The Daily CBD Publishes: Scam Delta 8 Companies To Avoid (Updated for 2021)

As Delta 8 is everywhere these days we thought we would highlight this article published in the Daily CBD last month entitled Scam Delta 8 Companies To Avoid (Updated for 2021)

This is by far and away the best guide to Delta 8 products out there and  some bigger operators who get short shrift from Daily CBD on their products which is great to see. Legislators and the SEC could learn a thing or two from this article too

 

They write..

There are a lot of scammy or low-quality brands in the delta 8 THC space to watch out for.

Learn how to spot a scam & check out our list of the approved delta 8 THC vendors for 2021.

What Are The Qualities Of A Reputable Delta 8 Company?

Most of the same rules apply when shopping for delta 8 products as CBD brands — but with a few subtle differences.

Learn how to spot a quality manufacturer and what red flags to be on the lookout for to avoid getting scammed or suckered into buying low-grade or unsafe delta 8 products.

1. Third-Party Testing (Very Important!)

Testing is considered an industry-standard throughout the cannabis industry as a whole. It’s not exclusive to the delta 8 THC space.

However, this type of testing is especially important for delta 8 companies because of how these products are made.

There are basically three ways to make delta 8 THC (covered in more detail below). To put it simply, unless the delta 8 is extracted from marijuana plants (which may be illegal where you live), it needs to be synthesized from CBD. The synthesization process requires several harsh chemicals — including zinc bromide or hydrochloric acid. These chemicals can be removed once the process is complete, but it requires a lot of skill and high-tech equipment to do properly. Low-quality manufacturers don’t always remove 100% of these toxic chemicals from the final product.

A third-party test is done to take a snapshot of the contents of the final product. It’s the only way to prove these chemicals have been removed in their entirety. It’s also used to back up the company’s claims in terms of the delta 9 THC and delta 8 THC concentrations.

In order for a test to be considered “third-party,” it needs to be performed by an independent company that has no affiliation with the manufacturer. There are several of these labs in the US that provide unbiased analysis for a variety of cannabis products.

We recommend you avoid buying any products from companies that don’t provide up-to-date third-party tests for every batch.

2. Positive Reviews

It’s also a good idea to check out what other people are saying online. The delta 8 THC market is very new, but there’s a fairly active community of passionate and knowledgeable delta 8 users on forums like Reddit. You can check out places like the /r/delta8/ or /r/cleancarts/ subreddits for those of you specifically interested in delta 8 THC cartridges.

Do a quick search for the brand and check out what past customers are saying about the brand.

Some red flags to watch out for here include:

  • No mention of the brand at all (it could be a scam)
  • An overwhelming number of negative reviews
  • Clear evidence that the company is a scam or fake company (more on this later)

3. Manufacturing Methods

The method a vendor uses to make their products is very important to consider. The best method is to extract it from marijuana plants directly. This method doesn’t require the use of any reagents or other chemicals, but it’s illegal in most states.

The more common method is to synthesize the delta 8 from CBD. This is legal but requires the use of chemicals to do it.

It’s important to know where the delta 8 is coming from. If you order delta 8 THC from a company that makes it from marijuana plants — you may be breaking the law by ordering from them.

Unethical D8 THC Vendors: Companies to Avoid

The delta 8 THC space has only recently stepped out of the underground space into the public sphere. Prior to 2020, nobody knew this market even existed. It was largely underground, operating on the fringes of legality.

Like any underground market-turned mainstream — there’s a lot of junk that needs to get filtered out first. There are a lot of delta 8 companies that are highly unethical, black market, or straight-up scams.

The most common problem in this space is a lack of testing. Delta 8 THC is very safe — but only if they’re made properly and have been thoroughly tested to prove any harsh chemicals used to make it have been removed.

The methods used to make delta 8 THC products is very important to consider. There are basically three ways to make delta 8 THC:

  1. Extract delta 8 THC from marijuana plants — this is the safest and highest-quality, but they aren’t legal federally in the US and tend to be very expensive.
  2. Synthesize delta 8 THC from delta 9 THC — this is the second-best option. They’re cheap, have a high level of safety, but are illegal federally in the US.
  3. Synthesize delta 9 THC from CBD, then convert delta 9 into delta 8 THC — this is the most common method because it’s legal, but in order to achieve this, companies need to use a host of toxic chemicals.

Because of the need to use harsh chemicals such as acids, bleaches, or heavy metal compounds, it’s critical for all delta 8 THC products to be tested by an independent lab. If a company doesn’t offer these tests, or they can’t be verified, you shouldn’t buy from them.

There’s a surprising number of low-grade, scammy, or negligent companies in the delta 8 THC space to watch out for.

Consider this our “do not buy” list — which we’ve broken down into three main categories:

  1. Scammy or unethical companies — never buy from these brands.
  2. Complete lack of testing — these companies don’t test their products at all, don’t buy from them.
  3. Lack of safety testing — these companies may test their products but are missing key safety tests; we recommend avoiding these brands as well.

Scammy Companies — Avoid At All Costs

These are the worst of the worst. Never buy from companies that have already been caught using scammy marketing methods or lied about test results in the past. A few of the companies on this list haven’t done this directly but are owned by companies that have.

1. Trulieve

This company claims to extract its delta 8 THC from Charlotte’s Web hemp strain. However, this strain doesn’t contain delta 8 THC in any meaningful supply. It’s very likely this company is lying about its source of delta 8 and using a well-known and popular strain of marijuana in order to win over customers.

Additionally, they specifically exclude the test for zinc chloride or zinc bromide — which is sketchy, to say the least.

2. CannaAid

This company has been caught using fake Reddit accounts to post overly positive reviews about their products — some of which are clearly not in line with what can reasonably be associated with the use of delta 8 THC.

One Reddit user reported this company was using the same proxy service as 3Chi. While it’s possible this is a coincidence, the chances are extremely low these two companies would share the same proxy unless they were put together by the same group of people.

3. CannaClear

It’s not necessarily the company itself that’s sketchy, but the fact that their packaging is readily available online for anybody to use. A lot of really low-quality products under the CannaClear name have been sold online — some of which have been shown to contain vitamin E and various synthetic chemicals that shouldn’t be in there.

Aside from the counterfeit products, CannaClear doesn’t offer any safety testing on any of their products and only occasionally test for the potency of their products.

4. Honey Creek Labs

Not only does this company avoid answering any questions on their methods of manufacturing their delta 8, they’ve been caught falsifying their reports. One Reddit user sent a sample of this company’s products to a lab for independent testing. He compared the reports with the batch number the company listed, and they didn’t match — not even close.

The company claimed a delta 8 concentration over 95%, but the independent test showed the D8 was closer to 45%. Additionally, the sample contained nearly 15% delta 9 THC — which actually made the product this user ordered illegal in his state.

This company doesn’t offer any safety tests on their products, so it’s unclear whether the final product was contaminated or not. Based on the inefficiency of the conversion from the low D8 in the final product, it’s more than likely these products are full of heavy metals or acids.

These products are resold by a variety of other delta 8 vendors, including Greene Rush Hemp, MYCBDhaven, delta710, and bulk density.

5. Cake

This company has no website, and we couldn’t find any trace of this company’s origins anywhere. They exist only on Alibaba for ultra-cheap delta 8 THC. It’s likely this company is either a scam or is selling impure or important delta 8 bulk powders to people who think they’ve managed to find a cheap source of delta 8. Never order from this company.

Companies That Don’t Publish Any Testing — Avoid At All Costs

These companies don’t publish any third-party reports for their products or don’t keep their tests up to date. It’s not enough for a company to test one batch, publish the report, and then skip this step moving forward. Every single batch of product needs to be tested separately.

Additionally, some companies publish tests, but they were done in-house or by a third-party testing facility that’s been found to falsify reports or other untrustworthy practices. Tests done in-house or by these companies are considered insufficient. They’re essentially meaningless because we can’t trust the integrity of these reports.

These companies should be completely avoided because of the clear lack of testing:

  1. BeeZBee
  2. Catskill Hemp Co
  3. Cloud 8
  4. Cosmo
  5. Delta XL
  6. Earthbound Hempz
  7. Miracle Leaf
  8. Palm Trees
  9. Puff Delta 8
  10. Saliv-8
  11. Straight 8
  12. Turnt
  13. Your Cure CBD
  14. Z.E.N.

Companies That Test Potency, But Don’t Test For Contaminants — Order At Your Own Risk

These companies provide only the tests for the potency of their products but lack the safety tests. We recommend avoiding these companies because the purity and safety of their products can’t be verified.

Here’s a list of companies we haven’t been able to verify in terms of safety:

  • 10 Dollar Cartridge
  • A Gift From Nature CBD
  • Apical Greens
  • Apotheca
  • Bay Smokes
  • Barely Legal
  • Bearly Legal
  • Binoid CBD
  • Black Tie
  • Black Water Hemp
  • Buffalo Puff
  • Buy Delta 8 Online
  • Canna River
  • Canna Stillery
  • Cannagarden Co
  • Colorado Cures
  • Compassionate Buds
  • Crystal Creek Organics
  • D8 Brand
  • D8Hi
  • D8 Savvy
  • Delta Effex
  • Delta Farms
  • Delta Remedies
  • Deltiva
  • Drip
  • Exotics Delta 8
  • Extract Labs
  • Georgetown Hemp
  • Green Post CBD
  • Green Rush Hemp Co.
  • Half Moon CBD
  • Harbor City Hemp
  • Hemp Masters
  • HempHio Cannabis Co
  • HempHop
  • Hempire Direct
  • Hempy Longstocking
  • Herbee’s Holistics
  • JahRootz
  • Koi CBD
  • Krystilion
  • Loud House
  • Lula CBD
  • My CBD Haven
  • No Cap
  • Oakwood Botanicals
  • Owl’s Oil
  • Pharma CBD
  • Phat Hempies
  • Pure D8 Flower
  • Quality Control Carts
  • Rogue Cloud
  • Rogue River Extracts
  • Royal Highness
  • Savage
  • Secret Nature CBD
  • Shop.Lucidity
  • SnapDragon Cannabis
  • Star Thistle Ranch
  • Sun State Hemp
  • The Helping Friendly Hemp Co
  • The Hemp Barn
  • The Hemp Collect
  • The Hemp Doctor
  • Treetop Hemp Co.
  • Triangle Trading Company
  • Urb
  • Urth Tree
  • Utoya
  • Wellness Collection
  • Zilla

Reputable Delta 8 Companies To Check Out Instead

Here are five companies we’ve vetted so far that meet the criteria for reputable brands. We’ve ordered from all five and tested their products ourselves. Originally we ordered from over a dozen of these companies, but all but five of them didn’t meet the standards we’ve outlined above.

Here are the top 5 delta 8 vendors to check out this year:

1. Area 52

Area 52

Area 52

5 / 5

Area 52 is our favorite vendor in the delta 8 space for three reasons:

A) They take the testing and transparency of their products seriously — third-party tests available for every batch on the company’s website

B) They make all their products from hemp for now but plan to switch to marijuana when it becomes legal across the US

C) They focus on education and honesty when it comes to delta 8 THC — rather than offering fake benefits or false promises like many others in this space

Products Offered By Area 52:

  • Delta 8 THC Gummies
  • Delta 8 THC Vapes
  • Delta 8 THC Tinctures

2. 3Chi

3 Chi

4 / 5

3Chi is the biggest player in the delta 8 THC space at the moment.

This vendor produces a wide range of delta 8 THC products — covering all categories of products, from carts and gummies to tinctures and capsules.

The main reason we recommend this company over most other delta 8 vendors is their integrity for testing. You can find relevant and up-to-date lab reports for all products offered on the website. These tests check for potency, contaminants, solvents, heavy metals, and mycotoxins, or other microbial contaminants.

Products Offered By 3Chi

  • Delta 8 THC Cartridges
  • Delta 8 THC Gummies
  • Delta 8 THC Flower & Moonrocks
  • Delta 8 THC Tinctures
  • Delta 8 THC Distillates

3. Mr. Hemp Flower

Mr. Hemp Flower

 

5 / 5

Mr. Hemp Flower is a premium supplier of raw hemp flower, CBD oils, and a variety of other cannabinoids.

Recently, this company has stepped into the delta 8 space with a selection of different product types.

You can order hemp flowers (raw flour and pre-rolls), gummies, carts, hash, brittle candies, lollipops, and honey-sticks — all infused with delta 8 THC.

This company offers the lab tests for each product on the website — however, they aren’t the full tests. We had to reach out to the customer service team to get the extensive tests that included the heavy metal, solvent, and full contamination panel.

We’re not sure why Mr. Hemp Flower doesn’t offer the full tests online as a default, but we’re satisfied with the results we received after reaching out.

Products Offered By Mr. Hemp Flower

  • Delta 8 THC Distillate
  • Delta 8 THC Hash
  • Delta 8 THC Hemp Flower & Prerolls
  • Delta 8 THC Hard Candy
  • Delta 8 THC Lollipops

4. Arete Hemp

Arete Hemp

 

4 / 5

Arete Hemp is one of the only companies we’ve seen in the delta 8 THC space that provides details on people behind the company. The founder, Todd Campanella, is reachable on Twitter and LinkedIn — which is more than can be said for virtually every other delta 8 or CBD company on the market today.

This vendor makes a few different cannabis products — including CBD oils, hemp flower, and CBG concentrations.

This company’s delta 8 range includes tinctures, distillates, and replaceable vape cartridges. Besides this, visiting this page would be ideal if you are looking for the best delta 8 disposable vape pens.

All Arete Hemp products are sent to a third-party lab for testing.

Our only caveat with the testing from this company is that their solvent and heavy metal tests are given a pass or fail score, but the thresholds for what constitutes a pass isn’t listed.

Products Offered By Arete Hemp

  • CBD oil
  • Hemp Flower
  • CBG Concentrates
  • Delta 8 THC Tinctures
  • Delta 8 THC Distillates
  • Delta 8 THC Carts

5. 8Delta8

8Delta8

3 / 5

Update: After posting this review, we’ve noticed the company no longer offers the full-range of third-party tests we expect to see from delta 8 manufacturers. The most recent batch has the heavy metal and solvent tests missing.

8Delta8 is an exclusive manufacturer of delta 8 THC products. Unlike most of the other brands we’ve reviewed, this company focuses all its attention on delta 8. As a result, they offer some fairly unique products you’re not going to find from most other manufacturers.

A few examples of the more specialized products this company offers include — delta 8 THC flower and delta 8 THC moon rocks.

They also carry a few different vapes to use delta 8 THC with. This includes pre-filled disposable delta 8 THC vapes as well as standardized 510-thread vapes that fit with any standardized vape cartridges.

As we’ve come to expect, 8Delta8 provides third-party lab tests for all its products on a dedicated “Labs” page.

Products Offered By 8Delta8

  • Delta 8 THC Cartridges
  • Delta 8 THC Disposable Vapes
  • Delta 8 THC Gummies
  • Delta 8 THC Tinctures

How Much Does Delta 8 THC Cost?

The best way to assess the cost of delta 8 THC products is to compare the cost per milligram of the active ingredient. This allows us to compare the cost of different types of delta 8 products together.

On average, the cost of delta 8 THC is around $0.06 – $0.10 for every milligram of active delta 8.

Each product type comes with a different cost range:

  • Cartridges — $0.08 – $0.15
  • Tinctures — $0.06 – $0.12
  • Gummies — $0.05 – $0.10
  • Distillate — $0.03 – $0.07

Types of Delta 8 THC Products

All delta 8 THC products begin their life as a distillate. The distillate can be used as-is or added to cartridges, infused with gummy candies, diluted into oils or tinctures, or filled into capsules.

Here’s a quick breakdown of the most common forms of delta 8 THC on the market today.

1. Delta 8 THC Cartridges

Delta 8 THC cartridges are the most popular form of this cannabinoid at the moment. They’re the fastest-acting way to use the cannabinoid and are more efficient than any other form. You only need a few puffs from a vape pen to get a strong set of effects.

Virtually all the vendors in the delta 8 space sell cartridges (called carts). Some offer a variety of carts that contain different flavor additives or e-liquids to enhance the experience.

The standard delta 8 THC vape cartridge uses a distillate — which has no flavor and doesn’t produce any visible vapor.

2. Delta 8 THC Tinctures

Everybody has heard of CBD oils or tinctures by now — they’ve become one of the most popular health supplements in the world over the past couple of years.

Delta 8 THC is available in this form as well and offers all the same advantages. They’re easy to use, allow you to take precise doses, and are very cost-effective.

The potency of the tincture you’re using is important. You can find tinctures in all different potencies — ranging from 300 mg per bottle up to 3000 mg per bottle.

Always follow the directions on the label when using delta 8 THC tinctures to avoid taking too much by mistake.

3. Delta 8 THC Gummies

Gummies are another popular method of using cannabis products. You can find gummies made with just about any cannabinoid you can think of — including CBD and conventional delta 9 THC products.

Delta 8 THC gummies use the same principle of filling a delicious fruity gummy with specific doses of the cannabinoid (usually 10 or 20 mg each).

4. Delta 8 THC Distillates

A distillate is the concentrated form of delta 8 THC. Distillates consist of a very thick and syrupy preparation of pure delta 8 THC.

Delta 8 THC distillates are usually crystal clear but may also come with a cloudy or off-yellow color. They’re usually the cheapest form available.

To use a distillate, you can either eat it directly, add it to a vape, or smoke it in a dab rig.

Final Thoughts: Best Delta 8 THC Vendors

Delta 8 THC has only recently risen to the public sphere. Prior to 2021, delta 8 was virtually unknown to most people. Users were confined to talking about the cannabinoid in online forums like Reddit.

Most people who use delta 8 THC can be divided into two camps:

  • People living in states that lack recreational cannabis laws who want a legal form of THC
  • People who find conventional THC (delta 9) makes them too anxious and want a less-anxious alternative

If you’re reading this, you probably fall into one or both of these camps yourself.

If I were to summarize this entire article into one sentence — it would be this.

Never buy from a delta 8 supplier that doesn’t test for both safety and potency.

This is the most significant differentiator between a reputable supplier from scammy, unethical, or low-grade suppliers.

If you’re brand new to this space and want a recommendation, I’d check out the selection offered by brands like Area 52, Mr. Hemp Flower, or Arete Hemp.

I’ve ordered from all three and have been impressed with their integrity for testing, reasonable prices, and fast shipping times.

Source: https://dailycbd.com/en/delta-8-thc-scams/

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