Suzan Kennedy has smoked marijuana, and says her Wisconsin roots mean she can handle booze, so she was not concerned earlier this year when a bartender in St. Paul, Minnesota, described a cocktail with the cannabinoid delta-8 THC as \u201ca little bit potent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hours after enjoying the tasty drink and the silliness that reminded Kennedy of a high from weed, she said, she started to feel \u201creally shaky and faint\u201d before collapsing in her friend\u2019s arms. Kennedy regained consciousness and recovered, but her distaste for delta-8 remains, even though the substance is legal at the federal level, unlike marijuana.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not one to really tell people what to do,\u201d said Kennedy, 35, who lives in Milwaukee and works in software sales. But if a friend tried to order a delta-8 drink, \u201cI would tell them, \u2018Absolutely not. You\u2019re not putting that in your body.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The FDA and some marijuana industry experts share Kennedy\u2019s concerns. At least a dozen states have banned the hemp-derived drug, including Colorado, Montana, New York, and Oregon, which have legalized marijuana. But delta-8 manufacturers call the concerns unfounded and say they\u2019re driven by marijuana businesses trying to protect their market share.<\/p>\n

So what is the difference? The flower of the marijuana plant, oil derived from it, and edibles made from those contain delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol, the substance that produces the drug\u2019s high, and can be legally sold only at dispensaries in states that have legalized marijuana. Similar products that contain delta-8 THC are sold online and at bars and retailers across much of the U.S., including some places where pot remains illegal. That\u2019s because a 2018 federal law legalized hemp, a variety of the cannabis plant. Hemp isn\u2019t allowed to contain more than 0.3% of the psychotropic delta-9 THC found in marijuana.<\/p>\n

The concerns about delta-8 are largely focused on how it\u2019s made. Delta-8 is typically produced by dissolving CBD \u2014 a compound found in cannabis plants \u2014 in solvents, such as toluene that is often found in paint thinner. Some people in the marijuana industry say that process leaves potentially harmful residue. A study published<\/a> in the journal Chemical Research in Toxicology last year found lead, mercury, and silicon in delta-8 electronic cigarettes.<\/p>\n

The FDA has issued warnings<\/a> about the \u201cserious health risks\u201d of delta-8, citing concerns about the conversion process, and has received more than 100 reports of people hallucinating, vomiting, and losing consciousness, among other issues, after consuming it. From January 2021 through this February, national poison control centers received more than 2,300 delta-8 cases, 70% of which required the users to be evaluated at health care facilities, according to the FDA.<\/p>\n

Delta-8 is \u201cjust the obvious solution to people who want to have access to cannabis but live in a state where it\u2019s illegal,\u201d said Dr. Peter Grinspoon<\/a>, a primary care physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and a longtime medical cannabis provider. \u201cYou can either get in a lot of trouble buying cannabis, or you can get delta-8.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grinspoon described delta-8 as about half as potent as marijuana. But because of the lack of research into delta-8\u2019s possible benefits and the absence of regulation, he would not recommend his patients use it. If it were regulated like Massachusetts\u2019 medical and recreational marijuana programs, he said, harmful contaminants could be flagged or removed.<\/p>\n

Christopher Hudalla<\/a>, chief scientific officer at ProVerde Laboratories, a Massachusetts marijuana and hemp testing company, said he has examined thousands of delta-8 products and all contained contaminants that could be harmful to consumers\u2019 health.<\/p>\n

Delta-8 has \u201cincredible potential as a therapeutic\u201d because it has many of the same benefits as marijuana, minus some of the intoxication, said Hudalla. \u201cBut delta-8, like unicorns, doesn\u2019t exist. What does exist in the market is synthetic mixtures of unknown garbage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Justin Journay, owner of the delta-8 brand 3Chi, is skeptical of the concerns about the products. He started the company in 2018 after hemp oil provided relief for his shoulder pain. He soon started wondering what other cannabinoids in hemp could do. \u201c\u2018There\u2019s got to be some gold in those hills,\u2019\u201d Journay recalled thinking. He said his Indiana-based company now has more than 300 employees and sponsors a NASCAR team.<\/p>\n

When asked about the FDA\u2019s reports of bad reactions, Journay said: \u201cThere are risks with THC. There absolutely are. There are risks with cheeseburgers.\u201d<\/p>\n

He attributes the side effects to taking too much. \u201cWe say, \u2018Start low.\u2019 You can always take more,\u201d Journay said.<\/p>\n

Journay said that he understands concerns about contaminants in delta-8 products and that his company was conducting tests to identify the tiny portion of substances that remain unknown, which he asserts are cannabinoids from the plant.<\/p>\n

An analysis of 3Chi delta-8 oil<\/a> conducted by Hudalla\u2019s firm last year and posted on 3Chi\u2019s website found multiple unidentified compounds that \u201cdo not occur naturally\u201d and thus \u201cwould not be recommended for human consumption.\u201d Delta-8 oil is still sold on 3Chi\u2019s site.<\/p>\n

Journay said the analysis found that only 0.4% of the oil contained unknown compounds. \u201cHow can they then definitively say that compound isn\u2019t natural when they don\u2019t even know what it is?\u201d he said in an email.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe vast majority of negative information out there and the push to make delta-8 illegal is coming from the marijuana industries,\u201d Journay said. \u201cIt\u2019s cutting into their profit margins, which is funny that the marijuana guys would all of a sudden be for prohibition.\u201d<\/p>\n