Is Delta-8 THC safe?

Delta-8 THC is a popular new way to get high, since it is legal in many places where regular cannabis is not. But just because it’s escaped a legal loophole doesn’t mean it’s perfectly safe, and recently the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned consumers and health providers on some potential drawbacks.

What is Delta-8?

Cannabis contains a variety of natural chemicals that have effects on our brains and bodies. The best known is tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC. This is considered to be the main source of the herb’s effect. Technically, most of the THC we are interested in is chemically known as delta-9 THC and federal regulations apply to cannabis plants that have a certain percentage of delta-9.

Another of these natural chemicals is cannabidiol (CBD), which you have probably noticed everywhere. since the 2018 Farm Bill authorized the legal sale of cannabis plants containing less than 0.3% THC. This means that if you start with low delta-9-THC hemp plants rather than high delta-9-THC marijuana, you can make just about anything you want and have it. sell legally. This has led to the rise of CBD products, which are made from these low THC plants.

Somewhere along the line, a genius figured out that you could process hemp plants to create delta-8 THC. It’s not prohibited by federal law, but it can still get you high. There is more info on this in our guide to enjoying delta-8 responsibly, but basically in most states you can easily buy delta-8 products over the counter or order them online. You will often find them in CBD stores, as they owe their availability to the same legal loophole.

What is wrong then?

Recent warnings from the FDA and CDC don’t include anything too serious about Delta-8 itself, but we’ll get into specifics in a minute. What is important to know first is that delta-8 is still THC and appears to have the same risks and benefits as normal THC (delta-9).

In other words, it can get you high, and if you take too much you could have symptoms of “greening” including nausea, lethargy, and lack of coordination. THC can also affect your heart rate and blood pressure, making it a health problem even though overdoses are unlikely to be fatal.

Once you figure this out, there are two main issues that the FDA and CDC are concerned about.

People don’t always realize they’re taking THC

Since delta-8 is often sold with CBD products, it can be easy to overlook the fact that you are buying something that can get you high. Not everyone knows what delta-8 is, and those who discover it for the first time might hear it being called a cutesy nickname like “diet weed” or they might hear a sales pitch downplaying it. similarities between delta-8 and normal. cannabis.

The recent CDC Report cites two cases from the West Virginia Poison Control Center in which adults took what they thought were “CBD-like products” and ended up getting high enough to call the poison control center.

Another pair of cases, this time from Michigan, involved children who ate a parent’s delta-8 candy. The children ended up with slowed breathing, a slowed heartbeat, and reduced blood pressure. They were admitted to intensive care for monitoring and supplemental oxygen.

The CDC also notes that labels may not always reflect how smelly a product can make you, as there are instances where a weed product may contain both delta-9 and delta-8, but list only one or the other on its label. And while states with legal weed often have some quality control oversight or requirements for lab testing, there is no such framework for delta-8 products.

The bottom line here is that it is important to treat delta-8 products the same as any other weed product: keep them away from children and pets, read labels carefully, and when trying a new product, take a small dose to start. with.

Delta-8 products could be contaminated with other chemicals

If delta-8 products only contained delta-8, that would be the end of it. But hemp plants don’t normally contain a lot of delta-8; this is why we are talking about delta-8 some products (like gummies and vapes) rather than just smoking hemp flowers. It takes a lot of industrial processing to turn the traces of cannabinoids in hemp into enough delta-8 for a psychoactive candy.

As an article in Chemical and Engineering News explains, lab analysis has found other cannabinoids like delta-9 and delta-10 THC in many delta-8 products, as well as a menagerie of mysterious compounds that don’t occur naturally in cannabis and whose potential effects and risks are still unknown. One of them is olivetol, which might lessen your effect and could be the reason why people often experience milder effects from delta-8 than regular cannabis, but this is only a guess. We also don’t know what a safe dose of olivetol might be.

Then there is the question of what is added to the products as the delta-8 is produced. Usually there is a solvent like toluene or heptane, and a strong acid. It might be okay if you knew for sure that these chemicals were removed before the end of the product. But “most people don’t take the time to distill it or use the chromatography,” a chemist told Chemical and Engineering News.

The FDA and CDC are also concerned that people making delta-8 products are doing so without proper facilities and adding ingredients for color or other reasons that might not be safe to inhale or ingest. If you remember vaping-related lung disease (EVALI) from a few years ago, it seemed like it was caused by additives in weed vaporizers that were not safe to inhale. The regulations don’t automatically secure things, but it should be noted that none of the vape products related to EVALI came from legal dispensaries.

If you think you’ve had any health issues related to a delta-8 product (or any drug for that matter), the FDA has several ways to report them and even speak directly to someone at the agency, which are listed at the bottom of their Delta-8 fact sheet.