Government
The Curious Case of Delta-8 THC – Should States Ban Synthetic Cannabis Even Though It is Federally Legal?
Should States Ban Synthetic Cannabis?
Starting July 1, 2022, Oregon became the first state to ever ban synthetic cannabinoids from retailers and grocery stores.
According to regulators, sales of synthetic cannabinoids have been banned due to rising concerns regarding the dangerous chemicals used in these harmful products. To make these products, manufacturers isolate them or make them synthetically through a lab. While they don’t contain THC, most synthetic cannabinoid products are wildly unregulated.
Synthetically made cannabinoids have made headlines due to the numerous dangerous, if not nearly fatal, intoxications that they cause. Delta-8 THC, in particular, has been on the radar of the Centers for Disease Control due to over 100 hospitalizations in half a year. But Delta-8 THC, as well as other cannabinoids that are made synthetically such as CBN and CBD, already exist naturally in the cannabis plant though in such tiny amounts that a laboratory process is needed to make more of it.
According to Christopher Hudalla, ProVerde Labs’ chief scientific officer, there are a lot of serious health and safety risks associated with making synthetic cannabinoids. “It’s very easy to do in your garage,” he told Analytical Cannabis last year. “CBD is almost free. There’s so much oversupply of CBD that it’s very, very inexpensive. It used to be something like 12 cents a milligram. Now I can buy it for probably 0.1 cents a milligram,” he said. “And you can take that and, in your garage, convert it to delta-8. So there’s very good margins in it.”
“There’s no regulatory control,” Hudalla adds. “And so we know children are consuming these products without any indication about how safe they are. That’s hugely irresponsible in my opinion.”
How Did We Get Here?
It was sometime back in the mid-2000s that synthetic cannabis products started to appear in gasoline station shops and convenience stores. They were also known as Spice and K2, made from substances that weren’t specifically banned by federal or state laws. However, once we reached the end of the decade, many states have already banned their sale.
In 2012, President Obama enacted the Synthetic Drug Abuse Prevention Act. This was helpful in making numerous synthetic cannabinoids highly restricted under the Schedule 1 classification – unfortunately, the same classification that real marijuana is on at the moment.
Oregon is the very first state to ban the sale of laboratory-grown marijuana, but at least 43 other states have already placed restrictions of some sort on synthetic cannabinoids. However, I believe that all states should follow suit with Oregon because this highly unregulated product is a serious risk to society. Even though the FDA doesn’t regulate the medical marijuana industry, a strict (and expensive!) licensing process is required for individuals or businesses to establish dispensaries. In addition, there is a huge difference from synthetic cannabinoids and the legal marijuana industry because states set their own regulations about cannabis, and educated consumers know to look for established brands. A certificate of analysis is also provided by some brands for consumers who want peace of mind about what truly goes into every product they put into their body.
Marijuana is cultivated primarily for its therapeutic purposes, similar to its CBD-rich cousin – hemp – which is cultivated for other uses too such as its use in textiles and even concrete substitutes. On the other hand, synthetic cannabinoids, it seems, only merely seeks to mimic the impact of marijuana. That’s why it’s so appealing to those who don’t know better – such as teenagers, who also don’t have the budget to buy from dispensaries. And because of this, there is such a big risk allowing synthetic cannabinoid manufacturers operate in the market.
There needs to be some kind of regulatory framework at the very least so that we can prevent its harms. Back in the day, Spice and K2 were sold as marijuana though one sniff or touch of the stuff and you can already tell that it isn’t the real deal. But these days, synthetic cannabis is already being infused into gummies, after which there’s no way to tell the difference.
Delta-8 THC products are flourishing in the market nowadays, too, but one has to tread with caution, no matter how much of a seasoned cannabis consumer you think you are. According to the FDA, there were 104 cases of adverse reports among people who consumed delta-8 THC from December 2020 through February 2022. Fifty-five percent of them needed medical intervention, such as through hospitalization or emergency medical services while 66% reported adverse effects after consuming delta-8 THC edibles. The adverse effects included vomiting, anxiety, tremors, loss of consciousness, and hallucinations to name a few.
It also puts the real thing in a bad light.
In 2019, the American Association of Poison Control Centers stated that CBD was considered an “emerging hazard” because of cases involving contamination and mislabeling, according to a CNBC report.
At the end of the day, it’s up to states to make use of the necessary prosecution methods and administration actions to ban these substances and sales entirely. While regulating them could help in a way, but all the bad news of the dangers simply outweigh the benefits, and simply put, when the real marijuana is out there, why do people need to succumb to the fake stuff anyway?
Sure, it’s much cheaper to make synthetic cannabis – but is your health worth the risk? Going into a coma, being hospitalized, and feeling like you’re going to die? These are things that cannabis will never do to you.
So it’s up to the states to ban them. And it’s high time all states should follow in the footsteps of Oregon.
New Mexico regulators fined a cannabis operator nearly $300,000 and revoked its license after the company allegedly created fake reports in the state’s traceability software.
The New Mexico Cannabis Control Division (CCD) accused marijuana manufacturer and retailer Golden Roots of 11 violations, according to Albuquerque Business First.
Golden Roots operates the The Cannabis Revolution Dispensary.
The majority of the violations are related to the Albuquerque company’s improper use of BioTrack, which has been New Mexico’s track-and-trace vendor since 2015.
The CCD alleges Golden Roots reported marijuana production only two months after it had received its vertically integrated license, according to Albuquerque Business First.
Because cannabis takes longer than two months to be cultivated, the CCD was suspicious of the report.
After inspecting the company’s premises, the CCD alleged Golden Roots reported cultivation, transportation and sales in BioTrack but wasn’t able to provide officers who inspected the site evidence that the operator was cultivating cannabis.
In April, the CCD revoked Golden Roots’ license and issued a $10,000 fine, according to the news outlet.
The company requested a hearing, which the regulator scheduled for Sept. 1.
At the hearing, the CCD testified that the company’s dried-cannabis weights in BioTrack were suspicious because they didn’t seem to accurately reflect how much weight marijuana loses as it dries.
Company employees also poorly accounted for why they were making adjustments in the system of up to 24 pounds of cannabis, making comments such as “bad” or “mistake” in the software, Albuquerque Business First reported.
Golden Roots was fined $298,972.05 – the amount regulators allege the company made selling products that weren’t properly accounted for in BioTrack.
The CCD has been cracking down on cannabis operators accused of selling products procured from out-of-state or not grown legally:
- Regulators alleged in August that Albuquerque dispensary Sawmill Sweet Leaf sold out-of-state products and didn’t have a license for extraction.
- Paradise Exotics Distro lost its license in July after regulators alleged the company sold products made in California.
Golden Roots was the first alleged rulebreaker in New Mexico to be asked to pay a large fine.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/new-mexico-cannabis-operator-fined-loses-license-for-alleged-biotrack-fraud/
Four marijuana companies, including a multistate operator, have filed a lawsuit against U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in which they allege the federal MJ prohibition under the Controlled Substances Act is no longer constitutional.
According to the complaint, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, retailer Canna Provisions, Treevit delivery service CEO Gyasi Sellers, cultivator Wiseacre Farm and MSO Verano Holdings Corp. are all harmed by “the federal government’s unconstitutional ban on cultivating, manufacturing, distributing, or possessing intrastate marijuana.”
Verano is headquartered in Chicago but has operations in Massachusetts; the other three operators are based in Massachusetts.
The lawsuit seeks a ruling that the “Controlled Substances Act is unconstitutional as applied to the intrastate cultivation, manufacture, possession, and distribution of marijuana pursuant to state law.”
The companies want the case to go before the U.S. Supreme Court.
They hired prominent law firm Boies Schiller Flexner to represent them.
The New York-based firm’s principal is David Boies, whose former clients include Microsoft, former presidential candidate Al Gore and Elizabeth Holmes’ disgraced startup Theranos.
Similar challenges to the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA) have failed.
One such challenge led to a landmark Supreme Court decision in 2005.
In Gonzalez vs. Raich, the highest court in the United States ruled in a 6-3 decision that the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution gave Congress the power to outlaw marijuana federally, even though state laws allow the cultivation and sale of cannabis.
In the 18 years since that ruling, 23 states and the District of Columbia have legalized adult-use marijuana and the federal government has allowed a multibillion-dollar cannabis industry to thrive.
Since both Congress and the U.S. Department of Justice, currently headed by Garland, have declined to intervene in state-licensed marijuana markets, the key facts that led to the Supreme Court’s 2005 ruling “no longer apply,” Boies said in a statement Thursday.
“The Supreme Court has since made clear that the federal government lacks the authority to regulate purely intrastate commerce,” Boies said.
“Moreover, the facts on which those precedents are based are no longer true.”
Verano President Darren Weiss said in a statement the company is “prepared to bring this case all the way to the Supreme Court in order to align federal law with how Congress has acted for years.”
While the Biden administration’s push to reschedule marijuana would help solve marijuana operators’ federal tax woes, neither rescheduling nor modest Congressional reforms such as the SAFER Banking Act “solve the fundamental issue,” Weiss added.
“The application of the CSA to lawful state-run cannabis business is an unconstitutional overreach on state sovereignty that has led to decades of harm, failed businesses, lost jobs, and unsafe working conditions.”
Alabama regulators are targeting Dec. 1 to award the first batch of medical cannabis business licenses after the agency’s first two attempts were scrapped because of scoring errors and litigation.
The first licenses will be awarded to individual cultivators, delivery providers, processors, dispensaries and state testing labs, according to the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC).
Then, on Dec. 12, the AMCC will award licenses for vertically integrated operations, a designation set primarily for multistate operators.
Licenses are expected to be handed out 28 days after they have been awarded, so MMJ production could begin in early January, according to the Alabama Daily News.
That means MMJ products could be available for patients around early March, an AMCC spokesperson told the media outlet.
Regulators initially awarded 21 business licenses in June, only to void them after applicants alleged inconsistencies with how the applications were scored.
Then, in August, the state awarded 24 different licenses – 19 went to June recipients – only to reverse themselves again and scratch those licenses after spurned applicants filed lawsuits.
A state judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by Chicago-based MSO Verano Holdings Corp., but another lawsuit is pending.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/alabama-plans-to-award-medical-cannabis-licenses-dec-1/
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