Texas Bans Delta-8 THC, Which Is Only Popular Because of Prohibition
This week, the Texas House of Representatives passed a bill outlawing an intoxicating substance derived from hemp, just six years after legalizing it. Ironically, prohibition is what created the problem in the first place.
Senate Bill 3, which passed the Texas Senate in March, would ban all forms of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in the state. “Since 2019, retailers across Texas have exploited a state agriculture law to sell life-threatening, unregulated forms of Tetrahydrocannabinol to Texans, including children,” Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (a Republican) said in March, in support of the bill. “These stores which often target children with their marketing have popped up across the state, threatening the safety of our communities.”
The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 officially legalized hemp at the federal level, by defining it as any part of the Cannabis sativa plant “with a delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol concentration of not more than 0.3 percent.” Many states, including Texas, soon followed suit, passing farm bills at the state level using the same percentage.
Hemp and marijuana both come from the Cannabis sativa plant. Delta-9 THC is the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, which causes a “high” when ingested. While THC occurs naturally in marijuana—at a 15 percent concentration, on average—it’s only present in trace amounts in hemp.
In 1967, an Israeli chemist synthesized a separate compound, delta-8. On a molecular level, delta-8 is nearly identical to delta-9, and it produces a similar but milder intoxicating response when ingested. Delta-8 also only occur
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