Hemp could be the nation’s new cash crop, but cannabis experts advise the industry to proceed with caution.
When the federal Farm Bill of 2018 legalized cultivation of hemp – a member of the banned cannabis family – it also opened legal loophole entrepreneurs could use to chemically produce large quantities of low-cost Delta 8 THC from the plant.
Delta 8 THC is kin to Delta 9 THC, the isomer in cannabis long known for getting people high.
In 1970, the demonization of those “stoner” effects led the federal government to list cannabis with other illegal schedule-1 drugs. But now, 36 states have legalized its medical use, while18 states allow adult recreational use as well.
In the mid-1990s, Delta 8 THC – regarded as Delta 9 THC’s milder relative – was tested on a small group of children battling cancer in Israel and found to help offset nausea associated with chemotherapy. But very little research has been conducted in the U.S. due to its illegal classification.
It turns out that hemp’s plentiful cannabidiol (CBD) can be chemically synthesized with acids and solvents to produce large quantities of Delta 8 THC, thus opening the door for a new quasi-legal THC market nationwide.
But cannabis experts around the nation have reservations about hemp CBD’s manufacture into synthetic Delta 8 THC – among them Chris Hudalla, chemist and chief scientific officer for Maine-based ProVerde Laboratories.
“If it was being extracted from hemp, I could make the argument that it was legal,” Hudalla said by email. “But it is not being extracted. Like making methamphetamine from cold medicine, just because the starting materials are legal, does not make the resulting product legal or safe.”
Cannabis cash
While Delta 8 and Delta 9 THC are still considered illegal controlled substances in Utah, both now appear in the state’s medical cannabis program that opened for business in early 2020.
Neurologist and longtime cannabis researcher Ethan Russo addressed members of Utah’s Cannabinoid Product Board about Delta 8 THC during their Dec. 14 meeting.
“Delta 8 THC is a natural component of herbal cannabis, but usually in trace amounts. So it is not inherently dangerous,” Russo said.
That said, Russo concurs that the problem lies in its manufacture into synthetic Delta 8 THC: “As it turns out, this material is being made from excess supply of CBD. Basically, there’s a glut of hemp material and people are looking for ways to profit.”
Dr. Perry Fine – who chairs the Cannabinoid Product Board – said they lack enough evidence to be able to positively recommend synthetic Delta 8 THC products to the Utah Legislature, whose 45-day general session launched Jan. 18.
“Converting CBD into an acid wash and then creating pharmaceutical grade Delta 8 THC – we don’t have adequate evidence and insight into how that’s going to affect people’s health or the harms it might cause,” Fine said, concluding that without sound data, the political process is left to define product parameters.
And for physicians and scientists, that’s a horribly uncomfortable spot, Fine said.
Board member Dr. Katherine Carlson – an addiction psychiatrist by profession – pointed to Utah’s recent medical cannabis report from September 2021. Data indicated that medical cardholders doubled since December 2020 (up from about 18,000 to 35,930) and from April 2021 to July 2021, product sales totaled $17,723,807.
“Did health, functionality improve? Did we get more addiction than we intended, more pediatric exposures? We don’t know,” Carlson said. “What we do know is that this program has made a lot of people very wealthy … it’s a great business opportunity.”
Trust the tests?
Without giving away trade secrets, Blake Smith, an analytical chemist, and chief science officer for Zion Medicinals, spoke by phone last fall about Delta 8 THC products they manufacture and sell in Utah’s medical cannabis pharmacies.
“You can make Delta 8 THC from CBD and a lot of times that involves strong acids and bases,” Smith said. “But there are other ways to make it.”
While he wouldn’t reveal proprietary information, Smith said that heat, light, and oxygen are key to getting enzymatic reactions in the cannabis plant.
“There is a way to make it without toxic chemicals. You can use natural chemicals as well,” Smith said.
He also touted their in-house and state-lab testing that Zion’s Delta 8 THC products undergo.
“The thing that I like about the state of Utah is that it requires testing for Delta 8 in the medical program and it has to be 95 percent pure,” Smith said. “So when people look at whether there are harsh or bad things in Delta 8, they usually look at the chromatogram, which shows you what molecules are in three and in what concentrations.”
Smith acknowledged the fears that some have about synthesized Delta-8’s potential for unknown hazards.
“The thing that gets people concerned are the jagged peaks and valleys that show up in some of these analyses,” Smith said. “Those signify things that can’t be identified by the mass spectrometer. That’s a problem; that’s a huge issue.”
However, he believes Zion has found the sweet spot.
“When you’re 95 percent or better pure, you almost never see those peaks and valleys. Typically what you see is a Delta 8 peak, a Delta 9 peak, and also tiny amounts of either Delta 10 or Delta 6,” Smith said.
On its website, Zion Medicinals features Lemon Dream vape cartridges that have blends of Delta 8 and Delta 9 THC. Smith said it was specially formulated for cancer patients to help with nausea and to stimulate appetite.
“Delta 8 is a body high rather than a head high,” Smith said. “If they’re wanting to interrupt pain without the head change, Lemon Dream is for them.”
While Smith defended Utah’s inclusion of Delta 8 THC products in its medical cannabis program, he decried the sale of unregulated Delta 8 products in the marketplace.
“The medical program has a really good handle on what they’re doing,” Smith said. “For the hemp side of the market, I think it’s out of control. I can go into almost any vape shop and get a CBD Delta 8 vape cartridge or gummies, and that is completely outrageous.”
Smith also owns Murray-based Intrepid Biosciences, a hemp company that makes hemp-compliant (no more than .3 percent THC) gummies, tinctures and topicals that ship everywhere.
Operating in the dark
During that December meeting, Brandon Forsyth – state chemist for the state lab – acknowledged the “gray area” regarding the safety of Delta 8 products in Utah’s medical cannabis program..
“I don’t think the Department of Agriculture has a clear stance on that. We’re definitely open to direction from the product board as well as the Department of Health,” Forsyth said.
For now, Forsyth said they’ve tried to put steps in place to prevent some of the worst side effects from these products. That means testing for residual solvents and using a mass spectrometer to check concentrated oils for “other stuff” besides Delta-8.
“So we do have purity standards for the oil that’s being produced, which is 95 percent plus a margin of error,” Forsyth said.
Forsyth produces certificates of analysis for such products, and said those are available to medical providers and pharmacists via MJ Freeway, software used by the marijuana industry.
Some board members pushed for better product labeling that goes beyond the THC to CBD ratio and percentages.
Dr. Ed Redd – a recently retired board member, former state lawmaker, and Qualified Medical Provider for cannabis patients – detailed the lack of direction physicians have in making recommendations to patients and tracking their progress.
“Patients bring products in and show them to me, and I can’t tell what’s in them, quite honestly,” Redd told the product board. “I have no way of learning from my own experience in taking care of a patient – so I kind of operate in the dark because of that.”
Fine hopes that state lawmakers will improve product labeling this session, in hopes of keeping patients safe and being able to track therapeutic benefits over time.
“At the very least we want to understand purity and processing, at the next level we want to understand what the constituents are in measurable amounts,” Fine said. “But anybody sitting there reading that label cannot with intellectual honesty look someone in the eye and say if I give this to you and you take it as recommended, this is likely what’s going to happen to you. We just don’t know.”
Help from the Hill?
Since Utah lawmakers went into session earlier this month, two medical cannabis bills have been posted online. Those deal with preventing discrimination and retaliatory action against cardholding employees.
But more medical cannabis legislation is in the works, according to Senate Majority Leader Evan Vickers.
In recent years, Vickers has taken the lead on cannabis legislation. On Jan. 14, he said that bill language was being drafted but he had nothing concrete to report yet.
On Jan. 21 he responded by text, saying “There are plans to improve labeling.”
And in spite of widespread concerns over synthetic Delta 8 THC, Vickers said that “all Delta 8 THC products and future similar analogs will be recommended in the medical cannabis program.”
He expected more details to be available in a few weeks.
Profit over patients?
Christine Stenquist, founder of TRUCE Utah (Together for Responsible Use & Cannabis Education) and chief champion of Proposition 2 – the ballot initiative that voters passed in 2018 to legalize medical cannabis – has voiced concerns about synthesized Delta 8 for months.
“It’s an unregulated cannabinoid that we don’t have a lot of information on,” Stenquist said, “and it’s being introduced into our medical program as a viable option for patients without legitimacy behind it.”
After Prop 2 passed, state lawmakers swooped in with significant modifications. Since then, Stenquist has monitored the program on behalf of fellow patients whom she believes should have access to high-quality cannabis products.
A brain tumor survivor who switched from heavy opioids to cannabis to deal with chronic pain, Stenquist said “My goal is to educate the community and tell legislators they need patients at the table … I want to raise awareness and put real information in front of legislators and regulators.”
Stenquist had hoped to speak during the public comment portion of the product board’s December meeting, but that agenda item got skipped at the last minute.
Greg Gerdeman, a neuroscientist and cannabinoid expert based in Tennessee, said he resonates with Stenquist’s plight.
“I’ve been part of elaborating the story of the endocannabinoid system which has helped to validate the safety and value of cannabis in the 21st century,” Gerdeman said by phone. “And yet … just because molecules activate this endocannabinoid system that we revere for being part of health and wellness doesn’t mean that the synthetic molecule is safe.”
But big bucks seem to be fueling the influx of synthetic products into the nation’s cannabis markets – and the needs of patients can get lost in that gold rush.
“Can you clean up Delta 8 and purify it? Yes, but it’s expensive. It requires expensive hardware, an expensive lab setup … a legit chemist to be able to clean it up,” Gerdeman said. “And that’s not what’s going on. It’s being pursued because it’s easy and a great profit margin.”
Gerdeman also warned where the market is heading with other THC molecules found in trace amounts in cannabis: “There are chemists very actively trying to dial in synthetic chemical pathways to create THCP, a molecule that has been described as 10 to 30 times more potent than Delta 9 THC.”
Utah’s numbers
As of last fall, Utah’s Department of Agriculture & Food reported 128 licensed hemp growers, 97 registered hemp processors, 1,371 permitted retailers, and 2,105 registered hemp products.
Cody James, who manages UDAF’s Industrial Hemp and Medical Cannabis Program, said the number of hemp retailers has steadily increased since being included in the program in July 2020. He also noted that 11 registered hemp products “outwardly advertise” Delta 8 THC.
A government records request seeking tests conducted by the State lab and the Aromatic Plant Research Center on Delta 8 THC products sold in Utah’s medical cannabis program yielded the following:
From July through October 2021, the Aromatic Plant Research Center tested 16 products for Delta 8 THC content, which varied from .18 percent (One Love topical oil) to a whopping 65.62 percent for Wedding Cake vape cartridges.
More extensive Certificates of Analysis for tests conducted by the state lab were also released for the same period: 13 for Zion Medicinals, one for True North of Utah, one for Wasatch Extraction, and 30 for Standard Wellness.
Testing categories varied but ranged from pesticides, heavy metals, foreign matter, microbes, and residual solvents.
The Society of Cannabis Clinicians issued a statement regarding synthetic Delta 8 THC, warning that acids used in the conversion process can contaminate products if not washed out.
The nonprofit also warned that testing can fall short.
“Furthermore, for many of these compounds, there are no mandated testing requirements and they will not appear on even legitimate certificates of analysis (COA),” the SCC statement said.
