GOODBYE, DELTA-8

BY GRIFFIN COOP

SOON TO BE ILLEGAL IN ARKANSAS: Intoxicating hemp-derived Delta-8 products.

In the world of cannabis, there might not be a more confusing or complicated issue than Delta-8. For about five years now, the psychoactive substance derived from the hemp plant has fallen outside virtually any regulatory guardrails, including those of the state medical marijuana program.

The products have proliferated across the state in smoke shops, CBD stores, gas stations and over the internet in recent years without regulation or even a minimum age to buy the products over the counter. Drive down U.S. Highway 67/167 and you’ll see a billboard advertising Delta-8 gummies and other products at a shop in Searcy.

That’s about to change.

Led by Sen. Tyler Dees (R-Siloam Springs) and Rep. Jimmy Gazaway (R-Paragould), the state legislature voted to ban all Delta-8 products. Gov. Sarah Sanders signed the bill into law on April 11.

From committee room to committee room at the state Capitol, the issue generated lively debate from Delta-8 advocates and business owners who wanted to protect the products that support their bottom lines and provide what they described as medicinal benefits to users. Business owners and advocates, including two mothers of young children, testified against banning Delta-8, saying the products have helped their children battle serious diseases.

It all started in 2018 when Congress passed the Farm Bill, legalizing hemp production for the first time since 1937 and allowing farmers to grow the marijuana-adjacent plants as long as they had a Delta-9 THC content of 0.3% or below. Delta-9 is the THC that you normally find in marijuana, including that sold in medical marijuana dispensaries.

Hemp plants produce flowers that have nonpsychoactive cannabinoids like CBD and stalks that can be used to make a variety of products from textiles to home-building materials.

The flowers produce a little bit of Delta-8 THC and a lot of CBD, which scientifically inclined individuals figured out could be altered into Delta-8 THC, which is psychoactive and similar to marijuana.

The Farm Bill did not address Delta-8, creating what some have seen as a loophole that has permitted psychoactive products similar to marijuana to be sold outside the state’s highly regulated legalized marijuana markets. Without regulatory oversight, there has been no age limit to buy Delta-8 products and nothing to stop the products from being marketed to children.

That wasn’t OK with Gazaway and Dees, who saw Delta-8 as a danger to children that must be addressed.

It was no surprise that Delta-8 was addressed during the recent legislative session, but some wondered if the General Assembly would take the route of regulation, allowing the products to exist with some restrictions, or the route of an outright ban. Gazaway led the prohibition effort at the request of state Attorney General Tim Griffin, while Rep. Jeremiah Moore (R-Clarendon) introduced a bill for Delta-8 to be regulated by the Arkansas Tobacco Control Board.

Gazaway said in a recent phone interview he wasn’t that familiar with Delta-8 until the

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