How One Weed Company Is Skirting Federal Marijuana Laws and Legally Selling THC in 49 states
Reposted From LAWEEKLY
Last month, Florida-based company Kandy Girl launched a new kind of weed product: a THC-infused gummy cube, called Kandy Girl Delta 9 Gummies. Like most other THC products on the market, it will get you high. Unlike other products, though, the THC in Kandy Girl is sourced from hemp, which means it’s technically legal for sale in most states.
Kandy Girl is selling hemp derived delta 9 THC gummies, along with other hemp and hemp-derived products, online for sale nationally. CEO Alina Boyce says the company wants to make cannabis products accessible to consumers who don’t have local access to legal weed. And, she says, “Our goal is also to make it more affordable for people that might not be able to afford to use cannabis on a daily basis.” At $4 per serving for 10 mg of THC, the price is well below what marijuana-derived THC costs in most legal states.
The difference between cannabinoids derived from hemp or marijuana is technical — but it could have serious legal ramifications. Hemp and marijuana are classified botanically as the same plant, Cannabis sativa; the distinction between the two under U.S. law is in the amount of the cannabinoid known as THC, which is the plant’s psychoactive component. Under the Farm Bill passed by Congress in December of 2018, legal hemp contains 0.3 percent or less THC, while marijuana contains more than .3 percent THC. Hemp won’t get you stoned, or so the thinking goes.
When the Farm Bill legalized the cultivation and sale of hemp and hemp-derived products under federal law, farmers and manufacturers mostly focused on extracting cannabidiol, or CBD, from hemp, expecting to rake in the profits. However, the surge of interest in hemp led to a glut of hemp-sourced CBD production, accompanied by a drop in price.
Partly due to the abundance of cheap hemp, enterprising cannabis businesses found a cost-effective method of producing a lesser-known cannabinoid called Delta-8-THC from hemp-sourced CBD. Delta-8, a less-potent cousin of Delta-9-THC, or “regular” THC, offers a mild, functional high, according to many consumers.
The quasi-legal loophole of extracting Delta-8-THC from hemp gave rise to an entire industry of Delta-8 products sold around the country by companies like BuyDelta8Online, Reef Canna, FukedUp, and which offer hemp-derived Delta-8 gummies, flower, concentrates, and vape cartridges for sale online.
“A huge expectation of people with CBD was feeling something, and Delta-9 provides that,” Boyce told LA Weekly earlier this month. (Earlier this month, the FDA and CDC both issued warnings about potential negative health effects of Delta-8 products.)
Boyce is confident the company has met the requirements to sell hemp-derived THC legally across the country. “Our Gummies are a 4-gram product, so you’re talking 4,000 milligrams of total dry weight,” Boyce says. “Ten milligrams of THC in 4,000 milligrams of product comes out to 0.25 percent.”
So, since each bottle of Kandy Girl Delta 9 THC Gummies contains less than 0.3 percent THC on a dry weight basis, it complies with the provisions laid out in the Farm Bill.
Kandy Girl seems to have found a way around federal marijuana laws with its hemp-sourced Delta-9-THC product — for the time being, at least. However, there will be plenty of developments around hemp-sourced cannabinoids to follow as they receive increasing attention from law enforcement and regulators across the country. For example, Washington State regulators recently banned the processing of CBD into Delta-9-THC, and Delta-8-THC has been prohibited or restricted in 18 states.
Thomas Howard, their attorney, and strategic advisor and consultant to the cannabis industry, says the feds will regulate all hemp-sourced cannabinoids at some point. “ It takes a long time for the FDA to put regulations into place when products like these enter the market. They would have to change the farm bill entirely for this to happen.”
Thomas Howard, also says that while he applauds the creativity of innovative consumption methods or brands like Kandy Girl, there may be a potential issue with some state laws. He says that including an age gate for e-commerce to ensure that minors aren’t purchasing products online would be wise. (Kandy Girl does currently have an age gate in place.) As far as federal regulation goes, Howard says the FDA states that you can’t sell a food or dietary supplement containing THC or CBD because those cannabinoids are active ingredients in FDA-approved drugs. However, the FDA has been chiefly focusing on ‘disease claims,’ Howard says: “The way the agency has been regulating is really when companies make egregious claims like ‘this product cures epilepsy, or cancer, or Alzheimer’s.’”
Kandy Girl make no such claims — the delta 9 gummies are intended for recreational use by consumers who enjoy the feeling of a THC buzz. An examination of a certificate of the laboratory analysis, or COA, shows a 0.3 percent THC threshold in Kandy Girl. The lab that produced the COA for Kandy Girl confirmed the results to LA Weekly, noting they only tested for cannabinoid potency; there were no results for terpenes, solvents, or heavy metals listed. Howard explains that some states may only require cannabinoid testing, but many states also mandate testing for pesticides and require that COAs be made accessible to consumers. (Kandy Girl links to its product COAs on its website.)
Kandy Girl plans to release more hemp-derived Delta-9-THC products like energy shots and sleep shots in a new partnership with a company called Boyce Capital. The whole enterprise is under the umbrella of the newly-minted Boyce Capital LLC., which invests in companies that manufacture hemp-derived cannabinoids as well as plant-sourced kratom and kava products. Boyce is confident that Kandy Girl will have a massively positive impact on the hemp and cannabis industry. “It’s important to stay innovative if we want to keep growing,” she says. “Sales have exploded and we’ve had some production issues due to demand. We’ve had to hire additional staff to deal with the demand.”
It’s unclear how long hemp derived delta 9 products will stay legal under federal law, but for now you can buy hemp derived Delta 9 products that get you high. Have you had an experience with Delta 9 Hemp Products? Let us know in the comments.