, recent lawsuits have sought to establish that delta-8 products are legal; a Kentucky judge sided with hemp advocates there on Feb. 28, allowing the products to continue to be sold as lawmakers consider a ban.The U.S. Hemp Roundtable, a hemp industry association, has decried the use of hemp-extracted CBD to create intoxicating products, saying it “undermines the integrity of the hemp industry and intent of the 2018 Farm Bill.
“Most growers don’t like to hear this, because they feel like it’s taking away from their market, but it’s a great product,” said Abe Fleishman, of Northstar Hemp in Oregon. “It provides an opportunity for companies to scale production, for one, and to make a new product that is, in my opinion, cleaner than your regular THC products.”
Griffis said he’s seen the price of delta-9 distillate drop from $50,000 a liter to $6,000 — and falling — as THC made from hemp floods the market. In Michigan, the Marijuana Regulatory Agency is considering rules that would allow processors to convert CBD into THC with written prior approval from the agency, which would require demonstrations of the conversion method and product testing. They would also have to label their product as synthetic — a suggestion that has angered processors who note that the molecules are found in nature.
After an uproar from licensed growers who said they were being undercut, Washington’s Liquor and Cannabis board seized more than 1,600 pounds of chemically created THC products made by a single licensed marijuana company, Unicorn Brands. The board went on to ban them from the regulated market.
So what?