Delta 8 THC poisoning? The CDC’s warning is not what you are thinking

The Haymaker is Leafly Senior Editor Bruce Barcott’s opinion column on cannabis policy and culture.

Headlines alerted the cannabis world last week when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a health warning about the risks of delta-8-THC, the hemp-derived cannabinoid that is on everyone’s lips in unlawful states.

CDC officials found that US poison control centers recorded 119 cases of “Delta-8 exposures” that resulted in hospitalization only in the first six months of 2021.

That is worrying.

Leafly has reported extensively on the Delta-8 phenomenon and the many real-world risks of consuming an unregulated and often untested product. So I took a look at the CDC’s data to see if the alarm matched the evidence.

It has not.

“Exposures” led to “symptoms”

Here’s what the CDC did with:

“In March 2021, the West Virginia Poison Control Center reported two cases of side effects related to the use of Delta-8-THC products in adults. In both cases, individuals mistook products containing Delta-8-THC for CBD-like products. These exposures resulted in symptoms consistent with cannabis poisoning. “

In other words, two adults in West Virginia consumed Delta-8 products under the mistaken belief that they were taking CBD. Result: You got high.

Of course, when people get high when they aren’t expecting it, some of them freak out. Do not know what is happening. Some get scared. So they take the next logical step. They call the local poison control center or check into the nearest emergency room – although what happens to them may be the same experience that many cannabis users are actually looking for.

The CDC’s warning is framed in terrifying language – poison control centers, hospitals, exposures, symptoms. But “exposures produced symptoms consistent with cannabis poisoning” means these people got high. Nothing more.

Well, these patients might not want to get high. Or maybe they got higher than they expected and freaked out and called for help. But that’s not poisoning. These are cases of poor labeling or consumer inexperience.

Related

I tried Delta-8 THC: this is what it feels like

Delta-8 rises in prohibited states

CDC officials noted that the first two recorded Delta-8 “exposures” seeped in around September 2020 and gradually increased to 48 in July 2021. “The majority of these visits (73%)” were in the “southern states” that have not passed state laws allowing adult non-medical cannabis use. ”

Most “exposures” were reported from the south, where the cannabis ban is still the law of the country.

Of course they did. Delta-8 THC products exist mainly because cannabis is in demand in prohibited states. If cannabis were legal in the South, consumers could choose from thousands of licensed, laboratory-tested, and well-labeled Delta-9 THC products. But they can’t, so unregulated Delta-8 products come in through a legal back door.

In these southern states, Delta-8-THC products are sometimes labeled and sold as “Delta-8-CBD”. This wink-and-nod strategy may save shopkeepers from trouble with the local police, but it confuses consumers who don’t expect the heady high that Delta-8 delivers.

This is an educational problem

The most disturbing aspect of the CDC’s warning isn’t about the adults getting unexpectedly high. It’s the children. Earlier this year, the Michigan Poison Center reported a case of two children who ingested their father’s delta-8 THC gums that he bought from a vape shop. “The children developed sedation, slow breathing, low blood pressure and slow heart rate, which required admission to the intensive care unit,” the center reported.

We do not know the details of this particular incident. The father may have thought that his gums were loaded with CBD, nothing more. Either way, if children get into a parent’s supply, it is up to the parents, not the supply. If your gums are fortified with anything other than sugar, don’t be stupid. Keep them out of the reach of children.

A by-product of the ban

At the end of the day, here we have a rising trend of consumers in non-legal states trying Delta-8-THC products.

The solution is not to panic about Delta-8. The solution is to legalize and regulate.

Some of them buy products mistakenly labeled “Delta-8 CBD” and find themselves unexpectedly high. Others take too much and need help to overcome a drunkenness. And a few parents carelessly leave their infused gummy bears lying around, where the children can grab the candy they think they can get their hands on.

The solution is not to panic over delta-8 THC. The solution is to legalize and regulate cannabis products in each state so that consumers have access to licensed, regulated, tested, and properly labeled products. And no one has to sneak around pretending that a THC-infused gummy bear contains nothing but CBD.

Find out about Delta-8 THC

Bruce Barcott

Leafly Senior Editor Bruce Barcott oversees news, research, and feature projects. He is a Guggenheim Fellow and author of Weed the People: The Future of Legal Marijuana in America.

View article by Bruce Barcott

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