High profile: Cannabis chemical delta-8 gains fans, scrutiny

NEW YORK (AP) — A chemical cousin of pot’s main intoxicating ingredient has rocketed to popularity over the last year. The cannabis industry and state governments are scrambling to reckon with it amid debate over whether it’s legal. It’s called delta-8 THC, and it’s billed as producing a milder high than the better known delta-9 THC. The burgeoning chemical is often marketed as being legal even where marijuana is not because it’s mostly synthesized from CBD. Regulators in more than a dozen states have made or considered some move on delta-8 this year. Some sought effectively to ban it. Others aimed to allow but regulate it.