By: Makenzie Huber
PIERRE, S.D. ( South Dakota Searchlight ) – The state’s legislative oversight committee on medical marijuana was thrust into the world of synthetic THC on Monday as members heard complaints about how loosely regulated, hemp-derived products are affecting South Dakota’s medical marijuana industry.
The Medical Marijuana Oversight Committee heard from business owners and the State Public Health Laboratory director during a meeting in Pierre. They’re concerned about the growth in synthetically altered, hemp-derived products, sold under terms including delta-8 THC and delta-10 THC, which are compounds that can produce a high similar to marijuana. The compound that gives marijuana its high is delta-9 THC.
As with marijuana, the synthetic products take the form of smokable flower, pre-rolled joints, vape oil and edibles. Unlike marijuana, the companies that produce them aren’t subject to the testing, security and labeling requirements attached to the state’s legal medical cannabis market.
Alternatives not only pose a health risk , the witnesses told the oversight committee, but can cut into demand for medical marijuana since the products can be purchased without a medical marijuana patient card and can be loaded with large enough quantities of THC variants to act as a stand-in for marijuana.
Congress authorized hemp growing with the 2018 farm bill, and South Dakota has become the largest producer of hemp in the country after legalizing it four years ago. In that time period, the availability and variety of hemp-derived marijuana alternatives has exploded.
The Legislature passed House Bill 1125 last winter to address the “diet weed” market. The law, which went into effect in July but is being challenged in court , bans the creation or sale of some products created through chemical modification of hemp. Possession of the products is still legal.
The new law bans four THC variants, State Public Health Laboratory Director Tim Southern told the committee, but several others remain available. THC-A products, for example, remain widely available in smoke shops that had previously sold other products that are now illegal to sell.
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