Smoke

Synthetic Marijuana Ban Will Further Squeeze a Flagging Cannabis Industry

Producers worry regulators are overreacting

By Jeremy Dickman

In a move that is the first of its kind in the nation, the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission is banning synthetic cannabinoids in the state beginning July 1. It is significant because some of the most popular synthetic cannabinoids – such as cannabinol (CBN) – are available in non-OLCC regulated shops and do not induce mind-altering effects when consumed.

“(CBN) is like Ambien,” said Hunter Neubauer, co-founder of Oregrown and a board member of the Oregon Cannabis Association. “You take a gummy and get the same effect, and feel great in the morning. It’s unfortunate we’re going to lose that.”

CBN and cannabidiol (CBD) are both extracted from the cannabis plant and have been marketed as treatments for everything from epilepsy to anxiety to chronic pain and sleeplessness. While CBD is abundant in hemp, CBN exists in much smaller amounts within the plant. Because of this, CBN is often extracted from CBD, as CBN exists only when the cannabis plant is close to death, and therefore it is inefficient to extract CBN and waste an entire cannabis plant.

Another synthetic cannabinoid, delta 8, also exists in tiny amounts within a cannabis plant, and so it, too, is extracted from CBD to bump its potency in the end product. Unlike CBN, delta 8 can be intoxicating, though much less so than delta 9 THC. The process of converting parts of the cannabis plant to delta 8, however, is what concerns regulators.

“We don’t have any testing for any of the whole universe of chemical reagents that you could use to synthetically turn one cannabinoid into something else,” Steven Crowley, the hemp and processing compliance specialist with the OLCC, told The Oregonian.

The CDC warned that more than 100 hospitalizations were reported by the American Association of Poison Control Centers due to delta 8 ingestion during six months in 2021. These were mainly instances where those expecting a non-psychoactive CBDlike experience instead received a THC “high.” The vast majority of these hospital visits were reported in southern states that have no recreational or medical marijuana program. Which means it is possible that people with zero marijuana experience simply overreacted.

Indeed, overreaction is what concerns some in the cannabis industry in Oregon. Neubauer attributes the OLCC’s action, in part, to the breathless media panic caused by bad actors in the unregulated market.

“There’s a lot of press around the illegal grows and human trafficking,” Neubauer said. “A lot of people weren’t abiding by the regulatory framework of the (Oregon Department of Agriculture). Once an agency outlaws something without looking into the science or facts, you’re entering into dangerous territory.”

To Neubauer, the OLCC’s mission should be simplified. If it’s intoxicating, the OLCC should regulate it. If not, they shouldn’t.

“Delta 8 is intoxicating, it should be regulated by the OLCC,” he said. “CBN is really the victim here There’s not a lot of delta 8 products on the market.” By July 2023, the OLCC will lift the synthetic cannabinoid ban, and allow the sale of FDA-approved synthetic cannabinoids only in OLCC-licensed dispensaries. Though with a decades-old federal ban on the sale of any cannabinoids, it is hard to imagine the FDA giving the green light to CBN or delta 8 products. And even if they do, many prior CBN customers may hesitate to abandon their grocery store for a marijuana dispensary experience.

The ban is yet another hit to a cannabis industry that is flagging, and struggling to find ways to move product.

“I’m getting calls every week from guys who are shutting down the shop and not growing,” Neubauer said. “It’s the worst it’s been since legalization.”

The OLCC itself seems to recognize that desperation on the part of hemp/cannabis farmers and processors to offload their product has led us here.

“The supply of CBD was outstripping the demand for CBD,” Crowley said. “People who had CBD on hand were looking for other ways that they could market it.”

It is hard to blame cannabis business owners – who often sink millions into their investments before they yield a penny in profit – for getting creative. When you trim profit margins of an already over-regulated product, you could further entrench an unregulated market that has already made countless headlines for its abuses.

Not everyone is getting poorer as a result of the squeeze on the cannabis industry, however. Last December, the legislature awarded $25 million to law enforcement to attack illegal grows.

Even law enforcement, however, admits this money is likely a waste.

“They know we’re going to get some,” Jackson County Sheriff Nathan Sickler said last December, referring to seizing illegal grows. “But they know we can’t get it all.”

If the war on drugs is a failure – as most Americans deem it to be – it’s hard to imagine how a war on synthetic cannabinoids will be different.

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