What a long, strange month it’s been. While Delta-8 (see last month’s Green Room Diaries) remains somewhat legal on a national level, it is no longer available at Oregon-area dispensaries. Moon- Wlkr Delta-8 gummies are still available online (go ahead and have some delivered by federal carriers), and GWAR of all people sold me a bottle last week (thanks to Consequence Of Sound). But, alas, you cannot pick the stuff up when you’re buying flavored hash pens that absolutely nobody over the age of 22 uses.
As it stands at the time of editorial submission (mid-May, 2021), Delta-8 is currently playing the definition game that has applied to nearly every political or legal debate in the last few years. "Well, it’s not technically a rifle, because I stripped down the barrel and made it into a handgun" or, better yet, "Even though I am biologically THC, I present as CBD due to my status as being hemp-derived" sounds like something that belongs in a politicized argument not dealing with cannabis (and, no, I’m not attacking gun owners or trans people—I’m attacking people who pretend to be gun owners and trans people, simply to win an argument by changing the agreed-upon definitions).
Delta-8 is a drug. It’s a fantastic, intoxicating high—one that cannot be produced by smoking hemp or taking CBD gummies. However, it is technically a type of hemp-derived substance (true) that is also a type of THC (also true). So, by skirting technicalities the same way I would to prove that I’m "technically" black (read Irish history), Delta-8 is a truly current-year phenomenon.
And, it won’t last long.
Already, laws are being put into place by politicians and lawmakers who are able to call a skunk a skunk, regardless of how well it hides its odor. Just last month in this column, I was snitching on the Delta- 8 crowd on our around the 10th of the month. Shortly after we went to press, the following headline appeared via Green Light Law Group’s website: BREAKING NEWS: OLCC Determines Delta-8 THC To Be A Prohibited Additive For Recreational Marijuana Processors. According to the article:
"In a webinar put on by OLCC personnel for the Oregon State Bar’s Cannabis Law section, OLCC personnel discussed the emerging issue of Delta-8 THC. While the discussion focused primarily on the unregulated nature of products containing Delta-8, primarily because it is derived from federally-legal hemp products, OLCC took the position that its current rules prohibit the manufacturing of Delta-8 THC by OLCC-licensed processors."
Welp. There goes the idea of taking the family to the dispensary for after-dinner treats. Medical patients, however, get a break:
"In the relevant slide, the OLCC clarified that its prohibition applies only to the OLCC’s regulated adult-use market, and referenced OAR 854-025-3220(3)."
As the trend goes, medical patients are allowed to purchase something that has, well, very little medical use (as we know so far). I am not discounting the miracle of the hemp plant but rather pointing out that cancer patients already have Rick Simpson Oil and horse-tranquilizer-level THC gummies. The OLCC doesn’t necessarily have a problem with Delta-8; they have a problem with safe, legal fun. Get shit-faced and hit the road? No worries— there are two, maybe three cops in the entire Portland area. Eat a gummy and giggle while feeding the ducks? Bye-bye, dispensary.
By the way, you can still get Delta-8 in Florida. "Progressive" Oregon and Colorado are, as of June 2021, more anti-cannabis than the state that brought us mask-free flag waves.
In even more irritating news, cannabis may soon be federally decriminalized (as in, no longer a Schedule X Super Bad AAA Felony or whatever), thanks to... Republican lawmakers? That’s correct—in more "maybe voting blue is a bad idea" news, MarijuanaMovement.net reports the following:
"A pair of congressional Republican lawmakers have introduced a bill to federally legalize marijuana, protect banks that service state-legal cannabis business and ensure that military veterans are specifically permitted to use marijuana in compliance with state laws."
The Common Sense Cannabis Reform for Veterans, Small Businesses, and Medical Professionals Act is being sponsored by Rep. David Joyce (R-OH) and Rep. Don Young (R-AK).
The main crux of the legislation is to federally deschedule cannabis—and it’s similar to past bipartisan proposals—but this one goes a few steps further, with language on legal protections and mandates for federal studies into medical cannabis. It does not contain social justice provisions to repair the past harms of the war on drugs, however.
‘With more than 40 states taking action on this issue, it’s past time for Congress to recognize that continued cannabis prohibition is neither tenable nor the will of the American electorate,’ Joyce, co-chair of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus (CCC), said in a press release."
The fact that any legislation is seeking to reduce the criminality of cannabis use— for any reason—should be championed. Further, anyone who has read this column for more than four weeks and twenty days knows that I’ve been calling for overturning any and all weed offenses for those currently locked up, as well as the racially biased history (and enforcement) of cannabis laws. With that said, the phrase "... (the legislation) does not contain social justice provisions to repair the past harms of the war on drugs, however," makes me cringe laugh—how much profit does Green District Holistic Cannabis Recreational Paradise Outlet donate to "social justice provisions" (and, no, yard signs don’t count)? My inner Gadsden flag unfurls every time a right-of-Stalin lawmaker does something actually progressive, only to be met with the screeching hiss of the social justice mob (all of whom cashed their Trump-singed stimulus checks without a second glance and/or donation to social justice causes). If Orange Man mandated vaccines and masks, Oregon would be re-opened, and Kate Brown would be hosting sweaty, naked hug piles to protest racism or whatever. I’m so fucking sick of the faux sports game being played. I don’t care if AOC or Tucker Carlson grew my weed—it’s weed, and I’m glad that anyone is in favor of it.
Okay, rant over. Back to the lecture at hand...
Leafly reports that the legality of Delta-8 will ultimately be determined by... wait for it... the ability for Delta-8 to be regulated:
"’Ultimately, delta-8 needs stronger regulation,’ said Kelly O’Connor at Columbia Labs. ‘Because without it being regulated like a drug, it’s being sold on the open market in a way that is bypassing a lot of the contaminant testing and batch traceability that you get from a highly regulated market, like a delta-9 market.’"
Again with the intensifying libertarianism, are we seeing a trend? If it’s innovative, natural, and good for you, the government won’t be having it (at least, not without regulations). Keep this in mind while exchanging your proof-of-Pfizer-vaccine for a free Krispy Kreme donut.
Stick around for more updates on Delta-8.
