Delta-8 the lesser known form of THC that is federally LEGAL in the US (Patreon)

In honor of 420 (OK, I'm a few days late) I thought I would bring a little bit of attention to something many people have never even heard of, that is Delta 8 THC, because we are at a very strange point in history for this compound.  

Many people believe hemp is completely "non-psychoactive", in fact if you google it you will see almost endless references to hemp being non-psychoactive:

But this is not really true, first of all, even the very tame and non-intoxicating CBD is actually "psychoactive", but hemp also has low concentrations of stronger psychoactive compounds including two forms of THC.  And this is where things get interesting.  The form of THC that is federally illegal (controlled substance) in the US is "Delta 9-THC", but there is a very similar compound in hemp, "Delta 8-THC" that is NOT (currently) a controlled substance at all.  The 2018 Farm Bill that was signed into law removed hemp, defined as cannabis (Cannabis sativa L.) and it's derivatives with extremely low concentrations of the psychoactive compound delta-9-THC (no more than 0.3 percent THC on a dry weight basis), from the definition of marijuana in the Controlled Substances Act.  In case this is not clear, the farm bill officially made delta-8-THC completely legal.  Legislators at the time likely did not understand this loophole that they created, which is why it is especially entertaining to me.  For the most part, they were focused on making sure CBD was completely legal and that farmers could grow hemp and sell hemp related products.  

Delta-8-THC has very similar effects/properties as the standard, well known, delta-9-THC in marijuana, only it is significantly less potent by weight (1/2 to 1/3 the potency).  So now we have this interesting compound, delta-8-THC that can be extracted from legal hemp (although in practice it is mostly just derived from CBD), and it is officially federally legal.  It took a couple years for the hemp industry to "ramp up" but now there are many vendors extracting and selling Delta-8 THC.  It has gotten popular enough that many states are now "FREAKING OUT" about it, as states can regulate cannabis/Delta-9-THC and tax the wazoo out of it and require special permits, and make a lot of money from it.  But Delta-8 is completely legal and unregulated, they can't get the same level of benefit from it, so they are in the bizarre position now of having to ban Delta-8 within their state to prevent it from cutting in on their cannabis (or alcohol) profits, haha.

The following 12 states have already banned Delta-8-THC: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Kentucky, Idaho, Iowa, Mississippi, Montana, Rhode Island and Utah.   Meanwhile, legislative bans are being considered in North Dakota, Alabama and Oregon.  It would not surprise me if it is banned in most states soon, although its worth mentioning that Florida lawmakers surprisingly moved in the opposite direction and have established a legal framework for delta-8 (maybe other states will just lump it in with Delta-9-THC from a regulatory and taxation perspective).  Also note that there are some in the hemp industry that are upset about the Delta-8-THC "loophole" which they see as exploiting legal hemp which everyone previously thought was "non-intoxicating" haha.  They are worried Delta-8-THC could even ruin the whole legal hemp industry (I doubt that).

Note that Delta-8-THC has now become mainstream enough that even GQ magazine has recently written about it: 

So anyway, getting to my point... if you live in the US and either do NOT live in a state with legal cannabis OR maybe you do live in a state with legal cannabis, but you are offended by the high prices and regulation and extreme taxation, well, you've got a unique, and rapidly disappearing window of opportunity to stock up on some Delta-8-THC while its still legal.  Now just for the record - I don't want to come off as promoting this substance, because to me, its very similar to alcohol, which I also don't promote.  The science is very much "mixed" when it comes to THC/cannabis, it is very likely neurotoxic although some studies also provide evidence of limited benefits as well, and certain medicinal uses.  If I had to guess, I'd say it's probably less harmful than alcohol, but that's not saying much.  So if you have the self control to not go overboard, and can use it responsibly, you might want to order some while you still can ;)

Along those lines... after doing a lot of digging around, the best place I could find to order some Delta8 was the appropriately named BuyDelta8Online (and this was actually a recommendation from a patron I might add!).  If you look into this company, they have a LOT of positive reviews, good reputation, and also the lowest prices.  To make matters better, they assured me that they do NOT import the delta-8 from overseas, it is hemp derived, and not only that but they are one of the only places that provides a certificate of analysis from an American lab for their product (showing very high, 96% Delta8-THC purity with the remaining 4% as mostly other active cannabinoids).  They also provide reports showing NO RESIDUAL SOLVENTS and NO HEAVY METALS.  

Just to give you an idea of the price comparison, if you were to buy Delta-9-THC from a popular legal vendor such as Planet13, it costs about $25/gram when sold in concentrate form (its $200/gram when sold in edible gummy form).  By contrast, you can buy Delta-8-THC for as little as $3.50 a gram when you buy it in 1oz size from BuyDelta8Online (1oz is a little over 28 grams or 567 fifty milligram doses) they also sell it in smaller quantities for example a 1ml syringe is about 20 doses and only costs $15.  

Note that with the added attention from mainstream media, demand has gone up, they used to sell the 1oz distillate for as low as $65, it was $85 when I bought it, and today its $100.  If I recall correctly, it took about 10 to 14 days to arrive.  Worth mentioning that if for some reason you had to take a test for THC/marijuana, you would fail that test after taking this product.  Also note that it is very thick and sticky, you can use a knife to scoop out a tiny bit to weigh and get a sense of what a typical 40-50mg dose looks like (its tiny), but its probably easiest to heat it up (you can put the jar or syringe in a container of boiling hot water), after heating it can by measured out with a dropper (one drop is approximately 50mg) or use a syringe for precise measurement.  

I took about 50mg orally (it can be vaped or taken orally with about the same potency for most people based on what I've read).  It took about an hour for me to feel it, and that grew stronger over the 2 hours that followed, basically just a pleasant body high that lasted for 4-5 hours, I thought it was pretty relaxing.  Definitely hard to get any work done in that state so keep that in mind ;)  Based on what I've read, people can quickly build up a tolerance to this, and it seems like for some unknown reason certain people do not feel the effects as strongly (or at all) when taken orally while for other people its about the same either way (but when vaped it kicks in MUCH faster).  The distillate can be used to make edibles like gummies or chocolates or brownies/cookies but you should be very careful to dose each edible serving precisely or the results could be very unpredictable (not good for office parties, haha).  The distillate by itself doesn't have much flavor at all.

Have fun and don't overdo it!  Buying a whole ounce is probably excessive for most people (but you never know when it is going to be banned, and its pretty cheap, haha).