The sale of intoxicating, synthetic hemp products within the state and on the internet is causing Nevada regulators to take notice.
Sunday, April 21, 2024 | 2 a.m.
Layke Martin was thumbing through her social media one day when an advertisement slid into her feed for hemp-derived THC gummies.
The website the advertisement linked was based out of state, but the business offered shipping to other areas of the country.
There was one problem: The gummies for sale had a high level of delta-8 THC, a synthetic hemp-derived compound that is illegal in Nevada, which outlaws synthetic cannabinoids and requires products infused with natural hemp to only have 0.3% of it on a dry-weight basis.
Martin should know.
A lawyer by trade and the executive director of the Nevada Cannabis Association, Lake’s professional life is all about regulating the industry. And when it comes to hemp products, she’s raising red flags about the dangers of synthetic hemp-based products to children and adults.
“Now, we’re seeing more and more of them popping up on smoke shop shelves, and there are fake dispensaries on the Strip and on Fremont Street that are selling these hemp, psychoactive hemp, intoxicating hemp products,” Martin said. “The real concern is that it is being marketed in a way that could be appealing to young people.”
The Nevada Cannabis Compliance Board said it had recently received “several reports of intoxicating hemp products being sold within the state and on the internet” and a few anecdotal complaints of “undesirable effects or negative health impacts” from consumption of illegal hemp products.
It’s an issue that is not only affecting Nevada, but states all over the country.
Misleading packaging
Walking down Fremont Street or the Strip, the signs are everywhere. Bright green marijuana leaves in the windows of colorful smoke shops and other stores marketing themselves as dispensaries.
One look inside might be enough to convince an unknowing consumer that the products are trustworthy, but local experts are warning otherwise with the influx of illegal hemp-based products wrapped in misleading packaging flooding store shelves.
The 2018 Farm Bill legalized the production of hemp for states that had U.S. Department of Agriculture-approved hemp programs, as well as created national regulations for hemp production, according to the Nevada Department of Agriculture.
Marijuana refers to the whole Cannabis sativa L. plant, encompassing the flower, seeds and extracts with more than 0.3% delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The cannabis plant has more than 100 different cannabinoids, including the psychoactive THC, and hemp is defined as any part of the cannabis plant that contains 0.3% or less THC by dry weight.
Delta-9 THC is the most prominently occurring THC in cannabis, but others like delta-8 are usually present in lower quantities. CBD, which Martin said had recently decreased in popularity, is the nonpsychoactive cannabinoid that can be converted into more potent delta-8 THC, according to the CDC.
During the 2021 Nevada Legislature, the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services sponsored Senate Bill 49, which banned the “production, distribution, sale or offering for sale of a synthetic cannabinoid” without proper approval from Nevada’s Cannabis Compliance Board The bill defined synthetic cannabinoids as those produced from either chemicals or recombinant biological agents like yeast or algae and not from a cannabis plant itself.
The legislation, which was signed into law by then-Gov. Steve Sisolak, also established that hemp products containing over 0.3% THC — specifically delta-9, the type associated with psychoactive marijuana — on a dry-weight basis were not permitted to be sold in Nevada.
Martin said these products can be harmful due to that dry weight condition. Because dry weight products are lighter, more can be infused into consumable items like brownies, she added.
These synthetic hemp-derived products, which often use delta-8 THC, have yet to be evaluated or approved by the Food and Drug Administration for safe use.
The CDC released a health advisory three years ago alerting public health departments, health care professionals, first responders, poison control centers, laboratories and the public about “increased availability of cannabis products containing delta-8 (THC).”
In the warning, the CDC emphasized that delta-8 THC products were “increasingly appearing in both marijuana and hemp marketplaces” and “variations in product content, manufacturing practices, labeling, and potential misunderstanding of the psychoactive properties of delta-8 THC may lead to unexpected effects among consumers.”
In June 2022, the FDA released a warning to consumers regarding the dangers of ingesting food products containing delta-8 THC, the administration said in a 2023 press release.
From Jan. 1, 2021, through May 31, 2022, the agency received over 125 reports of “adverse events” related to children and adults who ate products containing delta-8 THC.
Ten of the reports claimed that these products had marketing that made them look similar to popular candy snacks such as Gushers, Nerds Rope, Skittles, Sour Patch Kids and Starburst.
Martin said many of these products are dangerous because they don’t have the same age restrictions or advertising regulations as licensed cannabis, which leaves companies open to creating packaging that consumers could confuse for traditional, non-infused snacks — especially children, which the FDA said are at higher risk of becoming sick or hospitalized from THC consumption.
Nevada’s enforcement
The ad on Martin’s social media displayed the gummies in brightly-colored packaging.
“Our Legislature did a great job of getting ahead of it as our regulator, and no it’s just dealing with the massive flow of these products coming in from other states and enforcement — making sure that they aren’t getting into smoke shops and that they aren’t getting into convenience stores,” said Martin, who noted that she hadn’t yet seen any delta-8 THC drinks in convenience stores locally.
The FDA and Federal Trade Commission last summer issued warning letters to six companies for “illegally selling copycat food products” with delta-8 THC. Two of the six companies were based in neighboring California. It’s a simple four-hour drive for these illegal hemp products to be brought from Southern California into Southern Nevada.
The Nevada Cannabis Compliance Board sent out cease and desist letters to the stores selling those products online. Board enforcement officers have made site visits to the local businesses with illegal hemp on their shelves.
When they arrived, the response was similar: Shop owners the team interacted with said they were not aware that selling synthetic cannabinoid products is illegal. One store has since been shut down.
“CCB Enforcement Officers have worked closely with local jurisdiction business licensing divisions on educating stores, as well as eliminating intoxicating hemp and hemp derived products from stores who were selling illegal products,” the CCB said in a statement to the Sun. “Subsequent follow-ups have proven the store owners have not restocked those products.”
Only a few anecdotal complaints of “undesirable effects or negative health impacts” from consumption of illegal hemp products have been passed on to the Nevada Cannabis Compliance Board, but the agency said it had not confirmed any of the reports.
In other states, accidental consumption of illegal hemp items by children has become problematic. The Michigan Poison Control Center in 2021 reported two cases of severe adverse events to delta-8 THC in two children who ate their parent’s infused gummies that were purchased from a vape shop, the CDC said.
That same year, the American Association of Poison Control Centers introduced a product code into its National Poison Data System specific to delta-8 THC. From Jan. 1 to July 31, 2021, 660 delta-8 THC exposures were recorded with the new product code — 18% of the exposures led to hospitalization and 39% involved children less than 18 years old, said the CDC.
Martin suggested consumers only buy from licensed dispensaries if they want to stay safe, with the added bonus of supporting the state’s education funding through tax revenue. She also hopes state lawmakers in the next legislative session go back to “tighten up the language” of existing hemp regulation and enforcement.
“It’s interesting because we do have some of the strictest laws on the books already out of all the states,” Martin said. “(But) my goal going forward is that if we need to change some of the language in the statute, that we are able to work with legislators to do so in the next legislative session and the Cannabis Compliance Board as well to the extent that they are the regulators.”
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