D8 and State Regulation, Laws and Legality

Despite the controversy surrounding delta-8 THC, it remains legal in 22 states and 1 district, with only limited regulation. This covers the following states:

• Alabama*
• Arizona
• Arkansas
• Florida*
• Georgia (?)
• Illinois
• Indiana (?)
• Kentucky*
• Maine
• Maryland* (?)
• Missouri
• Nebraska
• New Jersey
• New Mexico
• North Carolina
• Ohio
• Oklahoma
• Pennsylvania (?)
• South Carolina (?)
• Texas (?)
• Washington D.C.
• Wisconsin
• Wyoming*

Here, a * beside the state’s name means they’ve instituted age restrictions, preventing anybody aged 21 or under from buying delta-8 THC. States marked with (?) are currently involved in legal action about the status of delta-8 THC.

In the majority of these cases, state law basically follows the blueprint laid down by the 2018 Farm Bill with few or no additional rules. In fact, only a handful of states (Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, Maryland and Wyoming) have even passed laws preventing youth from buying delta-8 THC. 

Legal actions are ongoing in several states, with the situation being slightly different in each. For instance, in Maryland, thehemp industry won a temporary injunction against the state, preventing the state from enforcing the provisions of House Bill (HB) 556 which relate to hemp until the action is resolved. The bill originally made it so that delta-8 THC products (and most CBD) could only be sold in licensed marijuana dispensaries, but this was deemed by the court to create a monopoly. 

For every state where delta-8 THC is de facto legal, there is another state which has either banned or severely restricted the cannabinoid. In total, CBD Oracle’s analysis shows that delta-8 THC is banned in 17 states and severely restricted in 7 more. The states with bans are:

• Alaska
• Colorado
• Delaware
• Hawaii
• Idaho
• Massachusetts
• Mississippi
• Montana
• Nevada (technically could be approved for marijuana industry)
• New York (isomerization banned, could theoretically be sold in adult use)
• North Dakota
• Oregon
• Rhode Island
• Utah (possible in medical industry)
• Vermont
• Washington
• West Virginia

And there are severe restrictions – limiting all THCs to be under 0.3% for hemp products, unless otherwise noted – in the following seven states:

• Iowa
• Kansas
• Louisiana (all THCs must be under 8 mg per serving and 1% by dry weight)
• Michigan (all THCs under 0.3% and only marijuana-derived delta-8 allowed)
• Minnesota (all THCs under 0.3% and less than 5 mg per serving)
• New Hampshire
• Virginia (2 mg serving limit or >25:1 CBD:THC ratio)

Exactly how delta-8 THC is banned or restricted varies by state. For instance, while Colorado bans the “isomerization” process used to make delta-8 from CBD, Idaho basically bansanything that contains THC at all, even if it’s just CBD with trace, federally-acceptable levels of delta-9 THC. For the restricted states, most require that all THCs total to under 0.3% by dry weight, which is technically possible for a delta-8 THC product to meet, but essentially none do. 

The analysis also revealed that – just like with marijuana – making delta-8 THC illegal doesn’t automatically remove it from a community. In Hawaii and Mississippi, for instance, despite state law banning delta-8 THC, it is still openly sold.