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THE GREAT HEMP HOAX
A recent analysis of 104 so-called "hemp" products from 68 brands uncovered a public health crisis in California's unregulated hemp market. The white paper, The Great Hemp Hoax, revealed that 95 percent of tested products contained chemically synthesized cannabinoids, which are prohibited in California.
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95% of tested products contained prohibited synthetic cannabinoids linked to serious health risks
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91% were sold with no sales and use tax
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88% failed California hemp standards
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56% exceeded federal hemp THC limits
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Nearly half of the tested products contained THCP, a synthetic compound up to 30 times more potent than natural THC
UPDATE: AB 8 (Aguiar-Curry) signed into law. Explore our guide for cannabis operators.
Tiffany Devitt, Director of Regulatory Affairs at Groundwork Holdings Inc., the parent company of California cannabis industry pioneers CannaCraft and March and Ash.
Josh Swider, PhD, Co-founder and CEO of Infinite Chemical Analysis Labs, which provides the cannabis industry with accurate and timely analytical services of the highest quality.
Kristin Heidelbach, Legislative Director of the United Food and Commercial Workers Western States Council is the regional coordinating body of 11 UFCW local unions representing over 200,000 workers in California, Arizona, Nevada, and Utah. The Council is part of the 1.2 million-member UFCW International Union to improve the lives of workers, families, and communities.
The Great Hemp Hoax white paper is an educational and advocacy project of the San Diego/Imperial Counties Joint Labor Management Cannabis Committee, which includes UFCW Local 135 — representing over 13,000 unionized employees — along with March and Ash, Inc. and Embarc, two community-oriented dispensary chains employing over 600 union workers.
The Great Hemp Hoax February 2025
Psychosis and suicide attempt following a single use of Δ9-THCP: A case report PCN Rep, February 2025
Identification of Three Novel Tetrahydrocannabinol Analogs in the European Market Drug Testing and Analysis, February 2025
Psychosis and suicide attempt following a single use of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabiphorol: A case report Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences Reports, February 2025
Portrayal of Delta-8 Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) on YouTube Substance Use & Misuse, February 2025
Severe Outcomes in Suspected Pediatric Delta-8-THC Exposures Journal of Medical Toxicology, January 2025
Synthetic Cannabinoids are Genotoxic in Cultured Human Lymphocytes Current Pharmaceutical Design, January 2025
Beyond CBD: Understanding different cannabinoids Colorado Department of Transportation, May 7, 2024
Product labeling accuracy and contamination analysis of commercially available cannabidiol product samples Frontiers in Pharmacology, March 17, 2024
ACIL hemp market study American Council of Independent Laboratories, February 2024
Expert gives delta-8 THC thumbs down Project CBD, July 28, 2023
Safety Data Sheet - Δ9-THCP Caymen Chemical, May 24, 2023
Isolation and Characterization of Impurities in Commercially Marketed Δ8-THC Products Journal of Natural Products, February 24, 2023
White Paper: Pandora’s Box: The Dangers of a National, Unregulated, Hemp-Derived Intoxicating Cannabinoid Market California Cannabis Industry Association, October 2022
Vaping Cannabinoid Acetates Leads to Ketene Formation Chemical Research in Toxicology, July 8, 2022
Lethal case of myocardial ischemia following overdose of the synthetic cannabinoid ADB-FUBINACA Legal Medicine, February 2022
Novel Δ8-Tetrahydrocannabinol Vaporizers Contain Unlabeled Adulterants, Unintended Byproducts of Chemical Synthesis, and Heavy Metals Chemical Research in Toxicology, December 2021
“Spice Was Made, by the Devil Himself”: A Thematic Analysis of the Experience of an Addiction to Synthetic Cannabinoids Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, December 6, 2021
Δ9-cis-Tetrahydrocannabinol: Natural Occurrence, Chirality, and Pharmacology Journal of Natural Products, July 25, 2021
Delta-8-THC: Regulatory Issues Presented by Artificially Derived Cannabinoids Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission, March 18, 2021
Psychotomimetic symptoms after a moderate dose of a synthetic cannabinoid (JWH-018): implications for psychosis Psychopharmacology, January 26, 2021
Cannabinoid, Terpene, and Heavy Metal Analysis of 29 Over-the-Counter Commercial Veterinary Hemp Supplements Veterinary Medicine: Research and Reports, April 15, 2020
The other side of the leaf: Seizures associated with synthetic cannabinoid use Epilepsy & Behavior, March 2020
Under the Radar: Synthetic Cannabinoids & EVALI Project CBD, November 6, 2019
“The cheapest buzz you can get on Skid row”: Officials try to stop homeless from smoking spice after dozens sickened Los Angeles Times, August 26, 2016
Hemorrhagic stroke following use of the synthetic marijuana “spice” Neurology, October 28, 2015
New Report Exposes "The Great Hemp Hoax": Synthetic Drugs Masquerading as Hemp Products in California
Analysis Reveals Widespread Use of Synthetic Cannabinoids, Extreme Potencies, and Systemic Tax Evasion in the Unregulated “Hemp” Market
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A new analysis of 104 so-called "hemp" products from 68 brands has uncovered a public health crisis in California's unregulated hemp market.
The white paper, The Great Hemp Hoax, reveals that 95 percent of tested products contained chemically synthesized cannabinoids, which are prohibited in California.
"Much of what’s being sold as ‘hemp; today isn’t hemp at all — it’s a cocktail of synthetic intoxicants and illicit THC masquerading as a natural, legal product. It's essentially the ultra-processed junk food of cannabis, but far more dangerous," said Tiffany Devitt, Director of Regulatory Affairs at Groundwork Holdings, Inc. "These companies aren't just skirting regulations – they're putting consumers at serious risk with designer drugs that look a whole lot more like ‘Spice’ than natural hemp."
Laboratory testing also found alarming potency levels:
Some gummies contained 32 times more THC than what’s legally allowed in California’s regulated cannabis market.
Vape products had THC equivalencies averaging 268% above California’s legal threshold.
Nearly half of the tested products contained THCP, a synthetic compound up to 30 times more potent than natural THC.
Other products included psychoactive substances such as kratom and hallucinogenic mushrooms — all sold under the guise of hemp.
“We’re not just seeing high-potency THC; we’re seeing an influx of synthetic compounds with unknown health risks,” said Josh Swider, PhD, Co-founder and CEO of Infinite Chemical Analysis Labs. “Many of these substances are unregulated, untested, and more potent than anything found in nature.”
Beyond the public health concerns, these unregulated products are undermining California’s legal cannabis industry and evading taxes:
91% of tested products failed to collect California sales taxes.
None of the vendors remitted required cannabis excise taxes when required to do so.
“These illicit operations aren’t just dangerous — they’re undercutting California’s regulated cannabis businesses and workers,” said Kristin Heidelbach, Legislative Director of the United Food and Commercial Workers, Western States Council. “While licensed cannabis businesses provide good union jobs and comply with strict labor standards, many synthetic ‘hemp’ producers manufacture out-of-state or import from overseas, dodging California’s labor laws and tax obligations.”
“We’re seeing sophisticated bad actors pushing a new wave of designer drugs, often shipping them across state lines through the U.S. Postal Service — a federal crime — with no age verification or safety oversight,” said Robert Dean, a licensed California Private Investigator and retired homicide sergeant.
"California voters never intended for intoxicating ‘hemp’ products to bypass our regulated cannabis system," said Amy O’Gorman Jenkins, Executive Director of the California Cannabis Operators Association (CCOA). "Governor Newsom’s emergency regulations were a critical first step, but they expire in March 2025. Their reauthorization is essential. We also urge the Legislature to advance policies that ensure all intoxicating cannabinoid products are subject to robust regulatory oversight and stronger enforcement — especially against online retailers disregarding our consumer protection laws."
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ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
Groundwork Holdings Inc. is the parent company of California cannabis industry pioneers CannaCraft and March and Ash.
Infinite Chemical Analysis Labs provides the cannabis industry with accurate and timely analytical services of the highest quality.
United Food and Commercial Workers Western States Council is the regional coordinating body of 11 UFCW local unions representing over 200,000 workers in California, Arizona, Nevada, and Utah. The Council is part of the 1.2 million-member UFCW International Union to improve the lives of workers, families, and communities.
MEDIA CONTACT: Laura Braden, laura@onmessage.co
SPEAKER: Tiffany Devitt, Director of Regulatory Affairs at Groundwork Holdings, Inc.
ROUGH TRANSCRIPT:
The genesis of this study was as follows. We've been watching the hemp industry emerge, and really, it's basically exploded into a marketplace of entirely and highly intoxicating products. And the head-scratcher for us is hemp is actually a really inefficient plan from which to make naturally psychoactive products.
So, for example, if you look at the Delta-9 content and the Delta-8 THC content, if I'm going to extract or source Delta-9 THC from hemp rather than cannabis, I'm going to need about 50 times more biomass, which means 50 times more acreage, 50 times more labor, 50 times more water, etc., etc.
And the picture for Delta-8 is even more shocking, because there's less natural Delta-8 THC in hemp than there is Delta-9. So, if you run the math for that, if I'm using naturally extracted Delta-8 from hemp, it's going to take me about 19 pounds of biomass to make a single two-gram cartridge. So that begs the question of what's actually in hemp products. And that is what we said about find out.
So the study examines the composition and potency of hemp products in California. We focused on identifying chemically synthesized cannabinoids. And our goal was to detect the compound, measure the potency, and determine whether the products comply with the legal definition of hemp. We also explore a bit the potential health risks of those synthetics. So we bought and tested 104 products representing about 68 brands.
We did some research to try to capture the brands that had the most extensive distribution in California. And then we focused on the product categories of vapes and gummies, a because those are popular and, representative of the market. So, to levels that just want to make sure that we're all have a shared definition of what a chemically synthesized cannabinoid is for the purposes of our study. And generally, they're defined as compounds made through chemical processes rather than naturally extracted from the plant. So that includes synthetic Delta-8. It includes synthetic chemically synthesized Delta-9 THC as well as THC, THCO, HHC, and others.
Generally speaking, these compounds are designed to mimic the effects of Delta-9 THC, but they're often structurally modified to amplify the intoxicating effects. So the best example of that, of course, is THC, which is estimated to be over 30 times stronger than Delta-9 THC. And with those modifications that are basically creating novel compounds that are amplified health risks, and at times these compounds start to look a lot more like spice. the synthetic street drug, than they do look like natural cannabis.
So also to levels said, Assembly Bill 45, which Assemblymember Aguilar-Curry put forth in 2021 and which was passed is really clear on this point. It plainly states, quote, industrial hemp does not include cannabinoids produced through chemical synthesis.
So moving on to the key findings. setting aside for a moment the question of whether the Delta-9, Delta-8 THC or synthetic or natural. we did first take a look at do these products meet the federal and state definition of hemp simply based on their THC content?
And the answer was over half of the products failed to meet the federal hemp standard, which includes Delta-9 THC. The California state standard also includes Delta-8, and 88% of products failed to meet California's hemp standards. So moving on to the heart of the study, which was prevalence of synthetics, we found that 95% of the products tested contained synthesized cannabinoids, that included 97% of vapes and 90% of gummies.
And as to the compounds that we found, there were five major ones. Delta-8 THC was found in 86% of products Delta-9 and 84% half of products had THC, which is that strong synthetic I mentioned a moment ago. About a third had HHC and about 6% had THCO.
The next thing we looked at was the actual potency of so-called hemp gummies. And what we've found is that many of the hemp gummy products had significantly higher THC levels than are permitted in the regulated California cannabis market. So, as far as serving size, California, the regulated market has a per-serving THC cap of ten milligrams and a per-package pack of 100mg.
What we found among the hemp products gummy products we sampled was 84% exceeded that cannabis THC cap, and not by a little bit. The average amount of THC per gummy was 89mg, which is almost nine times more than our per-serving cap in the regulated market. And over a third of the gummies we tested had between 100mg and 325mg of THC per piece. which is astonishing levels.
And then, of course, on the package size, we found similar, similar pattern. 81% of products surpassed the state's THC per package cap and the regulated market, and the average package size was about 14 times greater than is allowed in the cannabis market. So moving on to vapes, I had noted earlier that 97% of the vape products we tested had synthetics, and oftentimes it was synthetics that are a lot more potent than Delta-9 or Delta-8 THC. So what we sought to do with this part of this study is we sought to basically create a THC equivalency that takes into account the fact that THC is not the same as THC. It's a lot stronger.
So with those and that the math be in scientific justification for those equivalencies is outlined in the paper with the proper citations. but as far as the results we found, on average, the THC equivalency for vape carts was about 2680mg per cartridge, which puts it above both the California cap for adult use, which is 1000mg, and the California cap for medical use, which is 2000.
We also found that over half of the sample products had between 2000 and 14,000mg of THC equivalency per vape, and most of that was attributable to THC. Moving on. Safety concerns with synthetics. Synthetic cannabinoids do not have the same pharmacological safety profile as natural cannabinoids. And they're really four different areas that we explored, explored in the paper as far as areas of concern.
We've talked about the potency and of course, what that becomes a risk of unintentional overt intoxication. that unintentional over intoxication is magnified by mislabeling of products. So if you look at these products on the right, they're all of those were marketed as THC, a vapes and not one of them had any THC in them. so essentially, consumers really have no idea what it is that they're vaping at, not in the hemp market. The other issue with synthetics is what's referred to in the scientific literature is efficacy, which is different than potency.
And what that means is it basically refers to as how strongly a cannabinoid binds with the CB1 human CB1 receptor. How strong of or complete of agonist is does it.
And the reason why that's an issue is because the synthetics that are more powerful, agonist or bond, more strongly have much more serious safety if adverse events associated with them. And that includes things like vaping-related lung injuries like we saw in the vaping crisis in 2019. It includes strokes, seizures, heart attacks and increased risk of psychosis. is there additionally believed to have a heightened addiction potential?
And then the last safety issue I would bring up, and it particularly pertains to Delta-8 and Delta-9 THC. So oftentimes people think Delta-9 THC, it's the same thing you find in cannabis. It must have the same safety profile. and Josh can, uh, speak to this, better than I can.
But what happens in that process of chemically manufacturing compounds like Delta-8 THC is the process throws off a number of unknown isomers that are not found in nature. It throws off byproducts and impurities. Not to mention the fact that the corrosive solvents and heavy metals that are used in that process are often found in the end product.
The last safety issue I wanted to mention is this. There is an emerging trend in the so-called hemp market to add additional psychoactive compounds that have nothing to do with hemp or cannabis to products that are being sold under the guise of hemp. So that includes hallucinogenic mushrooms or hallucinogenic mushrooms compounds, sometimes in a synthetic format. And it also includes things like kratom.
Obviously, these additives are marketed to enhance the intoxicating effect of the product. it's worth noting that California cannabis regulations prohibit the addition of noncannabinoid additives that increase potency or addictive potential, but nonetheless, these are emerging in the the so-called hemp market.
The last finding an incidental finding of this study. It wasn't something we were looking for, but what we did notice was essentially widespread tax evasion. So the hemp industry often claims that if there's a more permissive to hemp, it will yield the state significant tax revenue. That argument is undercut by the fact that 91% of the products in our sample were purchased or sold to us without any state or local taxes whatsoever. And obviously, none of the vendors were collecting or remitting a state cannabis tax even when they were selling cannabis.
And the short version of that is that not only does the practice deprive the state of tax revenue, but it widens that price gap between so-called hemp and cannabis to the detriment of the legal industry. So to close out, the big issue for us is the regulated cannabis market was and it has its flaws, but it was architected in accordance with Prop 64 and the voter mandate to provide accountability and transparency into the entire supply chain.
So there are checks and balances in place, in place to track inputs, outputs, tax collections, lab testing. Etc. Etc. And none of these transparency or accountability mechanisms exist in the hemp industry, which is why, from our standpoint, the bifurcation of the industry based on the cannabinoid industries, based on what their vendor claims to source their materials from hemp or cannabis is a failure, and it's sort of a false dichotomy.
From our standpoint, the more relevant, bifurcation is, is this an intoxicating product or is it not an intoxicating product? and if it has THC, it belongs in the regulated cannabis market. And given that I know a lot of, cultivators have been engaged in this issue, I would again come back to the point I made at the top of the presentation, which is, all things being equal, it is much more cost-effective, not to mention environmentally sound, to extract these compounds from cannabis rather than hemp.
And lastly, I would just add with enforcement is essential because every single one of these products that we tested, we bought, after the emergency regulations kicked into effect, and none of it was legal.
Analysis: Most ‘Hemp-Derived’ Intoxicating Products Sold Online Contain Synthetically Produced Cannabinoids (NORML)
California’s cannabis market: growth on paper, decline in reality (Greenstate.com)
Intoxicating Hemp Swindle (Project CBD)
Report exposes gaps in California’s hemp regulations (MMJ Daily)
The Great Hemp Hoax: White Paper Reveals How Synthetic Cannabis Masquerades as Legal Hemp (Independent Voter News)
White Paper Decries California’s “Great Hemp Hoax” (Hemp Gazette)
Cannabiz Report Highlights Hemp Concerns (WeedWeek)
California cannabis entities call for extension of intoxicating hemp ban (CannabisWire)
Study: Artificial cannabinoids, illegal THC potencies in hemp shipped to California (MJBizDaily)
Report: Most hemp products in California contaminated, unlawfully potent (Green Market Report)
California's hemp market is rife with highly intoxicating, synthetic products, report says (Politico Pro)