News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Delta-8 is a new substance on the market that’s being promoted as “diet weed.”
Power of Putnam Executive Director Bill Gibson said that the hemp plant derivative comes from recently-legalized CBD oil put through a chemical process. He said that it allows for manufacturers to extract a greater amount of THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana that causes a high.
“It’s so new we don’t have formalized data like survey data, but we do have focus groups and we do have information coming in that it is getting much more popular since it is readily available and not really well-regulated. It’s becoming more popular with the youth.”
The White County School Board decided last week to review its policy on Delta-8 after a student disciplinary action involved the substance.
Gibson said the biggest danger of Delta-8 is that it’s poorly regulated both in its manufacturing and in the eyes of the law. He said that there have been traces of heavy metals detected in some strains of Delta-8 which pose a serious health risk.
“They’ve found contaminates that are a part of the particular process that some unknown person or unknown entity used to produce it,” Gibson said. “So not only do we not know anything about the long-term effects of use, we don’t know the process by which it’s produced. It’s totally unregulated, not approved by the FDA. So you can be getting literally anything when you buy these products.”
Gibson said it’s important for parents to have conversations with their kids when it comes to these substances so they’re aware of potential dangers.
