Key Points:
- Delta-8 THC products sold in CBD stores in Kansas and Missouri.
- Delta-8 THC is legal but unregulated, causing safety and quality concerns.
- Missouri lawmakers debate regulation, including product packaging and age restrictions.
Pre-rolls, gummies and tinctures are items you would expect to buy at an authorized marijuana dispensary. But now, you can pick up these items in your neighborhood CBD stores in both Kansas and Missouri.
CBD stores? Yes, CBD Stores, boutique weed dispensaries and even convenience stores. While the products they’re selling differ from the marijuana sold in state-authorized dispensaries, they’re all part of one of the fastest-growing markets in the country.
They’re selling products using delta-8 THC (or delta-8 tetrahydrocannabinol), a naturally occurring chemical compound called a cannabinoid, that’s found in traces in hemp plants.
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However, what most of these products include is delta-8 made in labs with cannabidiol (CBD) from hemp plants along with several chemicals, and it’s much more potent than the delta-8 found in nature.
Right now, these intoxicating hemp products are legal in both Kansas and Missouri. In Missouri, where these products are much more prevalent, the legislature is debating how to regulate them. In Kansas, where these products are just beginning to come out from behind CBD store back rooms, the Kansas Legislature is still struggling to pass a basic medical marijuana bill and seems unaware of this growing new drug market.
Why Isn’t Delta-8 Regulated?
Historically, hemp has been known for being the cannabis plant that didn’t get people high. It’s full of CBD, a non-psychoactive cannabinoid that helps people relax and is often found in massage oils and sleep aids.
But much has changed since hemp was taken off the controlled substance list in 2018 by the last U.S. Agriculture Improvement Act, more commonly known as the Farm Bill.
Delta-8 sits in a legal gray area. Hemp’s removal from the list of controlled substances was due to its low THC (the part of marijuana that gets you high) levels (less than 0.3%). The bill doesn’t mention delta-8 anywhere. It’s this loophole that hemp advocates and others who sell it have used to legally market delta-8 products.
Now, state regulators can barely keep up with the constantly evolving ways that people have found to make intoxicating products from hemp. Probably the most common way is to synthetically convert CBD into an intoxicating cannabinoid, such as delta-8 THC, using a solvent, acid, and heat. Because the FDA doesn’t regulate the chemical process to make delta-8, these products aren’t tested for safety or quality, causing considerable concerns.
Regulation Movement
Products labeled as delta-8 may contain impurities, including high levels of THC, and without regulation, there are currently no requirements to list potential effects on the label or test how much THC is actually in them. As a result, around a dozen states, including New York and Colorado, are beginning to restrict or ban the use of delta-8.
In addition, the FDA has said the regulation needs to happen, and the agency is “prepared to work with Congress on this matter.”
During their current legislative session, Missouri lawmakers have heard hours of heated testimony over bills aiming to regulate intoxicating hemp products that get people high the same as marijuana. The legislation’s proponents and opponents both agree the state should regulate the existing “Wild West” market for intoxicating hemp products
The debate, however, is over whether the agency that oversees the state’s marijuana program, the Missouri Dept. of Health and Senior Services, should regulate these hemp products. If DHSS is put in charge, the products would have to be sold at DHSS-licensed dispensaries.
Opponents contend restricting hemp-derived THC products to be sold at the dispensaries would allow the “marijuana monopoly” to take over the market, given the limited number of licenses for dispensaries available.
They argue there should be a separate regulating system in place for intoxicating hemp products that would allow them to continue to be sold in gas stations and liquor stores.
“The nub of the issue you’re going to find is … where do you sell these products?” said Ronald Leone, executive director of Missouri Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association. “Everybody agrees with the reasonable regulation and the reasonable taxation. The question is: Who do you allow to take advantage of this new and burgeoning market?”
Product Packaging & Age Restrictions
Currently, there’s no state or federal law saying teenagers or children can’t buy products, such as delta-8 drinks, or that stores can’t sell them to minors — though some stores and vendors have taken it upon themselves to impose age restrictions of 21 and up.
Julie Weber, director of the Missouri Poison Center at SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital, said the number of children under 5 years old who have been exposed to the products has more than doubled every year, with 205 exposures last year.
“It’s the packaging as well that’s a big concern,” Weber said “It’s attractive, has bright colors, mimics foods and candy. It also has cartoon figures on there.”
The constitutional amendment that legalized adult-use marijuana in November 2022 requires that labels and packaging for marijuana-related products, “shall not be made to be attractive to children … to protect public health.”
As a result, strict restrictions on what marijuana companies can include on a label were put in place this year. Those restrictions don’t exist for the intoxicating hemp products.
