Both Delta-8 and delta-9 THC will get you high, but experts say it's smart to know the difference.
Cutting the Grass
By Benjamin M. Adams
There was a time when we used "THC" to describe a single compound, and there was virtually no confusion about it. However, in reality, there are a handful of psychoactive compounds in cannabis, and they have distinctive characteristics.
These days, there are two THCs that you'll often see as the active ingredient in hemp and cannabis products: Delta-8 and Delta-9 THC.
Delta-8 (D8) and Delta-9 (D9) THC are two phytocannabinoids, or cannabis compounds, and they both produce a psychoactive effect. They both get you high and can be found in Utah medical cannabis pharmacies as well as hemp products, yet distinguishing between them can be difficult, as products containing one or the other look nearly identical.
They're closely related in chemical structures, yet fundamentally different, both in the way they are extracted and also in the way they are regulated. Knowing the difference between these forms of THC is critical to the health and well-being of medical cannabis patients and consumers of hemp products alike.
Chemically speaking, D8 THC is an isomer (same chemical formula, different properties) of the psychoactive compound Delta-9 THC—the THC we all know that gets us high. American cannabis research pioneer Dr. Roger Adams—who first isolated CBD in 1940 and researched it for the U.S. government—also knew of these compounds. (Adams was unfortunately entangled in the second "Red Scare" and accused of being a Communist amid the scourge of McCarthyism.)
Other cannabis researchers like the late Raphael Mechoulam—who helped make Israel a center for progressive medical cannabis research—have known about Delta-8 THC and many other cannabis compounds for decades, and they were explored for their medicinal properties. Weirdly, THC, which is the compound most consumers are seeking, wasn't isolated until 1964 by Mechoulam.
In other words, D8 THC is nothing new to cannabis researchers. However, products containing D8 THC have suddenly grown popular in recent years.
Today, D8 is primarily used as a "diet weed" that has a milder, more subjective, hit-or-miss high. Products with D8 THC and other hemp-derived ingredients can be found in hemp shops or at gas stations that don't require a medical card like a medical cannabis pharmacy. This is because hemp and its derivatives are legal at the federal level.
D8 derived from hemp does also pop up from time to time in medical cannabis products found in medical cannabis pharmacies. But the operators whom City Weekly talked to noted that most patients want to avoid it, or at least avoid confusing the two compounds.
In the cannabis community, products that contain D8 lead to a political flashpoint. Some believe the way it's processed from hemp makes it dangerous, while others say they prefer it to Delta-9 THC.
But people who are informed about the differences between hemp-derived THC or THC derived from potent cannabis say there is an abundance of misinformation floating around. Hemp and cannabis, for instance, are the same species and they are defined differently under law simply by their levels of THC.
"THC is THC, whether it's hemp-derived, whether you actually grew it in hops, or whether it came from traditional cannabis plants," said Blake Smith, chief science officer at Zion Pharmaceuticals and an expert in the biochemistry of cannabis. "The only real difference between Delta-8 and Delta-9 THC is where there's a double-bonded carbon. On a Delta-9 molecule, the double bond is on the ninth carbon, and on a Delta-8 molecule, it's on the eighth carbon."
So why are these two compounds so different? The raw form of D9 THC occurs naturally on cannabis plants as they grow and mature, the way nature intended. You can pick cannabis right out of the ground, dry it and smoke it and get high from D9 THC, which becomes activated when a flame or heat is applied or when it is processed for edibles.
D8 THC, on the other hand, only appears in traces in living cannabis plants. Therefore, any products containing enough Delta-8 THC to have an effect are made by adding Delta-8 THC that has been converted from hemp-derived CBD.
How is this possible? Well, all the active compounds in potent cannabis or hemp share a relatively similar structure, and can be converted to one another using chemical processes. The problem with this is that when CBD is converted to D8 THC, other compounds are involved in the process, and it could be ingredients you don't want to inhale.
"Think about breakfast cereal," Smith said. "If you only knew what 80% of your breakfast cereal was, you would never eat that breakfast cereal."
D8 products are essentially a money machine, despite a monumental pushback from state and local governments: The U.S. hemp-derived cannabinoid market is estimated to be $28.4 billion—a "conservative" estimate—according to Whitney Economics' 2023 National Cannabinoid Report. The sheer power of hemp's economic viability weighs heavily on lawmaking efforts in many states. Call it "Big Hemp."
Don't start freaking out, however. Just because you see Delta-8 THC on the lab results of medical cannabis, it doesn't necessarily mean that synthetic, hemp-derived D8 has been added to your product, because the lab results will also pick up traces of it as well as other compounds. This is normal for cannabis to have traces of D8 naturally showing up in lab results.
Delta Variants
Why do some Utah medical cannabis patients lose their minds when they find D8 in their products? Many worry that the process to make it is sketchy, at best, let alone possibly dangerous.
The process to convert CBD into Delta-8 THC involves a solvent and acid in a mixture, as well as CBD, usually derived from hemp. It also requires extreme heat. Opponents of D8 THC and other hemp-derived compounds prefer to avoid products that contain additives and compounds obtained via this process.
The safety of hemp-derived cannabis products that produce an effect is dependent on the accuracy of processors.
Smith explained how the mixture bubbles like soda, releasing C02. As more heat is applied, he said, the molecule becomes stable and moves its bond, shifting from the ninth carbon to the eighth carbon.
"They'll take CBD and then there's another part of the molecule that has what's called the hydroxyl group, and it's an unclosed carbon ring," Smith said. "If we throw hydrochloric acid—a really gnarly acid—onto this molecule, and we heat it up and cook it super hard, what happens is you actually close that ring. And once you close that ring, it literally becomes THC from CBD."
Smith explained that some patients reject Delta-8 THC because it has to be separated from a soup of other compounds and processed with an acid and solvent.
But operators like Smith say that D8 shouldn't be consumers' only concern when it comes to hemp-derived products.
"The other big issue is—when you're going through that process—you don't only make Delta-8 and Delta-9," Smith added. "You also make Delta-10, Delta-6, THC-O, THCP, etc. There are 30 or 40 other molecules that you'll end up making some amount of."
And while D8 THC carries many of the same therapeutic and medicinal characteristics of traditional D9 THC, he said, the net effects of the other compounds created through this process are not as well understood.
"We know what some of those do, but we don't know what a lot of them do," Smith said. "Some of those molecules are perfectly safe, and your body knows what to do with them. There's other molecules that your body doesn't know how to process, and so this is where the health concern comes in for Delta-8."
Pure D8 THC produced by state-compliant labs shouldn't worry patients and consumers, experts say, but not all cannabis compounds are safe. THC-O—a compound that's processed even further from Delta-8 THC—drew ire from the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), a pro-cannabis organization, after they raised flags in 2023 about its potential dangers of inhaling THC-O acetate.
Certain ingredients simply should not be inhaled—like vitamin E acetate, an ingredient that is perfectly safe to eat but not safe when heated. In 2019, vape makers foolishly added vitamin E acetate to their products as a thickener before clearing it, corresponding with an outbreak of lung injuries. This is why the rush to roll out inhalable products is dangerous and depends on quality control and safety measures.
EVALI stands for e-cigarette or vaping use-associated lung injury. There was a breakout of EVALI around 2019, according to the American Lung Association. So even if a consumer is vaping a cannabis product, it's not necessarily safer than smoking in the event that there is a presence of certain potentially dangerous ingredients.
The American Lung Association essentially agreed with NORML, citing vitamin E acetate and similar ingredients as the main culprit behind the waves of EVALI cases as vape manufacturers took things too far.
Hemp product sellers also infuse products with hemp-derived Delta-9 THCA or other compounds, as the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is constantly refining its definitions of "THC." Delta-8 THC, because it is extracted from industrial hemp, is legal at the federal level, but potent cannabis rich in Delta-9 THC is only legal at the state level, and only in certain states under various regulatory regimes.
Legal Loopholes
In 2018, federal lawmakers inadvertently legalized Delta-8 THC when they moved to legalize industrial hemp and its derivatives. The main purpose of hemp reform was to remove hemp from the Controlled Substances Act. But in doing so, it also legalized hemp derivatives, some of which can be converted into psychoactive compounds through the process described above.
In December of 2018, then-President Donald Trump signed into law the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018—known colloquially as the 2018 Farm Bill. Since then, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has been working as quickly as possible to implement the new law.
Potent medical cannabis products rich in Delta-9 THC, on the other hand, are strictly regulated in medical cannabis pharmacies, run by the states and legal at the state level.
The U.S. government then defined hemp in legal terms as cannabis and cannabis-derived products containing THC levels of 0.3% or less by dry weight, and hemp was removed entirely from the federal definition of marijuana.
Many states, Utah included, preemptively chose to regulate Delta-8 THC like its strictly regulated medical cannabis system. Other states and jurisdictions chose to ban it entirely. According to the National Cannabis Industry Association, 17 states ban the sale of D8; however, several of those states allow it within the medical cannabis systems. More than 20 states chose to regulate it.
The biggest blow to the intoxicating hemp industry happened recently in California. Like Utah, patients and people not invested in the hemp industry pushed back against products containing ingredients like D8. On Sept. 6, California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an emergency ban on intoxicating hemp products—i.e. products containing D8 or D9 THC that have been converted from hemp-derived CBD. The main reason for this is because the products are sold without the same regulations as the state's medical and adult-use cannabis products, yet they are essentially the same thing as they can get you high.
If a hemp product seller in Utah is following the rules, the product would be vetted for potentially dangerous impurities.
"Delta-8 THC and Delta-9 THC are regulated similarly in Utah due to how our Industrial Hemp program is structured," said Brandon Forsyth, director of medical cannabis and laboratory services at the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food (UDAF). "Delta-8 THC is a naturally occurring phytocannabinoid that is commonly found in small amounts in high-THC cannabis strains. Delta-8 THC is psychoactive, and as such, it is regulated similarly to Delta-9 THC, but it is not generally regarded as being more dangerous than Delta-9 THC."
Like Smith, Forsyth pointed to the variety of compounds that can be generated during the processing of D8 THC, noting that they are less understood than more traditional cannabinoids.
"The concern with hemp-derived Delta-8 THC," he observed, "is that its production often results in many unknown side products and contaminants that have harmful or undetermined physiological effects."
City Weekly's sources explained that a consumer can walk into nearly any hemp shop in Utah, pick up five products and most of them probably won't be registered with the state. So why are hemp-derived products that cause a psychoactive effect easy to find in Utah? Part of the reason is that hemp and potent cannabis are essentially the same species and there's no real way of distinguishing the two via chemical analysis.
"Hemp-derived, Delta-8 THC and other synthetic cannabinoids are commonly found in poorly manufactured black or gray market products that have not been subjected to the testing required for Utah hemp product registration," Forsyth said. "Because it is impossible to determine if Delta-8 THC is natural or hemp-derived through routine chemical analysis, it is allowed to be present in small amounts in registered hemp products."
Among the requirements for THC, D8 and its analogous compounds should fall below 0.3% in the products available to consumers, he noted.
"Unfortunately, many retailers in the state are breaking the law by selling illegal hemp products that pose a significant risk to public health," Forsyth said.
Pharmacies and Patients
So what are medical cannabis pharmacy operators saying about D8? It may not be as simple as it seems.
"Delta-8 and -9 hemp products are readily available throughout the country, and specifically target states where cannabis is not legal or only legal for medical use," said Alex Lorg, co-founder of WholesomeCo, one of Utah's 15 medical cannabis pharmacies. "They advertise their ease of access, lack of regulation surrounding their industry and that they will get you high. Users should be cautious and really research the companies and products they intend to consume; many pretend to be medical-grade quality products, when they are not."
Delta-8 THC-infused products were present in the early days of Utah's medical cannabis system. But patient organizations like the now-disbanded Together for Responsible Use and Cannabis Education (TRUCE) pushed to block D8 from being infused into medical cannabis products—instead opting for "cleaner" medicine that contains more natural ingredients. Other patient organizations take different approaches to the compound, asserting instead that these products should be tested for contaminants and arguing that if they do so, they are likely not dangerous.
"Early in Utah's medical cannabis program, when cultivators were still building facilities, there was a deficit of product available in the market," Lorg explained. "And for a short time, Delta-8 products were made available in medical cannabis pharmacies. We received so many complaints that we pulled all Delta-8 products from the shelves."
Lorg said the feedback from his patients was that D8 products were of lower quality and not satisfying their needs in the same way or as well as more traditional cannabis products containing D9.
"Even though these products passed multiple testing standards for safety, patients overwhelmingly preferred the nonhemp-derived products," he said. "We are fortunate those days are behind us and Utah producers now harvest many thousands of pounds of medical-grade cannabis each year."
Experts suggest that patients should keep themselves informed about how hemp products are made, and if the active ingredients come from different sources. Since medical cannabis sold in pharmacies is subject to rigorous lab testing, so should hemp products, which are essentially the same thing, especially if they contain significant amounts of D8.
"The Utah Patients Coalition believes that Delta-8 products within the medical cannabis market in Utah are clean and safe due to the required testing standards," stated Desiree Hennessy, executive director of the Utah Patients Coalition, an organization that represents medical cannabis patients. "However, we have concerns about the safety of Delta-8 products found outside this market, as the lack of testing leaves uncertainties regarding potential impurities."
Smith agreed, emphasizing the importance of understanding the source of THC products that patients consume.
"Get it from a trusted manufacturer. Don't buy just some random thing because they're like, 'this will get you super high,'" Smith stressed. "You need to trust who it's coming from. And if you don't know how to pick a good company, then there's guidelines to do that."
Hemp farmers bend over backward to ensure that their hemp crops have less than 0.3% THC on a dry-weight basis—the USDA's requirement. So the whole concept of making products to get high from hemp—non-psychoactive by definition—defies logic, as something that's convenient and inexpensive to make. It's a loophole in federal law that lawmakers never intended to create.
Right after hemp production began to soar in Utah, things got complicated, partially due to the challenges of growing hemp at a high altitude. In 2019, UDAF Cannabis Program lead inspector Miles Maynes said that UDAF inspectors collected more than 700 field samples, but too many samples turned up "hot" with more than 0.3% THC on a dry-weight basis.
All this excess hot hemp has to end up somewhere. More than 10% of those same field samples registered as hot when tested by UDAF's scientists. Researchers recently discovered that a mountain environment, with more UV length exposure, "deeply influences" the quantity of compounds such as the raw form of CBD, and published their findings in a March 2020 issue of the academic journal Molecules.
If someone consumes a product containing D8 and feels high from it, the product was probably converted from hemp-derived CBD. And depending on who a person talks to, Delta-8 THC alone probably isn't dangerous, but the amateurs out there who are converting it from CBD may or may not be ensuring there are no dangerous impurities that may or may not be harmful.
Experts stress that it's every patient's individual responsibility to know the source of the products they consume, and not all cannabis products are equal in terms of safety and compliance.
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