Marijuana alternatives like delta-8 flooded Wisconsin and other states after Congress passed a bill to help farmers. But did lawmakers and legal experts know the implications of the bill?
Interviews by the Journal Sentinel suggest that no, the people who helped legalize them had no idea delta-8 and similar products were scientifically possible.
The products are created with hemp, a variety of the cannabis plant that can be processed to yield a potent extract that delivers a similar high as traditional marijuana.
“None of this was part of the plan,” said Jonathan Miller, general counsel to the U.S. Hemp Roundtable, who helped craft the federal law that legalized hemp.
Now, he said, "It's impossible to put the toothpaste back into the tube."
Today, delta-8 and other hemp-derived intoxicants make up a $28 billion industry with little to no government oversight.
The industry was born after the 2018 Farm Bill legalized the sale of hemp and products extracted from it. Soon, manufacturers figured out how to derive highly intoxicating chemicals from hemp. The subsequent blizzard of products include not just delta-8, but newer and more powerful compounds with names like HHC and THCA.
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