Ask a Stoner: Will Delta-8 THC Make Me Fail a Drug Test?

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Dear Stoner: Will Delta-8 make me fail a drug test?
Mullet Man

Dear Mullet Man: Although it produces intoxicating effects very similar to the cannabis high we’re accustomed to, Delta-8 THC is chemically different enough from Delta-9 THC — the cannabinoid banned by the federal government — to be labeled as its own cannabinoid. That chemical distinction has enabled a gray market of Delta-8 businesses to pop up and ship heady hemp nugs to your door, but it won’t help you slip by a drug test.

click to enlarge

Unsplash/NCI

Delta-9 and Delta-8 THC aren’t the only forms of THC. There are over 100 cannabinoids, with many of them just slightly different forms of each other. Our bodies process and react to them differently, but the results in our blood, hair, urine or saliva are still the same to a drug test, unfortunately. Drug tests look for the presence of THC metabolites, which are essentially broken-down remnants of the THC we’ve consumed, and they don’t discriminate, so any form of THC would show up.

Send questions to [email protected].