Today’s CBD market continues to evolve in the effort to capture the recreational smoker. CBD companies and stores alike are lining their shelves with psychoactive gap-fillers while legislators duel over whether or not to legalize/decriminalize. Some have even made legal D9 products that are psychoactive.
With all the emerging cannabinoids on full display, it hasn’t been all fun and games. Many event hosts such as SS&E and CHAMPS have struggled with whether or not to allow these synthetic psycho-active work-arounds. In 2020, the DEA released its methodology with which it would enforce federal cannabis compliance – with verbiage specifically aimed at manufactured substances such as, but not named, D8 and other unnatural compounds.
D8 and Other Cannabinoids
D8 and many of the newly emerging cannabinoids are being produced by taking CBD itself, and applying chemicals to create a genetic makeup similar to THC. D8, for example is only two hydrogen molecules away from D9. This is important to remember for those of you who always ask, will D8 make me pop on a drug test. Yes. Yes it will.
Other cannabinoids besides CBD:
While all the above mentioned cannabinoids are considered new, they aren’t. These cannabinoids have been around for quite some time, but are only recently being isolated.
Things aren’t what they seem
In fact, there’s a whole band of lies and misconception around what works, whether its good for you, and lacking research to dispute concerns about its long-term legitimacy.
The truth is, no synthetic medication matches that of a real, natural plant medicine. There simply is no replacing completely unadulterated cannabis. That said, many avid users in non-legal states have taken a strong liking to D8 and it’s fellow cannabinoids.
So what do things like D8 mean for non-legal states in the long-run? Well, that answer seems to have only begun to unfold. California recently passed a measure that makes D8 and all other forms of THC limited to the .3% designation in the farm bill. Why? Simply put, money. Real cannabis didn’t put up the fight they put up to get their feet stomped on by armchair quarterbacks. And they will not go quietly while non-license-holding entities flood the market with synthetics. Needless to say, the spirit of cannabis and its movement are far from dead.
We really don’t know where the market goes from here. Some say the end of the synthetic THC is near, while some call bluff. Many have staked their lives on the window that’s been open considerably longer than most of us thought, and for that they have seen the great fruits of their labors and risks. It will be interesting to see how these early adopters adapt.