In 2019 I gave this presentation on synthetic cannabinoids at the Emerald Conference in San Diego. The work that led up to this presentation was mostly HPLC testing done on crude d9 THC oils which were put through distillation in a vacuum system. The issue we faced was that the final product distillate tested significantly lower d9-THC than expected. We ended up doing extensive testing on all of our processed material in order to hone in on the exact cause of d9-THC losses.
Within a year of this presentation my research group applied for and were granted a utility patent on the underlying chemical process of converting d9 THC to d10 THC, d6a10 THC and CBN. That patent can be found here.
Between 2019 and 2021 there were few other publications that focused on these synthetic cannabinoids. In many ways our research stood alone in our public identification of both d10 THC and d6a10 THC. However, in 2021 something began happening across the country that accelerated public investment in research - EVALI. EVALI stands for "E-cigarette, or Vaping Product, Use Associated Lung Injury" and it had killed 68 people as of September 2021. In an effort to understand the source of the problem, forensic chemists at the FDA tested over 1000 cannabinoid samples from across the United States. They found that many samples contained unlabeled d10 THC and d6a10a THC. The paper they released on the identification of these THC's in recent samples can be found here. Although I do not think that either d10 THC or d6a10a THC are a likely source of EVALI, I do believe that their unintentional presence in large amounts generally indicates the likelihood that there are other unintentional compounds in that product. More on that another time.
In the coming years I expect that many states will adopt testing for synthetic cannabinoids. At this time only one state to my knowledge requires testing for them and that is Utah. The motivation for Utah seems to be consumer driven. People don't want synthetic THC in their state certified cannabis systems. I agree with them. When consumers ask for clean product, the industry must deliver. If med/rec cannabis can't differentiate from the smoke shops, the clientelle will always go back that cheaper option.
Comments