The Comically Unregulated World of Cannabis Derivatives
From Delta-8 THC and THC-O to THC-JD and HHC, the industry is oversaturated and unsafe
Marijuana has seen a major renaissance in recent years. With state after state legalizing the plant, and the passing of the 2018 farm bill, the industry has given way to a wild west of new marijuana products. With such rampant availability, it’s easy to get the impression that cannabis is a completely innocuous substance and that its growing number of distributors each deserves our trust.
Complicating matters further has been the emergence of stores and online markets that sell not cannabis as people have come to recognize it, but various cannabis derivatives and analogs. But because these substances are new, and chemically distinct from Delta-9 THC — the primary active psychoactive component of marijuana that people are familiar with — they remain in a strange legal gray area following the 2018 legislation.
Of course, it isn’t the first time that cannabis derivatives have been legally sold. Both hemp and CBD have applications that fall well outside the bounds of what people envision when they see that famed, six-leaf plant. But as the industry has continued to evolve, and as marijuana’s chemical makeup has been more deeply explored, this onslaught of new products has entered the market. And with the growing list of products has been a growing list of stores selling them.
At first, I was encouraged by the development. Marijuana has been known for centuries to offer a slew of medical benefits. I figured that whatever these CBD and Delta-8-THC stores were offering when they first opened would unlikely be more dangerous than getting marijuana products off of the street.
But just because it’s legal doesn’t always mean that it’s safe. A 2017 study published in Penn Medicine found that nearly 70% of CBD products sold online were mislabeled, containing more CBD, less CBD, or more THC than indicated on the label. Additionally, in 2021 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a health advisory about the increase in delta-8 THC products and the potential for adverse events.
Each time I’ve found myself walking into one of these stores, I’ve been floored by the lack of professionalism on display. Most marijuana dispensaries, in contrast, are state-run facilities that typically operate with a certain level of standards. Generally, budtenders will have informed answers to the cannabis-related questions they’re asked.
In contrast, these CBD and Delta-8-THC stores and all of their various cousins can’t be depended on to staff their stores with people who understand the products that they’re selling. Oftentimes, they won’t even card the people who walk through their doors.
My most recent experience at one of these stores was at a PA venue called “Deep Six CBD.” Walking in, I was a little unencouraged by the blaring rap music playing from a tiny boombox beside the lone cashier’s register. Seconds after walking in, the cashier in a plain T-shirt turned down the volume and asked me if I had any questions.
When I began to ask him a series of cannabis-related questions, though, it was clear that he began to slightly regret his offer. As in occasions passed when I’ve wandered into these stores, he had little to no actionable knowledge or advice about any of the products in the store. How he’d even gotten a job at a store selling cannabis products was equal parts confounding and concerning.
It felt like having your pharmacist tell you, “Yeah, the one with the long name should help with your suicidal ideation.”
Apart from all of the cannabis derivatives that he was selling, even normal cannabis itself was something he had a very minimal understanding of. That he’d even used the product more than a handful of times himself was doubtful. He spoke of friends that had enjoyed some of the items on sale within the store, but the knowledge of how each product differed was something that he simply didn’t have.
I speak ill of him not because this single experience was so negative, but because the total lack of expertise with which he sold those products is symptomatic of his branch of the industry at large. Each time I’ve found myself at one of these stores, or shoddily erected stands, I’ve spoken almost invariably to people who plainly have no business selling psychoactive products. The level of irresponsibility on display in these stores is both staggering and nearly ubiquitous.
Though the variation between normal strains of cannabis isn’t always enormous, the distinctions can be quite significant. Not every strain that’s useful for insomnia will help with GI issues and cancer. But when THC is altered on a chemical level, it opens the door to far greater variations — almost none of which are yet understood.
Ethanol and methanol alcohol are chemically almost identical; just the difference of one carbon atom tips the alcohol found in all bars into a substance lethal to humans even in the smallest of doses. The variation of one mere hydroxy group between DMT and psilocin is enough to produce such a divergence in experience that the two substances can hardly even be compared.
Similarly, the relationship between THC and its related compounds isn’t as straightforward as the simple variation between different strains. The difference between Delta-9 THC and THC-O, for example, is giant. The main distinction in THC-O-acetate from the more commonly found THC is the presence of an acetate ester in THC-O-acetate, which is added to the hydroxyl group of THC.
More simply stated, the difference between the two might not look or sound huge. But that tiny chemical distinction is the difference between marijuana and a widely un-researched substance that’s purported to be 2–3 times as strong and boasts psychedelic effects.
Because regular cannabis is a substance I’ve been familiar with for many years, I can’t help but fight feelings of intrigue when I encounter these stores selling such seemingly comparable products. When I see items on the shelves with “THC-JD” as a listed ingredient, I can’t help but wonder how the experience it offers might differ from the ones in the marijuana products I already know.
There’s a level of opportunism inherent in this up-and-coming market. It depends on the ignorance that still surrounds the cannabis industry in order to sell this offshoot of new products. It counts on people being goaded into these stores by neon marijuana leaves and walking out with something that they believe is more or less weed. They’re walking, talking proof of why a regulated cannabis market is so important.
But leaving the store, I let my curiosity get the better of me. I walked out with a disposable cartridge containing two purported grams of THC-JD. Whether that’s actually what was inside the cart, though, I have my doubts.
Using it, my girlfriend and I were promptly overcome with an overbearingly fruity flavor and a harsh enough smoke to send us both into violent coughing fits. The high that followed was both surprisingly intense and surprisingly short-lived.
Literature on what exactly THC-JD is remains sparse. And the research that’s been done on this newfound substance appears virtually nonexistent. A variety of sources selling the product claim that the substance is 19 times more potent than its natural counterpart, Delta-9 THC, but those findings are difficult to source.
An article titled “What Is THC-JD? Legality, Effects, Potency Explored,” published only seven hours ago at the time of this writing, offers what’s perhaps the most detailed exploration of this new substance to date.
With over 100 cannabinoids identified in hemp and marijuana plants, manufacturers have a lot of territory to explore — and the market of cannabis products keeps growing. Some of these compounds have been researched more thoroughly than others; especially delta 9 THC, which has undergone decades of study. But lesser-known cannabinoids like THC-H and THC-B are in the early stages of exploration, and others have no published research on their effects, potency, and safety. THC-JD (or THCjd) falls squarely into the last category.
While it’s still too early to say what value or harm might emerge from THC-JD, for example, in the years to come, what’s difficult to deny is that the industry pushing it has been far from transparent with its customers in the past. With a slew of fatalities resulting from marijuana cartridges and disreputable CBD products in recent years, it’s clear that many of the companies selling them are far more focused on profit than providing medicine.
It’s entirely possible that each member of this growing plethora of natural and semi-synthetic marijuana products might eventually find their proper applications. Just because labs are required to make so many of these new substances is no guarantee that they’re harmful. The need for further research into each of their effects, though, is unquestionable.
It’s a great danger to continue allowing new stores to open and peddle un-researched products with a level of professionalism befitting fast food restaurants. As we continue to explore the chemical variety in the world of cannabis, the harms and benefits associated with each new variant will become more clearly understood.
Soon, we’ll likely get to a place where we know which of these marijuana alternatives can be used safely. But for now, even as a years-long cannabis enthusiast, I can’t help but see a dire mistake in the wanton disregard for consequences under which this unregulated and fast-growing industry of marijuana derivatives now operates.