The Problem With Delta-8 THC

You may have seen products touting Delta 8 or Delta 9 THC on their labels — possibly even at the convenience store. What’s up with these compounds?

“Delta 8 and Delta 9 just refer to the chemical structure of the compound,” explains Bonni Goldstein, MD, medical director of Canna-Centers Wellness & Education in California and author of Cannabis Is Medicine. Every cannabis plant makes a tiny amount of Delta 8 and much higher amounts of Delta 9 THC.

Chemists figured out that CBD from industrial hemp, which is nonintoxicating, can be synthetically converted into Delta 8 THC. This makes it intoxicating in a way similar to the Delta 9 THC abundant in drug-variety cannabis plants — though it’s less potent, so more is required to produce the same effect.

“If you’re getting a cannabis product in a convenience store, it’s probably unregulated, and I don’t recommend taking anything unregulated because you risk some serious side effects.”

When hemp was legalized at the federal level in the 2018 Farm Bill, a loophole allowed manufacturers to sell synthetic Delta 8 THC — including in states where recreational cannabis is still illegal — because it’s derived from industrial hemp.

Yet it’s not clear if Delta 8 is safe. “The problem is that other compounds are also made in the process of converting CBD to Delta 8,” Goldstein says. “If you start with 100 percent CBD, about 80 percent of it converts to Delta 8 and 20 percent to other, synthetic cannabinoids. And these have never been studied in humans, so we don’t know if they’re safe.”

There are numerous reports of people ending up in the emergency room after using Delta 8 products, often with hallucinations, anxiety, and vomiting. “If you’re getting a cannabis product in a convenience store, it’s probably unregulated, and I don’t recommend taking anything unregulated because you risk some serious side effects,” Goldstein says.

Most Delta 9, on the other hand, whether extracted from hemp or drug-variety cannabis plants, is “made by Mother Nature,” she adds. Dosing still matters, but with proper use of a tested product, it doesn’t seem to carry the same risks as unregulated Delta 8 — which is likely to be contaminated — for most people.