High anxiety over federal weed loophole
Delta-8 THC[*] is an isomer of Delta-9 THC, the compound responsible for marijuana's intoxicating effects. That means the two are largely the same compound, with slight atomic differences. The vast majority of Delta-8 products aren't extracted from cannabis. Instead, producers convert plant-derived CBD into Delta-8 THC using a chemical process called isomerization. The process combines CBD with a solvent, acid and heat to cause the reaction that turns CBD[**] into THC.
[...] When Congress passed the 2018 farm bill legalizing hemp, it was eager to distinguish the crop from marijuana. Hemp and marijuana are the same species of plant, cannabis sativa L., but hemp can't contain more than 0.3 percent THC. The distinction is legal, not scientific.
"It's not clear whether [Delta-8 THC products] are illegal under the 2018 farm bill," said Jonathan Miller, general counsel for the U.S. Hemp Roundtable. "It is clear that it violates the spirit of the law."
[...] The CBD boom of last year led to plummeting prices and a huge glut of CBD isolate in the hemp industry. The Delta-8 trend is giving "processors an outlet for large inventories of CBD isolate they built up," said Ian Laird, chief financial officer at Hemp Benchmarks.
It's attractive for processors and retailers alike as the compound is more profitable than CBD. In January, Delta-8 cost about $1,400 per kilogram, while CBD isolate was selling for about $550 per kilogram.
[...] The call for regulations is a familiar refrain in the CBD industry, which has been begging the FDA to offer regulatory clarity. But it's not an easy task for regulators: There's still much unknown about the chemical process of turning CBD into Delta-8.
"It isn't just a clean one-to-one conversion," said Steven Crowley, compliance specialist at the Oregon Liquor Control Commission. "Fifteen to 30 percent is unknown byproducts."
And not only are there unknown byproducts, producers who cut corners or who simply don't know better may introduce impurities from the solvents and acids used in the process.
[*] Delta-8-Tetrahydrocannabinol. [**] CBD = Cannabidiol.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Barenflimski on Tuesday March 30 2021, @05:25AM
This is a clear sign that the drug war is working. For hundreds of thousands of years, if you wanted drugs, you had to grow poppies, or cannabis. Cannabis was at best about 10% THC. Smoking the poppy resin would put you to into a euphoric dream state.
Thanks to the drug war, we now have fentanyl , spray cannabinoids that will physically addict you and CBD turned into franken-THC. Because the drug war was so effective at sending people to prison who were smuggling this, it created a market for highly potent stuff. Before the drug war, you'd need 8 condoms full of your substance for a weekend party. Today, 1 condom full of fent will supply you and your boys for a year. You don't even need weed anymore. Just spray your legal tobacco with the spray cannabinoids and you are a blazin'!
The hope of just about everyone that is in the game is that we keep the drug war going as long as possible. The longer the drug war, the more potent the drugs. The richer the cartels. The fuller the prisons. Word on the street is that cocaine is up next to be super-charged. They say that with the new ubercaine they're creating, that one line will keep you up for 48 hours straight!
All sarcasm aside, it is terrifying to me that we still treat each other like children. I'm old enough to realize that in a free society, we can't tell people to stop doing things to their own bodies. Every time we do, we create a black market. Every time we create a black market, things get worse. You can't even shame people into wearing a mask, but we try to shame people out of using drugs? If "we" as a society were an actual person, we'd be committed.
It would be so refreshing if we could just address these things with a discourse based in reality concerning how to use these drugs properly. We've spent 50 years shunning those folks that dabble. We've created a shame based system. The drug issues in this country are about as intense as they get on planet earth.
And on a tangential issue, I'm still waiting for all of those rehab centers to be opened throughout the country with all of the proceeds of the Oxycontin lawsuits.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 30 2021, @05:31AM (4 children)
Even if it's closer to real cannabis, refining cannabis into delta-8 reminds me way too much of synthetics. There are enough horror stories about synthetics to make you back out if you look into it. Sadly, a lot of people will just try it, and it'll suck. Just smoke weed, people. It's safe. It's good. Unfortunately, it's not legal everywhere yet, so we keep getting this shit.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Immerman on Tuesday March 30 2021, @02:55PM (2 children)
Doesn't much matter what the feedstock is - once you start chemically processing it, it *is* a synthetic.
Complex organic molecules tend to have complex biological effects, and even slight variations in the molecule can dramatically alter the effects. So what if Delta-8 is an isomer of Delta-9? That means *nothing* about its safety - anyone remember the tragedy of the thalidomide babies? Thalidomide got prescribed as a treatment for morning sickness. Unfortunately the mass-produced version came in two isomers, and while one was great for morning sickness, the other was great at causing horrible birth defects.
The whole thing is just stupid - we've got thousands of years of history of people using natural cannabis without any problems. Then in the 30's the lumber and pharmaceutical industries, whose profits were in competition with hemp products, make common cause with the Mexican-hating racists, and suddenly one of the oldest and most popular drugs in the world is a horrible, not-good, very-bad menace to the very fabric of society, and must be banned. Then a few decades later in the 60s the hippie-hating warmongers got on board and decided it was so bad that it Must Be Stamped Out, and began the War on Drugs, militarizing the police to stomp out all those damned anti-war protestors...err...morally degenerate pot-smokers.
All of which is well documented at this point. Can we finally just admit that the ban never had anything to do with the drug itself and get rid of it? Stop incentivizing people to synthesize potentially dangerous new variants whose only redeeming quality is that they're not yet illegal.
(Score: 2) by legont on Tuesday March 30 2021, @05:59PM (1 child)
What you described was not the goal, but an excuse to build a fascist state; to make people behave. So, no, we can't admit what you wanted until we admit what I wrote.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday March 30 2021, @10:04PM
What did you write? I see one other post by you, here and it doesn't mention fascism at all.
(Score: 2) by legont on Tuesday March 30 2021, @05:54PM
Weed will go the same way as chicken in nuggets. We eat mostly synthetics. What makes you think weed will be different?
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 30 2021, @10:01PM (1 child)
CBC? isn't that the crap that gives you the shitters?
also i thought "old mary jane" that was sitting around too long and exposed to sunlight in the baggy would "auto-transform" the good THC to "makes you poop CBC"?
furthermore any "heat treatment", be it vapourizing in a joint or baking a cookie (!) would transform some of the stuff from "makes you happy and high" to "go potty now"?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 31 2021, @12:15AM
Sounds like you're high right now too.
(Score: 2) by cykros on Wednesday March 31 2021, @02:10PM
I'm no lawyer, but this seems like a substance ripe to be cracked down on using the Analog Act, which was notoriously used in the 2003 Operation Webtryp that took out all the chemical suppliers proffering things like 5-MeO-DMT (an analog of N,N-DMT), 5-MeO-AMT (an analog of AMT) and 4-HO-DiPT (an analog of 5-MeO-DiPT), among many others, despite their not being specifically scheduled themselves.
There are places where this law doesn't apply (for instance, Dextromethorphan is given specific immunity despite being a stereoisomer of Levomethorphan, a synthetic opioid, because it is used in OTC cough suppressants), but it's not clear to me that there is any exception to Delta-8-THC...perhaps someone with more legal proficiency could weigh in on that matter.