Are CBD, CBG and Delta 8Legal?

For the last of these articles answering the most frequently asked questions we’re hearing (for a while), we wanted to address a very important matter that’s been brought up more lately: legality.

The quick and easy answer? Yes. CBD, CBG and Delta 8 are legal within certain limitations. And those limitations are extremely important. There’s no walking the line when it comes to hemp and its derivatives; products are either legal or they’re not, and this pass-fail grade can vary by state in this current atmosphere. This can make things quite confusing sometimes.

Generalizations

Though there is not a unified authority on hemp for the entire nation at this time, you can generally trust a few legal and social norms to cross state borders thanks to the 2018 Farm Act, which legalized manufacturing, possession, use and distribution of industrial hemp and its derivatives across state lines.

If hemp derived CBD and CBG products contain less than 0.3% THC, you can now legally order them from websites like ours to your door in most states- and if they contain 0.0% THC, as our CBD Isolate based products do, you can now get them in every state. However, this does not mean that every state allows CBD stores to operate. It also doesn’t mean you can buy any CBD product out there from any store in your state, as each state has its own limitations in place and it’s important to know what your local government has to say.

It’s also worth noting that not all cannabinoids- or their sources- are treated equally by the law…

CBD, CBG, CBN and the Rest

Like raw hemp flower itself, products containing most cannabinoids are legal for possession and consumption with a THC content of less than 0.3%. Any higher than that and the product is considered “hot”, or illegal to possess, and must be destroyed prior to any kind of sale. For instance, we couldn’t sell you any of our CBD lotion if it contained 0.31% THC and would have to dispose of it.

These cannabinoids must be derived from industrial hemp grown in the United States in order to be considered federally and nationally legal, but the compounds themselves are 100% legal. THC, on the other hand, is in a hazier situation.

Delta 8 and Delta 9 THC

The terms “THC” (Tetrahydrocannabinol) and “Delta 9 THC” or “Delta-9 THC” are often used interchangeably by practically everyone, but the term used by any given state’s legal code is currently one of the only dividing lines between Delta 8 THC (aka “Delta-8 THC”, “Delta 8” or “D8-THC”) being permitted with restrictions and downright prohibited in most states.

Unless their laws state otherwise, if a state prohibits “Delta 9 THC”, Delta 8 is still legal provided it was derived from industrial hemp and not from its psychoactive counterpart, medical or recreational cannabis. If a state prohibits “THC”- or regulates it heavily- even hemp derived Delta 8 THC is prohibited or at least more heavily regulated than its cousins.

Take, for instance, Colorado. Our home state- one that has legalized THC’s regulated recreational use for adults. Our rather large and well-documented legal code surrounding the compound almost exclusively refers to “THC”, not “Delta 9 THC” specifically. This lumps all of THC’s analogs together with one general term.

Because of this, we’d have to go through channels reserved for cannabis companies to legally sell our Delta 8 products here in the state, which (and this is the short version) would prevent us from doing business with the same products outside our borders. However, we’re still legally able to manufacture them and distribute them from Colorado, as we derive their Delta 8 contents from locally and federally compliant hemp.

While hemp derived Delta 8 THC is federally legal, it is not legal in every state and is regulated to the point of unavailability in some areas. Cannabis derived Delta 8 is also federally illegal, but is technically legal in a small handful of states. It’s all a bit crazy, but these are the states where an adult over 21 years of age can’t buy hemp derived Delta 8 like some Silver Owl products contain, for one reason or another:

Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Idaho, Iowa, Mississippi, Montana, Rhode Island and Utah

If you have any more questions about these blog entries or anything we may not have covered with this round of FAQs, please reach out to us at Hello@SilverOwlCBD.com or at the digital headquarters of our social media presence, @SilverOwlCBD on Instagram. We’ll be back with more for this series, I’m sure. I hope I’ve been able to help!