Psilocybin among contaminants found in intoxicating Delaware hemp products

Secret shoppers in Delaware were able to purchase illegal – and potentially dangerous – intoxicating hemp products found to contain mold, pesticides and even psilocybin, the psychedelic ingredient found in magic mushrooms.

News outlet Our Delaware and the National Clinical Director Consortium (NCDC), a cannabis trade group, conducted the secret-shopper survey at two-dozen unlicensed stores around the Delaware cities of Dover, Smyrna and Wilmington.

The groups ultimately purchased 30 hemp-derived products including flower, edibles and vapes, which they had tested by a state-licensed marijuana testing lab.

The products were purchased at smoke shops, gas stations and specialty CBD and vape stores in Delaware.

Cannabis labels

Of the 30 products purchased at retail stores, only 19 were sold with labels, according to the groups behind the survey.

Some products were sold deli-style, or weighed and packaged onsite; several pre-roll products also were sold without labels, according to survey results shared with MJBizDaily.

“The team found countless cannabis products being pulled right out of jars and placed into bags without labels or repackaged right in front of our shoppers,” the news site Our Delaware reported.

All of the hemp products purchased for the survey were found to have issues ranging from inaccurate dosing or potency to inaccurately claiming products contained less than 0.3% THC – the threshold that separates hemp from marijuana under federal law – to not listing the cannabinoids present.

The survey found:

• 83.3% of samples violate the Farm Bill.
• 63.3% of samples included synthetic cannabinoids.
• 23.3% of samples included contaminants known to be harmful.
• 100% of samples had label issues.

Intoxicating hemp products are illegal in Delaware, where labels for regulated medical marijuana products must include potency and cannabinoid profile information, according to state law.

Intoxicating hemp

The 2018 Farm Bill legalized hemp by removing it from the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, but federal lawmakers who voted to legalize industrial hemp likely didn’t intend for manufacturers to create or extract intoxicating compounds and use them in consumer goods.

The unregulated products are especially popular in states without adult-use marijuana programs; Delaware, for its part, recently opened the application window for its upcoming adult-use market.

According to Chicago-based data firm Brightfield Group, frequent users of hemp-based THC “tend to purchase (the products) through convenience store channels.”

While about a dozen states including Delaware ban intoxicating hemp products altogether, others are imposing strict rules.

“A lot of people are using this gray area to create products and become dispensaries even though they’re not licensed,” said Laura Barrett, a Maryland-based registered nurse who works as a clinical consultant and educator for cannabis and psychedelics.

“They’re selling products that I’m seeing patients have negative side effects to,” Barrett told MJBizDaily.

High THC levels

Barrett, who serves on the board of the National Clinical Director Consortium, which helped coordinate the Delaware secret shopper program, said the THC levels found in some of the surveyed products is concerning.

In some instances, the label suggested that the product contained 100 milligrams of THC, but lab testing revealed 300 milligrams.

“That’s much more than someone thought they were getting,” Barrett said.

According to survey results, more than 80% of hemp products sampled for the survey contained higher levels of THC than what the Farm Bill allows.

Some also contained psilocybin, the psychedelic ingredient in magic mushrooms, Barrett said.

Harmful contaminants were found in 23% of the products sampled, and 63.3% contained synthetic cannabinoids, such as delta-8 THC, an intoxicating cannabinoid commonly created by synthesizing CBD.

Harmful contaminants detected in the products included mold, unsafe levels of coliform and pesticides as well as heavy metals such as cadmium, lead and mercury.

One edible product sampled contained 500 milligrams of the synthetic cannabinoid THC-O, a type of THC Barrett called more potent than the delta-9 THC commonly found in marijuana.

“There are all different types of THC, and the population doesn’t know about all these different THC factors,” she said.

Many hemp companies’ products contain delta-8 THC, which some people find to be less intoxicating than the delta-9 THC typically found in marijuana, according to Barrett.

But she is concerned that individuals accustomed to consuming delta-8 products might be surprised when they can’t tolerate the same dosages of regulated adult-use marijuana products, when those become available in Delaware next year.

“You think you can eat 100 milligrams because you had that much delta-8, but it’s different because it’s so much more potent,” Barrett said of delta-9 THC.

Delaware marijuana regulation

Chris Lindsey, director of state advocacy and public policy at the American Trade Association for Cannabis & Hemp (ATACH), said synthetic cannabis could be dangerous if it introduces chemicals beyond those tested for in the regulated market.

“We don’t actually know what all the chemicals are that are in these products,” he told MJBizDaily. “This goes beyond the agricultural contaminants you might see.

“If you don’t have any rules at all, it’s tough to tell what may be wrong with the product.

“We know what to look for in marijuana but not in unregulated products.”

Lindsey said products that pose danger to consumers are more likely to appear on store shelves when there is not a regulated market in place.

He likened what’s happening with hemp-derived THC in unregulated states to Prohibition in the 1920s.

Back then, he said, consumers could possess alcohol without consequences, but it was illegal to produce it, which created an incentive for criminal organizations to get into the liquor business.

“It’s what happens in circumstances where you have an easing of laws and a perception of all this changing, but really it hasn’t changed,” Lindsey told MJBizDaily.

“It’s an opportunity for profiteers to swoop in with products we don’t know anything about.”

The $1.5 trillion Farm Bill that’s making its way through Congress includes an amendment seeking to ban intoxicating hemp-based cannabinoids, but Lindsey said regulation of the plant must be at the state level to be effective.

“At the federal level, we’re looking for clarity,” Lindsey said.

“If I go and make delta-8 (THC), there isn’t anything illegal about putting it in a brownie, shipping it across state lines and selling it.

“What we’re asking Congress to do is clarify that it never intended and didn’t legalize synthetic THC.

“We encourage states to put in regulatory systems not only for marijuana but for analogs of THC because without them, you don’t know what your consumers are taking.”

Barrett said education is another important factor.

She supports reliable companies producing high-CBD products with low levels of THC but says consumers must be educated, ask questions and shop responsibly.

She also said it’s the responsibility of retailers to vet the manufacturers they’re doing business with.

“I’m all for good-quality hemp-derived THC products, but I want people to know what they’re getting into,” she said.

Margaret Jackson can be reached at margaret.jackson@mjbizdaily.com.