 2018 Farm Bill that legalized cannabinoids derived from hemp.
In fact, Marijuana and hemp are the same plant, however hemp is a marijuana plant that contains less than 3% Delta-9 THC. This means that the psychoactive effects are almost nonexistent.
Delta-8 THC has become one of the most trendy products in the hemp industry. The cannabinoid can be infused in edibles, turned into vaping oil or sprayed on hemp flowers.
For now, Delta-8 products can be found almost everywhere outside of legal cannabis dispensaries in the US: gas stations, head shops, bodegas… The situation might however quickly change, as lawyers in the cannabis industry warn that the law is currently quite blurry and hemp businesses are against the sale of Delta-8 due to its psychoactive effects.
The 2018 Farm Bill explicitly legalizes all hemp-derived cannabinoids, extracts and derivatives with no qualifications. At first pass, this seems like Delta-8, so long as it’s derived from hemp, is 100% legal under the bill. However, there are three issues that create ambiguity.
Three grey areas came up with this law. The first one is that members of Congress passed the bill considering that hemp products were non-intoxicating, in other words, that it didn’t have the potential to get you high. The second issue is that Delta-8 is included in the DEA’s list of controlled substances along with Delta-9. Finally, the third issue is the compound doesn’t appear in hemp with enough volume to extract and use. Currently, Delta-8 products are made synthetically from CBD to be then put through an isolation and distillation process. One could easily argue around the motive behind selling such products? Is it meant to get a user high or be used as a medicine?
Let’s see how things evolve in regards to the regulations around Delta-8. While delta-8 THC may still be largely unknown, product retailers in the USA, and increasingly in Europe, are beginning to catch on to its potential. And oh dear the legal high is lucrative!
