Hemp industry in limbo with new Delta-8 rules

By Brent Johnson
Newsroom@DominionPost.com
As the effective date of new West Virginia hemp rules approaches, the future is still uncertain for many businesses selling Delta-8 THC products.
In March, legislators passed regulations on the substance with SB 220 and SB 546, prohibiting sales to minors under 21 and imposing a new privilege tax on retailers. The laws also add all synthetic derivatives of Delta-8 to Schedule 1 of West Virginia’s Controlled Substances Act, effectively banning their sale and possession across the state.
For West Virginia Poison Center director Dr. Elizabeth Scharman, tighter regulations are a welcome change amid rising hospitalizations due to Delta-8 misuse.
“We’ve had increasing reports of Delta-8 toxicity in both pediatric patients and in adults,” Scharman said. “We’ve had pediatric patients end up in the hospital, and adults as well.”
Often characterized as a tamer variant of the psychoactive tetrahydrocannabinol present in marijuana, Delta-8 sales have exploded in West Virginia and across the country since the 2018 Farm Bill legalized the hemp-derived substance federally. Critics often take aim at its edible forms, which they say are marketed too loosely — or even directly to children.
The Delta-8 toxicity cases stem from a combination of unclear dosage and underage use, Scharman said.
“People give it to a family member who has a headache and say, ‘Hey, try these.’ And they give them, like, four or six… [it] is not a very comfortable or pleasant feeling to have, and that’s resulted in emergency department visits as well.”
Scharman expressed her disappointment at the substances not being banned outright, citing West Virginia’s rapidly growing hemp industry as the reason for the compromise.
Meanwhile, some owners of hemp businesses say they welcome the regulations and have nothing to hide.
Krystal Reeves, who owns the Purple Leaf Dispensary in South Charleston, points to indifferent gas station clerks and smoke shop operators as the reason kids are getting Delta-8 products.
“We don’t sell to underage children. It’s a medicinally focused environment that educates consumers on the product,” Reeves said. “In shops, such as you know, vape shops, and in, probably, gas stations as well. … They sell it to be selling it, and we don’t operate that way.”
Like many operators of dedicated hemp businesses, Reeves initially applied for permits under West Virginia’s medical marijuana program, but found that applications were rarely granted to West Virginians. Instead, they went to out-of-state businesses with the capital to manufacture products to the program’s strict standards.
Others in the hemp industry, like Riley Queen, co-owner of Moonflower Hemp in Buckhannon, believe the privilege tax imposed by the law is unfair to businesses.
“Privilege tax means that we, as a business, can’t put this on the customer’s receipt. And we’ll have to pay that tax completely out of pocket,” Queen said. “So we can do that either by raising our prices or just eating it, which really sucks for us.”
According to SB 220, the new tax rate will be “11% of the retail sales price of hemp-derived cannabinoid products sold during the reporting period.”
Despite the sting of the added costs, Queen supports the other regulations and looks for silver linings.
“Our packaging is completely compliant,” she said. “By West Virginia standards, everything that we offer is third party tested. We’ve never sold to people under the age of 21. So those things help us in the long run.”