Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine claimed last week that fentanyl-laced pot is a threat to the state as he urged last-minute changes to the law Ohio voters approved last month, but one doctor—trained in the field of overdose prevention—said those stories have been debunked and shouldn’t be perpetuated by leaders. Instead, they should focus on real issues such as fentanyl that’s administered in other ways.

On Nov. 7, voters in Ohio approved a ballot proposal, Issue 2, to legalize adult-use cannabis, making Ohio the 24th state to allow adult-cannabis, 14 of which have done so by way of a public vote. 

On Dec. 6, hours before the deadline, the GOP-dominant Ohio Senate approved HB 86, last-minute changes to the law voters approved. They weren’t able to get rid of home grow, but reduced the home grow limit from 12 plants to six, and added a few more changes to the legislation.

But as DeWine made his final pleas to tweak the law, he regurgitated a common myth about cannabis: that drug dealers are lacing pot with fentanyl. Tabloids like the Daily Mail like to run with it. High Times has reported since 2017 that fentanyl-laced pot is a myth that has been debunked, even by Snopes, rated “false.” A Harvard-trained doctor specializing in opioid abuse told us the same thing in 2021.

“This black market will just take off,” DeWine said Dec. 6, explaining the dangers of legalization. “People will be getting it from many sources, none of them legally. Without this bill, people could be buying marijuana that has fentanyl in it. The leading cause of death in the state of Ohio of overdoses is fentanyl, 80% of our deaths.” 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis also shared the same myth as the reason he won’t legalize adult-use pot if elected, saying “… I think it’s a lot different than stuff that people were using 30 or 40 years ago. And I think when kids get on that, I think it causes a lot of problems. And then, of course, you know, they can throw fentanyl in any of this stuff now.”

NBC affiliate WCMH in Ohio interviewed a local doctor who dismissed the myth that was shared by Gov. DeWine.

Dr. Tasha Turner-Bicknell, an associate professor at the University of Cincinnati College of Nursing, is laser-focused on overdose prevention. She told WCHM that during her time as a researcher with Harm Reduction Ohio, where she sits on the board of directors, she has been unable to find a single shred of proof that fentanyl is being found in cannabis. It doesn’t actually have any basis in reality when samples are tested for fentanyl, she said.

“It’s something that is talked about and it’s covered in the media, but then when actual tests are run in state or government labs it always comes back negative,” Turner-Bicknell said. “We really don’t have any evidence at all that there is any proof of any such thing as fentanyl in marijuana.”

Turner-Bicknell called the concept of fentanyl-laced marijuana a myth. She said one reason is the different temperatures that marijuana and fentanyl have to be burned at to be smoked.”

“The way that (fentanyl) would be smoked, it would not really be combustible at the same temperature that marijuana would be burned at,” Turner-Bicknell said. “So, when you talk to people about it more in-depth, it’s also something that’s not really possible, that there would be fentanyl in marijuana and that it would be smoked.”

Other Addiction Doctors Agree Fentanyl-Laced Pot is Unlikely

In a February interview with NewsNation, toxicologist Dr. Ryan Marino agreed that fentanyl isn’t exactly feasible if smoked or vaped.

Two years ago a doctor told High Times virtually the same thing, that fentanyl is administered in other ways, not on pot, which wouldn’t make much sense for drug dealers to do as it breaks down when smoked or vaped.

Harvard-trained Peter Grinspoon, M.D. is an Internist and medical cannabis specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital and an Instructor at Harvard Medical School. He is author of books such as Free Refills: A Doctor Confronts His Addiction, also a new book Seeing Through the Smoke: A Cannabis Specialist Untangles the Truth about Marijuana, and son of cannabis activist Dr. Lester Grinspoon.

When unverified leads of fentanyl-laced cannabis emerge, “It creates fear,” Dr. Grinspoon told High Times in 2021. “Whenever there’s information about drugs—particularly cannabis—which is incredible, it makes it much harder for public health officials to get information that is credible out there. It’s like The Boy Who Cried Wolf—so it’s like the D.A.R.E. program. They said that cannabis does this, this, this and this, and teenagers didn’t believe it because it was against their lived experience. It sort of disqualified their other messages about drugs which are actually more dangerous—like heroin or alcohol. It just discredits the ‘official’ sources of information.” 

“The story is bizarre anyways, because it’s unclear if you can consume fentanyl in that way—by smoking,” Dr. Grinspoon said. “Some drugs you can smoke, like cocaine, freebased as crack. But fentanyl tends to disintegrate starting at about 500 degrees [F], and it fully disintegrates at about 1000 degrees. When you smoke—you’re talking about 2,000 degrees.” 

He didn’t completely rule out the credibility of these stories, however.

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The hemp-derived cannabinoid market is hotter than ever but experts warn that people should educate themselves about the fundamental differences between delta-8 THC and delta-9 THC products. High Times previously reported that delta-8 THC was first partially synthesized in 1941, yet there’s still a lot of controversy surrounding the ingredient, due to the way it’s extracted and converted. 

Nextar reports that a Johns Hopkins School of Medicine professor and other experts want to educate people about the choices they should make with cannabis.

“Chemically, they’re almost identical. But that one little difference in that chemical structure results in a different way that it interacts with your body … with your [cannabinoid] receptors,” explains Ryan Vandrey, Ph.D., a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine who specializes in the behavior pharmacology of cannabis.

The majority of delta-8 on the market is converted from CBD, using a natural solvent and an acid as a catalyst, but people inside and out of the cannabis industry cannot seem to agree whether delta-8 should be defined as synthetic or natural. 

Vandrey also added that delta-9 THC is stronger, so why would consumers go to delta-8?

“The reason people call delta-8-THC ‘diet weed’ [is because] that chemical difference is a little less potent at what it does at the receptor,” Vandrey said, adding that delta-8 is “about half as effective” at producing the same high as delta-9.

“Does delta-8 THC get you high or is it a scam?” a popular Reddit thread in r/weed asked. The consensus appears to confirm that it has fewer psychedelic effects compared to delta-9 THC.

Sales of hemp-derived cannabinoids like CBD outpace adult-use cannabis and are comparable to the craft beer industry, Whitney Economics found. There are no signs that the industry is going to slow down.

Representatives from NORML have told High Times that delta-8 is not a primary concern, but it’s more about residual chemicals and other byproducts in gas station hemp products you should be worried about most. Dale Gieringer of Cal NORML specifically warned about THCO, which he thinks is instead one of the more particularly problematic compounds with the potential for real injuries.

Peter Grinspoon, M.D.,a primary care doctor at Mass General Hospital and an instructor at Harvard Medical School, supports medical cannabis but says state medical cannabis programs do a much better job at vetting ingredients than shops selling delta-8 products.

Grinspoon clarified that the confusion caused by the federal government itself makes it hard to distinguish what’s safe and what’s not regarding hemp-derived cannabinoids.

“In addition to lack of regulation, we have regulatory incoherence from different branches and levels of government. … That’s going to make it even harder to get any coherent regulation on things,” he told Nexstar.

Legal experts noted that the FDA had no intention of legalizing delta-8 when the 2018 Farm Bill was passed, so time’s ticking for the hemp-derived cannabinoids industry. But sellers have it practically everywhere.

“Delta-8 is so close to delta-9, it’s probably relatively safe,” Grinspoon said. “But even if we figured out that delta-8 is safe—the delta-8 you’re buying at your local smoke shop, we have no idea what’s in it.”

The 2018 Farm Bill paved the way for the Ninth Circuit Court to rule that certain low-THC cannabis derivatives were exempt from the Controlled Substances Act. This left a loophole for hemp-derived products that produce a psychoactive effect, but the feds never intended to do so.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned that delta-8 and similar cannabinoid derivatives, have “psychoactive and intoxicating effects that may be dangerous to consumers” and urged Congress to act and set up regulations. These hemp-derived cannabinoids leave room for the potential of harmful contaminants, the FDA says.

How is Delta-8 THC Made?

Delta-8 THC is only found in minute amounts in the wild, therefore in order to get enough to infuse products, it must be converted from CBD. Roger Adams and a team of researchers at the University of Illinois were the first to report partial synthesis of delta-8 in 1941.

High Times reported on exactly how it’s done:

The publication Chemical and Engineering News (CEN) described the process as “refluxing CBD in an organic solvent, such as toluene or heptane, with p-toluenesulfonic acid or another acid that serves as a catalyst.” In a controlled, regulated environment, these reactions would be done by PhD chemists to ensure there are no harmful by-products left in products sold to consumers, but the hemp industry is notoriously under-regulated with no requirements for lab testing.

CEN also described the rise of delta-8 THC “a concern.”

It’s up to every consumer to adhere to “buyer beware,” or at least know the differences between delta-8 and delta-9 THC, which are significant.

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The New York Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) published a two-page report entitled “Cannabis and Fentanyl: Facts and Unknowns” to demystify the facts and myths of the two substances, specifically that of fentanyl contaminating cannabis.

“The goal of this fact sheet is to provide evidence where it is available, to share information about what is currently known and unknown, and to provide safety tips to help alleviate some of these misconceptions, often spread through misinformed media coverage and anecdotal reporting,” the report stated.

The report includes multiple key findings. First, that misinformation connected to “cannabis ‘contaminated’ with fentanyl are widespread.” In response to this, and the reason the report was created in the first place, is to disprove and combat that misinformation, stating that “Anecdotal reports of fentanyl ‘contaminated’ cannabis continue to be found to be false, as of the date of this publication.”

The OCM also added that due to the stigma that opioid consumers experience in health care settings, they develop mistrust that leads to inaccurate self-reporting, as well as choosing not to admit opioid use. To take action and protect the public, the OCM found that promoting overdose prevention with “evidence-based interventions” also reduces stigma.

The OCM stated that there are not yet any reliable methods of testing fentanyl on cannabis flower. While fentanyl test strips are used frequently to test if fentanyl is on other substances, they are only designed for substances that are water soluble. Most commonly, those strips are used with powders or pills to detect fentanyl. While it hasn’t been found in cannabis, it can be found in substances such as “heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, MDMA, and pressed pills.”

Described in a text block called “What We Know,” the OCM stated that to date, no one has died because of cannabis contaminated with fentanyl. “Warnings related to fentanyl ‘contamination’ in cannabis have increased as states continue to legalize cannabis,” the OCM wrote. “At this time, there have been zero verified incidents of fentanyl ‘contamination’ in cannabis. There is no guarantee that any unregulated cannabis product is free from contaminants or harmful ingredients.”

The OCM warns that there are many unknowns about the possibility of fentanyl “contaminated” cannabis. “Cannabis products made available in the unregulated market may contain unknown or undisclosed contaminants and have inaccurate labeling. Reliable testing protocols for the presence of fentanyl on cannabis flower remain unknown,” the OCM wrote.

However, the past has shown that cannabis has been found with unregulated substances in the past, such as K-2, otherwise known as spice, that is advertised as a cannabis product.

The agency concludes the report by recommending buying legal cannabis products to ensure that your product is tested in a lab and does not contain any harmful contaminants.

Rumors of fentanyl in cannabis have been perpetuated through law enforcement and also expanded into the arguments of legislators and political leaders.

In December 2021, a Vermont-based police department told the media about an incident with a patient who consumed cannabis that tested positive for fentanyl, claiming that they revived the individual with CPR and multiple doses of Narcan. However, they later released a statement walking back the claims about a positive fentanyl test. “The seized marijuana in both incidents was submitted to a forensic laboratory where testing was conducted,” said the department. “[Brattleboro Police Department] was notified no fentanyl was found in the marijuana in either case.”

High Times spoke with Peter Grinspoon, M.D., a medical cannabis specialist from Massachusetts General Hospital and also Harvard Medical School instructor, about the dangers of such claims. “It creates fear,” Dr. Grinspoon said in 2021. “Whenever there’s information about drugs—particularly cannabis—which is incredible, it makes it much harder for public health officials to get information that is credible out there. It’s like The Boy Who Cried Wolf—so it’s like the D.A.R.E. program. They said that cannabis does this, this, this and this, and teenagers didn’t believe it because it was against their lived experience. It sort of disqualified their other messages about drugs which are actually more dangerous—like heroin or alcohol. It just discredits the ‘official’ sources of information.” 

However, that misinformation continues to be spread. In August 2023, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis attended Never Back Down Super PAC in Iowa, where he stated that he would not legalize cannabis if he was elected president. “Yeah, I would not legalize,” said DeSantis. “I think what’s happened is this stuff is very potent now. I think it’s a real, real problem and I think it’s a lot different than stuff that people were using 30 or 40 years ago. And I think when kids get on that, I think it causes a lot of problems. And then, of course, you know, they can throw fentanyl in any of this stuff now.”

In August, 517,500 fentanyl pills (about 115 pounds) disguised as “M30” oxycodone were seized by the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Office within the span of just one week. In 2021, San Bernardino County saw 354 people die because of fentanyl overdose.

A report from the National Center for Health Statistics shows that in 2021, more than 106,000 people died of overdose deaths, and 70,601 of those people died because of overdoses related to synthetic opioids other than methadone (which includes fentanyl). The 32,537 remaining deaths were attributed to stimulants such as cocaine and psychostimulants with potential for abuse, such as methamphetamine.

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A remembrance: The Harvard physician’s 1971 book laid the scientific foundation for today’s legal cannabis laws.

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