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"Fourth Circuit Court Rules Hemp-Derived Products Legal Nationwide, Contradicting DEA":
Sep19, 2024
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that all hemp-derived products, including those created through chemical synthesis, are legal under federal law.

This ruling aligns with a 2022 decision from the Ninth Circuit but goes against more recent guidance from the DEA. In a letter from February 2023, the DEA stated that the 2018 Farm Bill was not intended to legalize synthetic cannabinoids, such as THC-O, even if their THC content is below the legal limit.

Despite acknowledging the disagreement, the Fourth Circuit sided with the Ninth Circuit’s interpretation, which held that the Farm Bill’s definition of hemp includes all cannabis plant derivatives as long as they contain less than 0.3 percent delta-9 THC. The court stated that this interpretation is clear and that they did not need to defer to the DEA’s position.

“The Ninth Circuit held that it didn’t need to consider the DEA’s position on synthetically derived substances because the definition of ‘hemp’ under the 2018 Farm Act was unambiguous in its application to all products derived from the cannabis plant, ‘so long as they do not cross the 0.3 percent delta-9 THC threshold,’” states the court. “Between the DEA’s February 2023 letter and [the Ninth Circuit decision], we think the Ninth Circuit’s interpretation of the 2018 Farm Act is the better of the two. And we’re free to make that determination ourselves, despite a contrary interpretation from the DEA, because we agree with the Ninth Circuit that § 1639o is unambiguous.”

The case arose from a dispute over whether an employer could fire an employee for using hemp products. The court ultimately upheld the firing because the employee failed to prove the products used were compliant with the THC limits outlined in the 2018 Farm Bill.
https://themarijuanaherald.com/2024/09/fourth-circuit-court-rules-hemp-derived-products-legal-nationwide-contradicting-dea/

"New Study Reveals CBD’s Surprising Ability To Combat Deadly Mosquitoes":
September 20, 2024
CBD results in 100% mortality of pesticide-resistant mosquito larvae.

New research in the effort to address global insecticide resistance has found that CBD, commonly used to manage various health conditions, is also highly effective in eliminating mosquito larvae.

The study, published in the journal Insects, found that hemp leaf extract – which contains the active ingredient cannabidiol, or CBD – kills mosquito larvae from two different strains of the yellow fever mosquito within 48 hours, one that was resistant to typical insecticides and another that was not.

“Mosquitoes are one of the deadliest animals in the world, mainly because as adults they serve as vectors of disease,” said Erick Martinez Rodriguez, lead author of the study and a graduate student in entomology at The Ohio State University. “It’s very important to be able to control these pests at an early stage, when they are at the most vulnerable.”

Unlike adult mosquitoes that can fly across great distances and transmit disease by biting, mosquito larvae are aquatic organisms often found in standing water. Conventional synthetic insecticides are critical chemical tools for killing mosquito larvae populations, but their rampant overuse has led to both insecticide resistance and other detrimental effects on the environment.

Challenges of Conventional Insecticides
Inspired by previous Ohio State research that discovered that the bark properties of a plant native to Madagascar worked as a natural mosquito insecticide and repellent, Martinez Rodriguez sought to determine if hemp could act as a viable and safe alternative to current biopesticides.

The hemp plant is related to marijuana, but does not contain its levels of the ingredient that makes people feel “high.” CBD from hemp is used in a variety of products from gummies and oils to treat anxiety, pain, insomnia, and other conditions.

To test hemp’s toxic effects against mosquito larvae, the team took air-dried hemp leaves, pulverized them into a fine powder, and soaked the material in methanol for a few weeks to reach the desired CBD concentrations.

The methanol was later removed from the solution to make it easier to chemically analyze, resulting in an extract that was eventually given to the larvae with their food.

Depending on the concentration of hemp extract used, the team discovered that the hemp leaf was potent enough to be equally toxic to both strains of mosquito larvae. What was surprising, though, said Martinez Rodriguez, was the small amount needed to be so deadly.

“If you compare the amount of hemp extract needed to kill 50% of the population to other synthetic conventional insecticides, it is on the high side, but when you compare it side-by-side to other natural extracts we have tested in our lab, only a relatively low amount is required to produce high mortality values in larvae,” said Martinez Rodriguez. While CBD eventually led to 100% mortality for the larvae, different concentrations of the hemp extract caused different mortality rates in the hours leading up to that time.

Hemp’s Advantages and Future Research Directions
The mosquito larvae were considered dead if no movement was recorded after scientists gently touched their abdomen with a needle or pipette tip. Although it’s still unclear how the extract affects them biologically, the team’s findings showed that CBD was the primary active ingredient in the extract and that it can successfully bypass the larvae’s metabolic resistance to other insecticides, which aligns with past work that found CBD has notable growth-inhibiting properties against other insects.

Since hemp is also a more sustainable crop than many other plant alternatives, insecticide products that use it could potentially be produced relatively cheaply, said Martinez Rodriguez.

While this discovery bodes well for developing future natural-based mosquito control products, said Peter Piermarini, co-author of the study and a professor of entomology at Ohio State, further research would have to be done to investigate how safe hemp and CBD would be for non-target organisms, like honey bees or other pollinating insects that scientists don’t want to kill or disrupt by introducing potentially harmful additives to the environment.

“CBD is a compound that appears to be safe for people and our companion animals to ingest,” said Piermarini. “It’ll be interesting to learn more about how CBD interacts with various proteins in mammals and insects to understand why it’s safe for people but not insects.”

Reference: “Larvicidal Activity of Hemp Extracts and Cannabidiol against the Yellow Fever Mosquito Aedes aegypti” by Erick J. Martínez Rodríguez, P. Larry Phelan, Luis Canas, Nuris Acosta, Harinantenaina L. Rakotondraibe and Peter M. Piermarini, 9 July 2024, Insects.
DOI: 10.3390/insects15070517

This work was supported by the Infectious Diseases Institute and the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences at Ohio State. Other Ohio State co-authors include Larry Phelan, Luis Canas, Nuris Acosta and Harinantenaina L. Rakotondraibe.
https://scitechdaily.com/new-study-reveals-cbds-surprising-ability-to-combat-deadly-mosquitoes/