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Delta 8 THC is a shelf-stable, mildly psychoactive, minor cannabinoid that has been quickly gaining popularity over the last couple years. Also climbing into the mainstream are products made with cannabis distillates, which allow for incredibly potent products with accurate dosing. When combined – Delta 8 THC Distillate – we have a powerhouse product that’s full of therapeutic benefits and steadily flying off the shelves.

What is Delta 8 THC?

Before we talk about the medical benefits of this cannabinoid, let’s talk about what exactly Delta 8 THC is, and how it’s different from the more well-known, Delta 9 THC. Delta 8 THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) is a naturally occurring, minor cannabinoid found in the cannabis plant. Although it’s structurally similar to Delta 9 THC, there are some major differences as well.

For example, Delta 9 THC is the cannabis plant’s most abundant psychoactive compound, whereas Delta 8 is only found in trace amounts. As a matter of fact, Delta 8 is not even produced by the enzymes in cannabis, rather, it is created when Delta 9 THC oxidizes and slowly degrades into Delta 8. Further degradation of Delta 9 would create the cannabinoid CBN (cannabinol).  

When it comes to the chemical difference between Delta 8 and Delta 9, it all comes down to one molecule. In chemistry, “Delta” refers to the double bond in a compound’s molecular structure. Delta compounds have more electrons and will interact with the body in a different way than single bond cannabinoids. The difference between the Delta THC analogues comes down to where the double bond is located on their chain of carbon atoms. Delta 9 has this bond on the 9th carbon chain, and Delta 8 THC has the double bond on the 8th carbon chain. It seems like a small difference, but it can be significant.

Similar to its more dominant counterpart, Delta 8 THC is a partial agonist for both the CB1 and CB2 receptors, although it seems to have a stronger affinity for CB1. This means there are effects to be felt in numerous different parts of the body, despite having weaker psychotropic potency. The National Center for Biological Information (NCBI) describes delta-8 THC as follows: “An analogue of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) with antiemetic, anxiolytic, appetite-stimulating, analgesic, and neuroprotective properties.”

What Medical Conditions Could Be Treated With Delta 8 THC

Inadequate sleep can have a profound impact on one’s health. In the short-term, it can affect mood and judgement, the ability to learn and retain information, and it can increase the possibility of an immediate accident or injury. Over a longer period of time, lack of sleep can lead to diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease, and even early death.

Are cannabis and technology the great equalizer in women’s representation in the C-suite? It may be too soon to know, but female executives in the Canna-tech space are nonetheless making their mark.

According to a recent white paper by The Arcview Group and National Cannabis Industry Association, only 8 percent of cannabis CEOs are women. Surprisingly (or not), this mirrors the national average of women CEOs in Fortune 500 companies (a milestone reached this year).

 New hemp production and manufacturing rules from the USDA went into effect this week.

As the industry continues to grow across the country and here in Florida, stakeholders are continuing to press for safety.

“So what we’re doing here is packing off our gummies,” Margaret Richardson said, as she gave Spectrum News a tour of Global Widget, a CBD manufacturing company in Tampa. 

Richardson is Global Widget’s chief compliance and legal officer.

The company’s gummies are infused with CBD and made on their own confectionery line.

The enactment of the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (the 2018 Farm Bill) and the legalization of hemp and hemp derivatives, including cannabidiol (CBD), has led to a massive CBD craze in the Yes, workout clothes!) According to a 2019 study conducted by Cowen Research, the sales of these products are expected to reach $16 billion by 2025.

Yet, the potential of hemp lays beyond CBD. Indeed, as the market becomes saturated, and the value of hemp and CBD declines (the aggregate price of hemp biomass dropped by 79% from April 2019 to April 2020), U.S. companies will need to — and should — turn to other product offerings.

The good news is that they need not look far. The hemp plant is an underappreciated and high-value crop used in a wide range of products and product types, ranging from food, textile, automotive parts, and construction supplies, just to name a few.

Virtually every part of the hemp plant has a purpose.

Hemp seeds are rich in protein, fiber, omega-3 fats and other essential nutrients and vitamins, and can also be ground into flour.

A study of data from across the country has found no evidence that the legalization of medical cannabis and the establishment of dispensaries encourages marijuana use by young people. The study, “Medical marijuana laws (MMLs) and dispensary provisions not associated with higher odds of adolescent or heavy marijuana use: A 46 state analysis, 1991-2015,” was published online this week by the journal Substance Abuse.

To complete the study, researchers affiliated with John Hopkins University, Harvard University, and the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission reviewed data collected from a total of 46 states over a 25-year period. The investigators analyzed trends in cannabis use among adolescents in grades 9 through 12, using data from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey collected from 1991 through 2015.

In an abstract of the study, researchers wrote that they “found no evidence between 1991 and 2015 of increases in adolescents reporting past 30-day marijuana use or heavy marijuana use associated with state MML (medical marijuana law) enactment or operational MML dispensaries.”

Lower Cannabis Use Among 9th Graders

In fact, the data revealed that overall, states with medical marijuana programs actually had fewer current adolescent marijuana users, which were defined as survey respondents reporting cannabis use within the previous 30 days, than states without medicinal cannabis.

“In the overall sample, the adjusted odds of adolescents reporting any past 30-day marijuana use was lower in states that enacted MMLs at any time during the study period, and in states with operational dispensaries in 2015,” the researchers wrote.

Take care of your weed like you do other drugs and valuable items in your home by storing it properly. Here’s how.

With so much information about the critical role and impact cannabis has on our health and general well-being, everyone wants to know if it expires. Well, weed doesn’t go bad the way your bottle of milk and other food items go bad, but it can be “moldy” sometimes.

Moldy and/or old weed, when taken, may not lead to damaging health issues, but it can affect you if you have underlying health conditions. If you are 100% healthy, you will observe that it isn’t as potent as when it was still fresh. Older weed also has a different feel, taste, and texture, making it quite unappealing to users. You wouldn’t like such moldy weed hence the reason it is advised that you don’t keep your weed for too long. So how long should you store your weed? And how long does weed stay fresh?

How long does weed stay fresh?

If you store the weed properly, it can remain suitable for six months to 1 year. After this stated period, the dried weed starts to lose its potency and aroma. Works of research suggests that weed loses 16% of THC when it is left for an entire year, and it continually drops from there.

From 16% at one year, it gets to 26% THC lost in two years, and 34% THC lost in three years. If you leave the weed for more than four years, you will lose 41% THC. What’s the purpose of weed without THC? Why would you keep the weed for that long?

A new study from the Department of Neuroscience at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences at the University of Copenhagen, published in Nature Neuroscience and titled “Spinal astroglial cannabinoid receptors control pathological tremor,” shows how cannabis could help those who suffer from pathological tremors. 

According to the study, cannabinoids can interact with a certain type of star-shaped cell, called an astrocyte, in the spinal cord to help with tremors. Cannabinoids do this by regulating the release of purines and metabolites and regulating the transmission of electrical signals to the synapses. 

The Study and Its Impact

In order to conduct the study, the research team used a mouse model to show how cannabis can help with tremors, conditions often brought on by trauma or neurodivergent disorders, that can cause uncontrollable shaking of the head or limbs. These conditions impact more than 200,000 people per year just in the U.S., so relief is much-needed.

“We have focused on the disease, essential tremor. It causes involuntary shaking, which can be extremely inhibitory and seriously reduce the patient’s quality of life. However, the cannabinoid might also have a beneficial effect on sclerosis and spinal cord injuries, for example, which also cause involuntary shaking,” said Jean-François Perrier, PhD, who worked on the project. 

“We discovered that an injection with the cannabinoid WIN55,212-2 into the spinal cord turns on the astrocytes in the spinal cord and prompts them to release the substance adenosine, which subsequently reduces nerve activity and thus the undesired shaking. These findings may result in the development of targeted treatment with little or no side effects. In probing astrocytes to understand the biological effects of cannabis, the researchers take a novel approach as earlier studies have focused primarily on neurons.”

Virtually every business needs access to banking services, including a bank account to put money in, checks and debit cards, and other services that banks offer.

Unfortunately, members of the cannabis industry are often locked out of receiving banking services because of cannabis’ legal status in many countries.

Nowhere is that on greater display than in the United States where state-legal cannabis companies are either prevented from gaining access to banking services in the first place or have their accounts shut down not long after they are opened.

Two Maine legislators are coming to the defense of Maine’s medical marijuana program with a bill that would place a moratorium on a set of proposed regulations and require greater input from the industry before any further rule changes are implemented. 

Co-sponsored by Rep. Lynne Williams, D-Bar Harbor, and Senate President Troy Jackson, D-Allagash, the bill would require that in order to amend the rules governing the medical cannabis program, the Maine Office of Marijuana Policy must consult “caregivers, registered caregivers and patients and physicians and certified nurse practitioners with significant knowledge and experience certifying patients under the laws governing the medical use of marijuana.”

The proposed bill comes just days after medical marijuana patients and providers, known in the industry as caregivers, slammed the proposed rules in a seven-hour public hearing, claiming that the medical program would not survive the changes. 

Speakers repeatedly asked officials from the Office of Marijuana Policy to go back to the drawing board and, this time, give caregivers, patients, cultivators and manufacturers a seat at the table. 

The newly proposed legislation would do that and more. 

Will New York Go Legal Next Week

The cannabis industry is one of the fastest-growing sectors across the world. Especially in the United States with more states looking to legal in 2021. Recent data reported that the total sales in the U.S. reached a record-breaking $17.5 billion between the medical and recreational market. Right now there is a great deal of anticaption in regards to cannabis legislation between state and federal. For example, more states are implementing different cannabis laws that will help to regulate things more smoothly.

In addition to this with better state-level legislation, it will also aid in the overall protection for cannabis consumers inside the state. Now on a federal level which more people are paying attention to is the bigger focus when it comes to cannabis legislation. If the new administration can somehow pass a bill that would reschedule cannabis many doors will soon be open. When cannabis becomes federally legal it will allow not only more states but outside regions to be involved in the U.S. cannabis industry without fear of breaking the law.

Back in 2020 during the presidential election, 5 new states legalized marijuana in some form. One of these states was New Jersey which has one of the largest consumer bases for a new cannabis market. With New Jersey voting to go legal it has inspired its neighboring New York to follow it in the same footsteps. Just like New Jersey, the big apple has a big market for cannabis consumers.

If New York does vote to go legal it will only add more value to the U.S. cannabis industry. So with much to be seen in 2021 New York is preparing to pass a bill that would establish legal cannabis in the state. Below we will go over the recent update with the NY cannabis bill.

Will New York Go Legal In 2021

Lawmakers and political figures have come together to work out a way to agree on a bill that would legalize cannabis. This new legislation would be to legalize the various marijuana products and the adult use of cannabis. As well this new bill would allow residents to have a small number of marijuana plants in their homes.

Two years ago, the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) established the state’s first Industrial Hemp Ag Pilot Program so farmers, processors, and colleges and universities could grow, handle, process, and research industrial hemp. The program continued into the 2020 growing season, with 631 growers and 517 processor-handlers registered and/or licensed to grow, process, and market industrial hemp.   The bill, sponsored by Senator Dan Lauwers (R-Brockway Township) set a lot of parameters for hemp growers.

It might not make a lot of sense with marijuana being legal in Michigan, but the Feds hold a different view and want to make sure the industrial hemp grown won’t get anybody high.  The bill two years ago required that government inspectors sample the plants for THC analysis.

Today, Governor Whitmer signed another bill sponsored by Senator Brockway, that gets the state program in line with the federal guidelines, which went into effect on Monday March 22nd.

“Updating our industrial hemp growers act was a critical step in maintaining regulatory certainty for hemp cultivation in Michigan,” said Gary McDowell, director of the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. “This helps our hemp growers and processors ensure they’re aligned nationally and signals the importance of supporting this emerging part of our agriculture economy. I appreciate the bi-partisan support and swift movement ensuring Michigan’s legislative framework meets federal requirements.” 

Key revisions and updates to the state’s Industrial Hemp Growers Act include the following: 

It’s great to see increasing attention being paid to the potential for using hemp waste as livestock feed.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) recently awarded nearly $300,000 to Oregon State University to fund research into feeding spent hemp biomass to cattle.

The research aims to see the safe use of hemp byproducts as stock feed, taking advantage of their nutritional and potential medicinal properties to improve animal health and product quality.

Feeding hemp products to livestock remains banned in many parts of the world due to concerns regarding the potential of cannabinoids such as THC accumulating in meat and milk. While it shouldn’t be a problem given that hemp by legal definition contains very low levels of THC, this  needs to be scientifically proven.

The team’s bid was backed by Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkle, both of whom played a role in legalizing industrial hemp at a federal level through the 2018 Farm Bill.

Since Delta-10 THC is a specific form of THC, you can expect that consuming this variant of THC will give you some psychoactive high. But not as much as other strains.

Sure, you’ve heard of other cannabinoids and compounds that are quickly gaining popularity these days. But what about Delta-10 THC?

The spotlight isn’t on just THC and CBD anymore, folks. There’s so much more to the world of cannabis than these two primary compounds. But today we’re going to talk about Delta-10 THC, and why we think it could be the future of cannabis.

What is Delta-10 THC?

Delta-10 THC is the molecular sibling of Delta-8 and Delta-9 THC. However, it’s not a naturally occurring compound in cannabis. Unlike its other siblings, it appears in such minute amounts that consciously extracting it from hemp or cannabis strains would take you a serious amount of time and effort. In many cases, Delta-10 can be so elusive that it’s not uncommon for scientists and laboratories to still mistake it for other compounds when they check for it using High Performance Liquid Chromatography, which is the standard for compound testing, explains Extraction Magazine.

How was Delta-10 THC discovered?

Delta-10 THC was actually discovered accidentally by a cannabis company in California called Fusion Farms. They bought some outdoor cannabis for the production of concentrates. However, there was an onslaught of wildfires in California, and unbeknownst to them at the time, they purchased cannabis biomass that was already contaminated with fire retardant.

CBD bioavailability measures how well and how quickly your body absorbs a substance. But many oral CBD products —like capsules, gummies, or oils you add to your morning coffee or mix into a smoothie—are notorious for having low or unpredictable bioavailability. That's because CBD is an oily substance: Our bodies are around 60 percent water, and oil and water don't mix. One report estimates that the bioavailability of CBD oil is as little as 6 percent. In other words, when we take CBD oil, as much as 94 percent of it might not be absorbed.

Bioavailability solves this problem. When you ingest something that's highly bioavailable, you're absorbing all of it—or nearly all. That's why with so many forms of CBD to choose from, you'll get the most value when you pick the form that's most bioavailable. 

CBD pharmacokinetics

To understand a product's bioavailability, you need to apply Pharmacokinetics (PK)—the science of tracing the path bioactive substances (like CBD) take in the body. It reveals the differences between what we consume, what we absorb, what we excrete, and the rate and efficiency of absorption. 

Many CBD products make claims to "high bioavailability" or "better absorption" based on studies with lab animals or extrapolate from research conducted with similar, non-cannabinoid substances like curcumin (turmeric). But humans are not lab rats, and intrapersonal variability of absorption is varied enough as is. 

In 2021, researchers from Colorado State University published the first-ever human clinical study of commercially available CBD products in the medical journal Pharmaceuticals special issue. The study was a breakthrough in our understanding of the pharmacokinetics of CBD. Researchers followed rigorous protocols: The study was double-blind, meaning neither the researchers nor the subjects knew which products they were being given. It also used a crossover design. Each participant received each product in random order, and each served as their control, ensuring that the results accounted for the differences in people's body chemistries.

Unfortunately, the results of the latest study do not bode well for the immediate future of cannabis medicine.

Cannabis advocates have been screeching and screaming for the past decade about how marijuana is more effective in taming post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) than any other drug known to man. But, a long-awaited, FDA-approved study dedicated to learning more about the efficacy of cannabis against this affliction shows that isn’t necessarily true. It finds that while weed is a safe and commonly used treatment option for those marred by this condition, it isn’t as effective as initially believed.

Now, before you go off the deep end and start drumming up wild conspiracy theories about how the federal government’s health agencies are holding back the truth concerning the power of cannabis, you should know that this study was overseen by Dr. Sue Sisley of the Scottsdale Research Institute. Sisley has been a massive proponent of medical marijuana for years, doing everything in her power to fight for answers to whether cannabis can help military veterans suffering from PTSD. She fought for nearly a decade to get permission from Uncle Sam to launch this research, and her team spent the past three years in the trenches digging for answers.

All for unimpressive results.

The $2 million study, funded by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) to the Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), was as legit as they come. Researchers selected 76 vets with PTSD, giving them a mix of cannabis with THC levels between 8-12%.

While it could take several months or more than a year for marijuana and cannabis businesses to hit the ground running on sales of the product, there’s another challenge facing the industry that will take federal legislation to resolve.

Working with a bank remains one of the challenges for the industry.

Department of Agriculture officials said that 323 farmers have applied for permits to be able to grow hemp in South Carolina.

Last year, 265 farmers grew the crop.

It was first legalized in 2018 and grown by 20 people that year.

Hemp is considered to be one of the biggest trends in the farming world with research firms estimating it to be a $20 billion industry by 2027.

This year's permits will be granted next month.

With a legislative deal reportedly in place, New York is poised to become the latest state to legalize recreational marijuana use.

Bloomberg reported Wednesday afternoon that leaders in the New York state assembly and Gov. Andrew Cuomo have struck a deal that “would impose special pot taxes and prepare to license dispensaries.” Liz Krueger, chair of the state Senate Finance Committee, told Bloomberg that it was her understanding “that the three-way agreement has been reached and that bill drafting is in the process of finishing a bill that we all have said we support.”

Signs were pointing toward a deal last week, with Cuomo telling reporters that all sides were “very close.” And on Tuesday, State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said that legislators and Cuomo had overcome a major sticking point concerning how to codify traffic safety rules.

“I think we are really, really, really close on marijuana,” Stewart-Cousins said at the time.

For Cuomo, legalization was identified as a budget priority this year. 

To the surprise of many, South Dakota’s Governor Kristi Noem is considering a bill that would decriminalize cannabis in South Dakota. While Noem has been unflinchingly strict on cannabis before, she is now starting to loosen up a bit, though not enough for some advocates.

The legislation, which is being proposed by the governor’s office, would limit the number of plants medical cannabis patients could have, as well as stop the process of incarcerating people for possessing small amounts of recreational cannabis. Up to an ounce, or eight grams of concentrate, would simply get a petty offense charge, no jail time, as long as the person was 21 or older. Repeat offenses would result in a class 2 misdemeanor instead of a felony charge. 

“This is one of several draft bills being circulated for discussion and Gov. Noem has not endorsed any of them,” said Tony Venhuizen, Noem’s chief of staff.

Noem is allegedly concerned about the medical statutes that will go into effect this summer, as they don’t specify a cap for how many medical plants a patient can have in their home. Under this new proposal, the limit would be three.

A competing proposal drafted by cannabis advocates South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws sets the limit for home-grown plants at six instead, and wants less severe charges for those under 21 found to be in possession of cannabis. The competing proposal has some backing from senators who are more pro-cannabis and feel that Noem’s bill doesn’t go far enough.