Significant number of US teens report delta-8 THC use

ByRose Weldon

Fact checked byCarol L. DiBerardino, MLA, ELS

Key takeaways:

Around 11% of high school seniors in the United States reported using delta-8 THC.
Use was more common in areas where recreational cannabis is not legal.

More than 1 in 10 high school seniors in the United States reported using delta-8 THC in the past year, according to survey results published in JAMA.

The survey was conducted in response to concern about the marketing and sale of delta-8 THC — a psychoactive and intoxicating substance found in cannabis sativa plants — and other hemp products, one of the researchers said.

“These products produce similar effects as marijuana, but they are being widely sold across the U.S. with little regulation to protect consumers and youth from harm,” Alyssa F. Harlow, PhD, MPH, an assistant professor of clinical population and public health sciences at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and a member of the USC Institute for Addiction Science, told Healio.

IDC0324Harlow_Graphic_01 — Data derived from Harlow A, et al. *JAMA*. 2024; doi:10.1001/jama.2024.0865.

Alyssa F. Harlow

Harlow and colleagues used data from the 2023 Monitoring the Future survey to estimate how common delta-8 THC use is among teens. In the survey, 2,186 12th graders in 27 states were asked about their use of delta-8 THC products in the past year — the first time the annual survey has asked about the chemical.

The researchers also examined whether delta-8 THC use differed according to sociodemographic factors, region and cannabis policies.

According to the survey results, 11.4% of respondents reported using delta-8 THC in the past year. Among those who had used it, 68.1% had used it at least three times, 35.4% used it at least 10 times and 16.8% used it at least 40 times. Harlow said the team found the results surprising.

“Considering these products have only been on the market since 2018, 11% represents a significant number of teenagers who are using delta-8,” Harlow said.

Among all high school seniors in the survey, 30.4% self-reported marijuana use in the past year. Delta-8 THC use was higher in the South and Midwest and in states without legal marijuana use.

“It was interesting — but not necessarily that surprising — to see that delta-8 use was more common in states without cannabis legalization,” Harlow added. “These products are being marketed with claims of being a completely legal alternative to marijuana, and so it makes sense that we might see the delta-8 market more concentrated in areas where legal cannabis is unavailable.”

Delta-8-THC use was lower in states that had implemented regulations and restrictions on the products, which Harlow called “encouraging.”

In an accompanying editorial, Jennifer M. Whitehill, PhD, from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and Kelly E. Dunn, PhD, MBA, and Renee M. Johnson, PhD, MPH, at Johns Hopkins University, said there is a need to improve the capacity of health care professionals to address the evolving cannabinoid marketplace by “instituting centralized and coordinated systems for monitoring cannabis products.”

“A key lesson from cannabis and cannabis products is that changes in the legal status of a substance in one state has effects on that state and on neighboring states,” they wrote. “Perhaps we are lucky that these needs were highlighted for us by delta-8 THC, a fairly well-tolerated and mild cannabinoid. The trends in use patterns for delta-8 THC articulated by Harlow and colleagues should serve as an important sentinel and mobilizing event; the next cannabinoid on the marketplace may not be so mild.”