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Federal drug officials are clarifying that a cannabinoid produced synthetically from components of the cannabis plant is federally illegal.
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) said that while hexahydrocannabinol (HHC) has already been considered a Schedule I illegal substance under the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA), the agency is now giving the compound its own unique drug code for classification.
HHC can be found in trace amounts in cannabis plants but is also synthesized by hydrogenating cannabidiol (CBD). It’s sometimes sprayed on cannabis flowers that are low in delta-9 THC, the most well-known psychoactive component of marijuana, and its psychoactive effects are reportedly similar.
While the 2018 Farm Bill federally legalized hemp and its derivatives with less than .3 percent delta-9 THC on a dry-weight basis, DEA says that only applies to naturally occurring, and not synthetic, cannabinoids. As such, it is the agency’s position that HHC does not fall under the definition of legal hemp.
“Only tetrahydrocannabinols in or derived from the cannabis plant—not synthetic tetrahydrocannabinols—are excluded from control as ‘tetrahydrocannabinols in hemp,’” the agency said in a notice set to be published in the Federal Register on Monday. “To clarify further, tetrahydrocannabinols produced through chemical conversion, even when hemp derived are considered synthetically produced for purposes of the CSA, do not qualify as ‘tetrahydrocannabinols in hemp’ under” the 2018 Farm Bill.
This isn’t the first time that DEA is addressing the legal status of HHC.
In a 2023 letter, Terrance Boos, chief of DEA’s Drug and Chemical Evaluation Section, wrote that HHC “does not occur naturally in the cannabis plant and can only be obtained synthetically, and therefore does not fall under the definition of hemp.”
The new Federal Register filing signed by DEA Administrator Terrance Cole says that “this rule does not affect the continuing status of hexahydrocannabinol as a schedule I controlled substance in any way.”
“This action, as an administrative matter, establishes a separate, specific listing for hexahydrocannabinol in schedule I of the CSA and assigns a DEA drug code for this substance,” it says. “This action will allow DEA to establish an aggregate production quota and grant individual manufacturing and procurement quotas to DEA-registered manufacturers of hexahydrocannabinol, who had previously been granted individual quotas for such purposes under the drug code for tetrahydrocannabinols.”
The DEA notice cites a move last year by an international drug control body to add HHC to Schedule II of the United Nations Convention on Psychotropic Substances of 1971—but the document doesn’t note that when the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) took the action, the U.S. was the only country to abstain from the vote.
DEA said that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) “concurs with the direct listing and drug code assignment of hexahydrocannabinol in the CSA.”
Some federal appeals courts, however, have rejected DEA’s interpretation of what constitutes a legal cannabinoid under the Farm Bill.
Meanwhile, under provisions of a large-scale spending bill signed by President Donald Trump late last year, the federal definition of legal hemp is set to change in November. Unless that language is altered or its effective date is delayed, as some lawmakers are pushing for, only hemp products with up to 0.4 milligrams of total THC per container will remain legal after November 12.
The Trump administration last week announced steps to more broadly reschedule marijuana under federal law.
Tom Angell is the editor of Marijuana Moment. A 25-year veteran in the cannabis and drug law reform movement, he covers the policy, politics, science and culture of marijuana, psychedelics and other substances. He previously reported for Forbes, Marijuana.com and MassRoots, and was given the Hunter S. Thompson Media Award by NORML and has been named Journalist of the Year by Americans for Safe Access. As an activist, Tom founded the nonprofit Marijuana Majority and handled media relations, campaigns and lobbying for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition and Students for Sensible Drug Policy.
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