Newswise — Cannabis use for medicinal or recreational purposes is now permitted is most states in the U.S. Many of the products sold in dispensaries contain delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (better known as “THC”), and are thus classified as Schedule I drugs, making them illegal under federal law.
However, there is a parallel market for products derived from hemp—defined as cannabis containing less that 0.3 percent THC—spurred in part by the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, which removed hemp-derived cannabinoids from the federal Controlled Substances Act.
A new U-M study published in JAMA Network Open examines past-year use of some of these hemp-derived cannabinoids, including cannabidiol (CBD), Delta 8-THC, cannabigerol (CBG), and cannabinol (CBN).
“While the de-scheduling of hemp products initially opened up the market for CBD products, it also applies to the 100-plus cannabinoids also found in the plant. That means, as with CBD, all of them can follow that same path and be sold in gas stations, as ingredients in cosmetics, as well as in dispensaries—there will likely be substantial proliferation of some of these compounds,” said Kevin Boehnke, Ph.D. of the Chronic Pain and Fatigue Research Center and the Department of Anesthesiology at the University of Michigan Medical School.
Using a census-representative sample of adults from the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) AmeriSpeak panel, Boehnke and his colleagues examined knowledge of and past-year use of…
