John Rambo (my cat) is still alive because of it instead of cancer taking over his entire body. So there’s that.
Thank you so much again @DapperDabMan - another reason why I consider you a part of my family. Love you bro
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You have to think of this from a lawmaker/regulator’s standpoint, not your own. From the former’s standpoint, conversions of any kind, THC loophole edibles, etc are all bad.
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It might. FDA stance is pretty heavy about this. Warning letters have gone out. All those products - except perhaps smokable hemp and maybe vaping products, but probably not. Are illegal. No topicals, no gummies, no nothing is allowed under current FDA rules. Someone has to change that one way or another in the Farm Bill (we assume!!) we don’t know which way it will go.
I’m thinking because of the pharma and big canna lobbies - that it will go to where you cannot make them at all. 
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They rode shotgun on a couple raids recently, one in Minnesota and one in Hawaii
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The FDA will require API level cGMP, which can be understood as ‘you have to have pharma-level budget to play’.
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Yes. The enforcement arm is in full motion now. I was surprised it took so long - they usually like to swoop in quickly and provide clarity about the regs right away. I think only the pandemic kept them from doing this until now. Some luck I suppose for those benefiting from that market.
Nah. I don’t think that will be the case at all. And even then there are fully separate regs for API - with limited GMP requirements, compared to say, making oral drugs.
For most things - we are really just looking at things becoming GRAS or not. If not - no one will be doing anything with it. It will take 5-7 years to get any new ingredients approved… and a lot of money that no one cares to spend probably So I’m hopeful the farm bill will lean towards GRAS like the EU and other nations embracing these new things.
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Just taking epidiolex as a precedent.
Either CBD is API or it’s not. The FDA seems to think it is.
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Got any links to these stories?
There are a lot of things that are both API and not - mostly vitamins… because the FDA is weird. And even if they decide its an active ingredient instead of an inactive ingredient… there possibility for it to be moved into a different category (like with nicotine…and some other over the counter substances…) which would allow it to be used more easily in cosmetics.
The real kicker is people using it in food and bev - that’s like never really happened with something like this. Like ever. So getting permission to just randomly allow it to exist in those things, I mean that would mean a completely new category (like alcohol or tobacco) was created to allow that to occur.
Unless of course - the legislature (who writes the Farm Bill) wants that control and then they can tell the FDA to fuck right off and make cannabinoids GRAS… not that they will, but they could. They have done crazy things like that before. -shrug-
Seems unlikely given the party dynamics, but lobbyist will lobby, so who knows!
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I do know of at least one very large cannabis company lobbying to kerp things the way they are.
You can make money on d8 alot easier than d9.
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Cannot keep things the way they are, sadly. The way they are right now is the FDA saying cannabis derived products cannot be made in the US involving food, drugs, cosmetics, vet products, etc. That’s basically everything except maybe combination products or smokables… and even then they might fall under vaping rules via tobacco stuff.
But that’s just the truth. Without change all these companies will have to stop making any of these products converted or not - because they are not allowed by the FDA’s current rules. So someone has to change those.
I’m proposing that the next Farm Bill will contain these changes - I just don’t know if they will be prohibitionist OR create new subcategories for cannabis derived stuff OR make cannabis derived stuff GRAS as long as it doesn’t have d9THC in it.
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Just wanted to put this here so it doesn’t get buried. This is what ultimately what made me realize this would slow the growth of the extremely aggressive bone cancer my little (cat, in case someone wants to be a dick about it) boy has. I got to spend my birthday, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years with my best friend when every vet I saw told me aside from cutting his entire bottom jaw off and hoping it hadn’t spread I wasn’t going to have much time with him. He’s still sweet, energetic and happy. CBD has been a fucking miracle. Here’s the study that changed my mind.
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Sorry poor choice of words. I agree. I think there might be enough money in the hemp conversation space to buy favorable laws.
We shall find out.
How well does d8 sell in rec states?
Extremely well. I have homies driving trackhawks always telling me to just open shops.
My boy sold 13k cake units last year. I don’t spit game for free.
Edit: also I don’t like the probability of getting shot at or robbed multiple times.
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And there are different levels of cGMP.
There is cosmetic, supplement/neutraceutical, and then there’s pharma/API. Likely half the industry couldn’t comply with the least of them or would go bankrupt attempting to achieve compliance.
I’m just saying it’s inevitable that federal legality will come with regulatory strings attached. Whether or not it’s better than whatever the fuck this is now depends on the details. The current party’s legalization bills differ and it’s the only time I’ve rooted for a republican bill. The republicans want the FDA only involved in medical while the democrats want it to regulate recreational markets as well.
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I’m pretty sure anybody who was actually converting two years ago was talking about this. Yet, everyone’s greed blinded them and for a short term result yall handed it to Pharma.
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The common sense path remains the same: let the gas stations & liquor stores sell it all.
There are a lot of stereotypes spewed about gas station operators and why anything sold in their stores is inherently sketchy. Such stereotypes have always sounded like thinly veiled racism to me.
They’ve been dealing regulated products for decades. They know what they are doing, and they are generally ethical, law-abiding citizens. No less-so than the general population.
Virtually no legal frameworks have been provided to them, and very little education. They do what they can with what they have / know. Right now what they have is the word of their distributors, whose integrity varies.
Absent actual age restrictions in most states, the vast majority have adamantly stuck to 21+ on hemp products since the beginning.
This business has a great divide between hemp & marijuana. It often feels like we are dividing & conquering ourselves. Mostly we are all just small business owners trying to live the American Dream ™. We’re all in Cannabis.
Constantly people speak out so ridiculously conservatively against conversions & the like to save the children, puppies, etc. They think they sound so virtuous. Everyone in the game knows such people are just talking their book.
Are you sure you know your true enemies?
Be cautious of calling for excessive regulation, lest you be an unknowing shill for wall street & big pharma’s interests. Over-regulate cannabis out of an abundance of caution and you gift the entire business to them with a big red bow.
Beware of sunk-cost fallacy. If in light of current facts, you realize you’ve bet your chips in the wrong place, move what’s left of them to the right place. Don’t expect regulatory capture to serve you.
Stick to common sense, less-is-more thinking, and remember why you entered this business in the first place.
Common sense:
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No full synthetics. Making cannabinoids derived from chemicals and not hemp is certainly illegal, right now. And common sense says it’s probably absurd from a health & safety perspective. There should be no future for it. THC-X, THC-H, THC-JD, THC-FU
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Conversions from hemp are probably safe, and it seems consumers enjoy them. Like it or not, billions of $ worth have been sold & consumed. Like it or not, health & safety of such products has been tested recklessly on a massive scale with no guardrails. But the results thus far are undeniably far more positive than anyone imagined / feared. There is nothing warranting a ban or even much regulation of these products.
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Dispensaries are pointless other than the 1:1 consumer education, if that. They represent regulatory capture in pure form. License lotteries… LOL. Maybe it was a good approach in the beginning to grease the broader population + law makers. Give all of cannabis retail to the c-stores & liquor stores who have been dealing regulated goods forever, along with sensible legal frameworks / rules.
Put conversions on the shelf next to ‘real weed’ in a free & open market. Let consumers vote with their dollars. End the tired debates. And let us all invest our hard work & hard earned dollars where they vote, so we can serve their needs in a safe, fair, efficient, accessible, and cost-effective way.
Good for small business. Good for consumers. Good for America.
FWIW, I have a feeling things are headed in the right direction. I’ve always felt what I’ve described above was inevitable, hence why I am on the side of the business that I am. I’ve only grown more confident as things have played out. Maybe I am irrationally optimistic.
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No future for full synthetics?
Too late.
THC-B
THCP
Are in full swing. Sold by our most popular Hemp slangers.
Not even made from Hemp. Sold as hemp. At gas stations. The issue isnt let america be free. It’s false advertising, bad chemistry, no regulation on shit more potent than real weed. Right next to real weed (THCA) LOL sold as Hemp.
This is awfully cavalier of you to just think its a tireless debate.
They already sell real weed, next to cbd, and conversions. They just suck at being honest. They don’t care as long as it becomes cashflow.
That grand view of them selling it all, is present. I argue: your window is now, not in the future.
Hemp is the elephant in the room risking cannabis and nobody wants to talk about it.
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