On a recent school day, a student at Uplift Community High School in Chicago’s Uptown neighborhood began vomiting multiple times and became unresponsive.
A short time later, other students alerted security that they had taken cannabis gummies from a classmate and felt sick, the school incident report showed. Another student who’d taken a gummy was “extremely paranoid and delusional.”
Five students were transported to hospitals, one classified as code red, suggesting a potentially serious condition, though all recovered. The Chicago Fire Department tweeted that the gummies came from a “dispensary” — but those involved indicate that’s not the case.
The gummies came not from a licensed cannabis dispensary, but from a neighborhood smoke shop, according to the school report of the incident and one of the parents of the teens involved.
That store, Uptown Smokes, is one of countless stores around the country selling hemp-derived cannabis products with little regulation or oversight. Products such as delta-8 THC have been found to have mislabeled potency levels, in some cases with illegal levels of psychoactive substances, heavy metals or even fentanyl.
“This is the wild West,” state Rep. Kelly Cassidy said. “We don’t know what they’re selling, and somebody is going to die.”
In fact, prosecutors in Virginia blamed delta-8 gummies for killing a 4-year-old. The Connecticut attorney general has sued companies for selling delta-8 products targeting kids, often with packaging mimicking legitimate candy such as Skittles or Nerds. At least 14 states have banned the sale of delta-8-THC, while a dozen more, including pro-cannabis Colorado, have acted to regulate delta-8, in some cases to meet the same testing and labeling standards as legalized marijuana.
Big cannabis companies have strict requirements in Illinois to test and label the contents of their products, and limit access to adults 21 and over. They have long pushed for makers of hemp annabinoids to face the same requirements.
But state lawmakers have taken no action to protect consumers. Two years ago, state Rep. Bob Morgan introduced a bill to regulate such cannabinoids, but it went nowhere.
When the Tribune asked Senate President Don Harmon’s office about it, his deputy press secretary, Elizabeth Mitchell, responded in writing: “Safety was a top priority when Senate Democrats voted to legalize adult-use cannabis in 2019. With the DEA recently stating that cannabinoids like delta-8 are illegal, the Senate is looking into the issue to ensure continued public safety.”
Uptown Smokes is located within 1,000 feet of Uplift school and would not be allowed to be a licensed dispensary. The store, according to its Instagram account, advertises delta-8 and delta-10-THC, tobacco, and another drug called kratom, it sold alongside potato chips, pop, candy and other items popular with high schoolers.
Uptown Smokes was shut down by the city the day after the incident — not for the overdoses, but for building code violations. Chicago officials say they generally have no authority to regulate the sale of delta-8, but can use code citations to temporarily address problem sites. The store was to remain closed until violations were corrected. The registered agent for Uptown Smokes, Zeyad Abughoush, could not be reached for comment.
State agencies that regulate marijuana also say they have authority only to regulate licensed establishments.
On a national level, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warns that it has not evaluated delta-8 products for safety, and they raise “significant public health concerns.” One of the concerning aspects of delta-8 THC is that it may be created by using potentially harmful chemicals.
The FDA received 104 reports of adverse events in patients who consumed delta-8 THC products between December 2020 and February 2022, including hallucinations, vomiting, tremors, anxiety, dizziness, confusion, and loss of consciousness. National poison control centers received 2,362 exposure cases of delta-8 THC products, with 70% requiring evaluation at a health care facility, and 41% of patients under age 18.
The proliferation of delta-8 shops is the result of a legal gray area created by the legalization of hemp.
When Congress approved the federal farm bill of 2018, it legalized hemp, which comes from the same cannabis plant that produces marijuana, but without the psychoactive effects. Hemp was defined as including all derivatives and cannabinoids having less than .3% of delta-9 THC, the component of pot that gets users high.
Since then, hemp-grown cannabidiol (CBD) has been used to create intoxicating derivatives such as delta-8, which are said to give users a milder high without the anxiety that marijuana can produce.
A federal court in California ruled in 2022 that delta-8 and other hemp-derived cannabinoids were legal. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, however, has issued notice that it considers delta-8 and delta-10-THC to be illegal. The FDA has warned several companies for selling delta-8.
Members of Congress, meanwhile, have blamed the FDA for failing to come up with regulatory guidelines for cannabinoids, the various compounds found in hemp.
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Another concern is that hemp-derived products can come in far higher concentrations than legal marijuana dispensaries can sell. The package of gummies at Uplift High School, for instance, was labeled as having 300 milligrams of delta-8-THC, while licensed cannabis dispensaries are limited to selling packages of 100 milligrams.
The legal cannabis industry says such smoke shops are unfairly cutting into their business because they have none of the same requirements for testing and labeling as do the licensed businesses.
The Marijuana Industry Group recently stated that the hemp market is selling hundreds of millions of dollars in unregulated, untaxed products annually without identification checks, purchase limits, or safety restrictions. Kids can purchase these products, often shaped like popular candy, online.
Even NORML, the organization that advocates for legalization of cannabis, warns against using untested synthetically derived cannabinoids, because they may contain impurities.
And some companies that make delta-8 and other cannabinoids want to be regulated, to prove they are properly testing and labeling their products.
State Rep. La Shawn Ford, who has taken the lead on cannabis legislation, said the state needs to regulate delta-8 sales to require testing and limit sales to those over 21.
“We need to regulate those delta-8 shops, ” he said. “They should have to go through the same process as (cannabis) dispensaries. It needs to be regulated and taxed — that’s in the best interests of public health.”
