Marijuana Versus Hemp (Delta-9-THC vs. Delta-8-THC) - What’s the Difference?
Cannabis is a genus of flowering plant. Cannabis has hundreds of species or strains. Some cannabis plants are classified as marijuana, which are drug varieties. Some cannabis plants are classified as hemp, which are not drug varieties.
How do you know if it’s marijuana or hemp? Botanically, marijuana plants contain greater than .3% delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (delta-9-THC), the chemical, or cannabinoid, in the plant that makes users high. Hemp contains less than .3% delta-9-THC. Marijuana plants (and its derivative delta-9-THC products such as vapes, dabs, and edibles) are legal for recreational use in 25 states. Hemp plants, however, are legal in ALL 50 states under the Farm Act of 2018, because they contain very little delta-9-THC and are considered an industrial plant.
Unfortunately, the Farm Act accidentally legalized THC nationwide. The authors left out a very important rule you can’t make psychoactive products or THC isomers out of hemp. You see, marijuana and hemp plants also contain another chemical called cannabidiol (CBD), which on its own doesn’t make you high. But in a lab, you can take hemp (legal), extract the CBD, and run it through a process called isomerization (loophole). If you close a carbon chain and move a double bind in CBD, you can convert it to Delta-8-THC.
Delta-8-THC binds with the same CB1 (cannabinoid-1) receptors in the brain as Delta-9-THC, so it is psychoactive. Delta-8-THC is one of approximately 100 cannabinoids that exist in miniscule amounts in marijuana, but you can create it in unlimited amounts in a lab from CBD extracted from hemp.
This loophole has allowed the addiction-for-profit industry to fly under the radar and flood the market with all sorts of psychoactive products containing THC, such as delta-10-THC, delta-11-THC, THC-A, THC-O, THO-P, etc. These various products all have different potencies, but THC is THC is THC, and it will make you high. Yes, Delta-8-THC may be weaker than Delta-9-THC, but teens just take more. Delta-8 products impact your brain in the same way marijuana does, regardless of what plant they were made from. Sadly, Delta-8 vapes, candies, drinks, and edibles can be purchased (in states where they haven’t been banned) in CBD shops, vape shops, smoke shops, gas stations, dollar stores, and online, to name a few outlets.
Delta-8-THC products can be even worse in many ways, since they are synthetic and lab-derived with harmful chemical processes, solvents, and additives. Delta-8-THC and CBD products are completely unregulated with no health benefits approved by the FDA. In fact, the FDA has warned against their use, saying, “Delta-8-THC “has serious health risks” and “may be marketed in a way that puts the public health at risk.”
https://lnkd.in/ei4aGH6T
