This is the second part of a two-part series on Delta-8 THC from hemp and Delta-9 THC from cannabis, the one that is on the Controlled Substance Act.  You can read the first part of the series here, “The Marijuana Industry is Dead”.  As a quick summary, Delta-8 THC is made from hemp in a lab, it is considered Federally legal by most people and all challenges at the Federal level have been ruled legal by Federal panel and courts.  States are banning the substance, as they deem it unsafe based on being made in a lab, but those same states that are banning hemp Delta-8 are also big players in the marijuana industry and looking to protect their golden tax goose as well.

Let’s continue our story from Part 1….

Delta-8 is legal at the Federal level, at least it has stood the test of legality at every Federal challenge.  Officially, Delta-8 THC is legal under the “Agricultural Improvement Act of 2018 (SEC. 12619)”. The Farm Act legalized hemp and hemp products across America. Federal panels have also ruled Delta-8 legal under challenges from different interested parties. The US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently wrote:

A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit wrote in an opinion published Thursday that products containing delta-8 THC are generally legal because federal law defines hemp as “any part of” the cannabis plant, including “all derivatives, extracts, [and] cannabinoids,” that contains less than 0.3 percent delta-9 THC by weight.

The law, the court said in the 3-0 ruling, “is silent with regard to delta-8 THC.”

While federally legal by all accounts, some states are banning Delta-8 due to consumer safety concerns over Delta-8 being made in a lab and containing “other ingredients” that could be harmful.  If you look at the states that are banning the “possibly harmful” Delta-8 from hemp, you will notice it is much of the West Coast, or states having large marijuana industries.  Where was the consumer safety worry when dabs, budder, wax, and shatter were being made with butane?  Now, a threat to their jobs and golden tax goose, legal marijuana states want to ban the ugly, stepbrother, hemp.  Delta-8 is from hemp, why can’t hemp have a little fun, and why does it always have to go to bed early and do their homework.

Why on earth would states, during the push for full Federal legalization, decide to proactively start making hemp-derived THC illegal?  We now have Federally legal THC (Delta-8), and all the heavy cannabis industry states with Delta-9 THC, want to make the other one from hemp, illegal!

Goodness gracious, talk about power and money-making moves and having nothing to do with the cannabis sativa plant cousins.

The great worry, if you read the first part of the series, was that Delta-8 from hemp is psychoactive, legal, shippable, easily sourced, requires much less cost and hoops to jump through, compared to the “real deal THC from weed”.  If everyone can get high on hemp THC, why would we need the other “federally illegal” kind?  Now you now why we called Part 1, “The Marijuana Industry is Dead”.

But what happened from 2018 to recently, to make Delta-8 go from a “diet high and flash-in-the pan” to a serious enough problem to where the entire West Coast has banned a hemp-derived molecule? Did Delta-8 change?  Did the hemp plant get stronger or more potent? 

No.  We had to dig a big to see what caused this new tsunami of worry and “banning” going on…

It was not that Delta-8 changed, it was the delivery method changed so dramatically, it caused massive new marijuana-like effects.  As we talked about in Part 1, we have tried 8 to 10 Delta-8 products.  Gummies, tinctures, vape pens, and all were “so-so”, “almost-kinda-like it”, to “CBD with a little airiness”.  Again, not to regurgitate the whole story here, but it seemed like Delta-8 had a quick shelf life, a get-rich-quick scheme feel, and who would want this stuff when we got Federal legalization.

Nano emulsion – The Game Changer that put Delta-8 on the Map

It was not Delta-8 powder or extract changing, it was the delivery method used for carbonated beverages.  Nano emulsion basically miniaturizes the Delta-8 molecule to less than 50ng.  What does that mean?  I don’t know, but so small it can now pass directly into the blood stream.  It can get through more barriers and get to your heart and head much, much fastener.  They shrunk Delta-8 molecules down to get them directly into your bloodstream and “Houston, we have a problem!” as some would say

You get crazy-numb stoned on a 30mg Delta-8 THC in a carbonated beverage.

Yes, stoned like a good 10 mg Delta-9 gummy.  People are raving that is completely legal, shipping all over America as you read this, getting people crazy stoned, helping people get a great night sleep if CBN is added to the infusion.  Want to lose weight? Could a THCV infused Delta-8 drink far behind, appetite suppressant and get buzzed?

Think we are kidding?

Take a look at that map again.  Do you know how hard it is to pass a law or binding agreement at the state level, let alone one dealing with hemp, which was just made Federally legal?  Look how quickly states moved to get these bans in place?  Why? Money.  Lot of jobs, tax revenue, and money at stake in these Western state economies. Once hemp drinks came to light and the effects, many states moved very quickly to ban a hemp-derived molecule?  Say what?

They knew what could happen if people started trying and using Delta-8 drinks.  There was a groundswell movement to stop Delta-8 THC from hemp as a consumer safety issue, once the nano emulsion drinks figured out their riddle, the states moved ridiculously fast on such a “frivolous” item in the grand-scheme of state governments. 

Unless Delta-8 THC from hemp not so frivolous after all.

As mentioned in Part 1, this is the 13th man theory in “World War Z”.  We dropped the ball; we wrote it off as frivolous after all.

Who would believe 10-years ago that if I told you we would still be fighting for Federal Delta-9 THC legalization, the hemp industry would come up with their own version of legal THC under the Farm Bill Act, and it was so good that states would try and start banning it to protect their own marijuana industry?

You can’t make this stuff up.

If the theory is true that Big Marijuana, or MSOs, don’t want Federal legalization in order to protect their state-by-state moats, would Delta-8 become a big enough problem to where lobbyist and MSOs want Federal legalization to fight off hemp products?  Could Delta-8 spur in some weird way, Delta-9, the “real deal THC”, legalization? 

Crazy laser beams now exploding my universe.

If we don’t see Federal legalization of marijuana for another 4 or 5 years, and everyone get used to getting high on Delta-8 without any fear of prosecution or retaliation by the state and Federal government, do we even need Delta-9 weed in 5 years?

And that is why legal cannabis states jumped to get Delta-8 rules on the board.

Nano emulsion and shrinking molecules in a lab just started the cannabis industry’s civil war.

Source: https://cannabis.net/blog/opinion/d8-vs.-d9-the-cannabis-industrys-civil-war