Delta-8’s THC Effects on Marijuana’s Legalization
The laws around cannabis have always been fairly cut-and-dry: if it looks or smells like cannabis, it’s illegal.
Since 1937, specific laws have been put in place to ban cannabis from the United States, and this ban was undisputed until California legalized cannabis in 1996.
And while it was a controversial move at the time, many states have followed suit to legalize marijuana for both medical and recreational usage, and the country appears to be headed toward federal legalization.
Since then, the introduction of hemp has created a series of loopholes and debatable language, especially with the boom of Delta-8 THC.
Has Delta-8 affected marijuana’s road to legalization? If so, is it helping or harming?
Let’s take a look at cannabis laws, and how Delta-8’s been changing the game.
Cannabis in the United States: How Is It Regulated?
When we talk about the laws surrounding cannabis in the United States, it’s important to understand that there are three different bodies of law: federal, state, and municipal.
And when it comes to creating laws, the states have a lot of power, and this is because they have the freedom to create their own laws even if they contradict federal guidelines.
On the federal level, cannabis is managed in a way that differs from state law.
So, what’s the difference between federal and state laws around cannabis?
Here’s the simplified version:
Federal: Any hemp-derived product is legal as long as it contains less than 0.3% Delta-9 THC.
State: States uphold their own laws, so they may decide to legalize marijuana fully, allow only its medical use, or prohibit it altogether.
But considering that there are 50 states, it’s needless to say that state laws can become quite complicated.
But before we get into that, let’s talk about the federal laws around cannabis.
Cannabis Laws: The Federal Side
Until just a few years ago, cannabis plants were considered one singular group, and this is how they’d be classified from a botanist’s perspective.
However, this changed when cannabis and its products were considered a Schedule I substance, which is defined as “drugs with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.” Other examples include heroin, cocaine, crystal meth, and crack.
But in 2018, the monumental Farm Bill was created, and it was put in place to control the laws in the agricultural industry. Mainly, it clarifies which entities can attain financial aid, what forms of marketing are legal, and what crops can be grown by farmers.
The Farm Bill also created a dramatic shift for the cannabis industry: it distinguished hemp from cannabis, and this bumped hemp down from its Schedule I status. From this change, the Farm Bill fundamentally changed the legal game for cannabis.
This section of the Farm Bill is monumental, because it was the first time in history that hemp and marijuana were distinguished from each other.
Botanically speaking, both plants are the same, Cannabis sativa. But legally, hemp and marijuana are distinguished from each other by Delta-9 content. Any product can be legal, as long as its Delta-9 content is below 0.3%.
Cannabis Laws in Each State
Each state has its own set of regulations surrounding the buying and selling of cannabis. And when the Farm Bill was signed in 2018, most states promptly changed their laws to align with its regulations. This is what led to the explosion of CBD products, which began around the same time, and continues to grow.
For most states, legalizing hemp has been a positive change since it introduced a new industrial field for farmers and vendors to capitalize upon.
On top of that, the introduction of hemp offered a non-intoxicating product for the public, which has created an alternative option among the opiate epidemic, which has wreaked havoc upon all 50 states.
But ultimately, it’s the marijuana laws that vary so much in each state. For instance, states like California and Washington have amended laws to allow for both medical and recreational use of marijuana. Meanwhile, there are states that strictly ban it, and consider it to be a Schedule I drug.
What About Delta-8?
This whole time, we’ve been talking about the federal and state laws surrounding cannabis.
So how do these laws relate to Delta-8 THC?
When Delta-8 joins the picture, everything else becomes even more complicated, since the language provided is too vague to offer insight on its legal status. Mainly, this is because the language of the Farm Bill focuses on Delta-9, specifically.
There is one possible pitfall in the Farm Bill, and it’s that the federal government bans what’s known as “synthetically-derived” THC. Some have argued that Delta-8 is a synthetic form of THC, since it’s mainly synthesized from hemp. But even this is debatable since Delta-8 is found naturally occurring in cannabis.
And to make matters even more confusing, there are states where marijuana’s legal for recreational and/or medical use, in which Delta-8’s been banned.
But the question remains: is Delta-8 affecting marijuana laws in the United States?
Legalizing Marijuana: How is Delta-8 Affecting It?
With the impetus of Delta-8, state lawmakers have scrambled to revisit their cannabis laws, and some are attempting to change the laws’ language in order to outlaw it. For other states, Delta-8 has become an opportunity for cannabis laws to ease up.
But here’s the issue: Delta-8 THC can be extracted from hemp, and this is a massive plus for those in the hemp industry, and there have been no issues arising from the matter. Similar to Delta-9, Delta-8 THC has shown no sign of habit-forming or deadly properties. And in states where cannabis has been legalized, there have been decreases in crime and addiction, not an increase.
And for most states, full legalization is in the future, so there’s been a lack of motivation to ban Delta-8 if we can see all cannabis products legalized sometime soon.
For instance, Alabama lawmakers revisited House Bill 2 to add Delta 8 and Delta 10 to the bill, effectively banning both. But before the bill was passed, these items were removed.
Soon after, a bill was passed in Alabama which, for the first time in history, legalized medical marijuana, and this has created a phenomenal change in the state’s views on marijuana, which have been historically negative.
And for many other states, similar instances have occurred, causing some lawmakers to keep Delta-8 banned (at least for now), or take it off altogether.
While it could be said that Delta-8’s been detrimental to some state laws, most states have been either helped by the change, or unaffected as reform takes its course.
