A few weeks ago, toward the end of a hectic workday, a writer — let’s call her Sarah — took what she thought was her usual dose of CBD. She had recently been gifted a new bottle from the same brand she always takes, and though the label was different, Sarah didn’t really notice. She was much more relaxed after two hours than she had expected. “I was eating dinner and suddenly staring into space,”She recalls. She was not amused by her husband’s reaction, but she was concerned. Then she realized that what she’d taken wasn’t CBD at all, but something called delta-8 THC. She was able to get high from it, even though it claimed to have the same legality as ultra-mild CBD.
Like well-known delta-9 THC — essentially, weed’s active ingredient — delta-8 THC does, as Sarah discovered, get you high. But the products wouldn’t exist without its less-intoxicating predecessor. The 2018 farm bill legalized industrial cannabis (defined as cannabis that contains less then.3 percent THC) and American producers got to work separating the chemical compounds from the legalized hemp. This was CBD. Then, they were able to get creative.
The 1940s saw the discovery of delta-8. It was originally isolated from cannabis but was mostly used for animal studies. “Delta-8 THC typically gets made by a synthetic process, which is a cyclization reaction from CBD,”Linda Klumpers, University of Vermont Chemist who co-authored the book, says Recent review of delta-8 research.Delta-8 is created when you add acid and solvent to CBD. Before the glut of CBD, no one took delta-8 seriously. This led to new products that go beyond getting high.
The problem with delta-8 products made from industrial hemp, however, is that there are no federal testing requirements — those are implemented on the state level when it comes to delta-9 — so you don’t necessarily know what you’re getting. Grant Boatman of Canna River — which makes vapes, gummies, and other products that include a variety of hemp-derived cannabinoids — says their products go through rigorous safety testing (lab reports are available on its website), but that can’t be said for many on the market. “We go above and beyond to make sure the products that we buy, the raw materials, are all clean,”He said. “[But] there’s a tremendous amount of bad actors that just don’t care.”(A delta-8 preroll is a product you should avoid. It generally contains CBD flower sprayed in the lab-derived cannabis.
On top of safety concerns, there’s also the problem of whether or not it’s actually legal. While some states have made laws specifically outlawing on a federal level the sale of delta-8, advocates claim that since it’s derived from a legal substance, it should be allowed; others say that since it’s an analogue of a federally controlled substance, it has the same legal standing as delta-9 THC. Shawn Hauser, a Colorado lawyer who specializes in cannabis law, explains it’s not really about the legality of the molecule itself. “For products that are interstate commerce and intended for human consumption, they have to be legal under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act,”She said. “And delta-8 products are not.”The FDA has yet to crack down on companies making claims about their health, just like CBD.
In states with legal weed, some operators have opted to use CBD extracted from marijuana plants, which aren’t legal for interstate commerce, but do have the benefit of being part of a regulated market — offering the customer more confidence. “Because of the FDA’s absence, these state programs include very robust regulatory frameworks — kind of like mini FDAs,” says Hauser. They manage everything, including packaging guidelines, manufacturing standards, and testing requirements. Alexi Chialtas, whose company WUNDER is licensed to make cannabis drinks under California’s marijuana program, sees expansion of available cannabinoids as an opportunity to target moods, not skirt state law. “We ultimately decided to blend delta-8 THC and delta 9-THC, and then also CBD, because we appreciated the experience,”He explains. “It is the closest to kind of this unwinding [feeling], more complex high, if you will.”
The proliferation of delta-8 has opened the door to experimentation with more obscure cannabinoids, like delta-10 THC and hexahydrocannabinol, also known as HHC — which has scientists more concerned. “Delta-10 THC has never been studied in people,” says Klumpers. “In fact, I couldn’t even find any study of delta-10 THC in animals.”
While HHC, which is made by hydrogenating delta-8 or delta-9 THC, has been studied in animals, it’s still unclear if it could have any adverse reactions on humans. Mark Scialdone — an organic chemist who patented the process of making a form HHC called HHCA — notes that there could be unforeseen consequences from ingesting a molecule that hasn’t gone through human testing. He cites the discovery of hydrogenated vegetable shorterening which has improved shelf stability of food products and added a new dimension to American diet. “What we now know is that hydrogenation of fats makes trans fats in the process,” says Scialdone. “Could [chronic use of] hydrogenated cannabinoids over many, many years, lead to chronic health conditions? We just don’t know yet.”
This item appears in Rolling Stone’s annual Hot List, in the July/August issue of the magazine.