HAMPTON, Va. — One step inside the Happy Hempo in the Phoebus neighborhood of Hampton, one might feel like a kid walking into a candy shop.
However, the products inside Dani Edwards’ venture aren’t meant for kids.
“My family and I have a passion for cannabis,” she said.
If the name didn’t already give it away, Edwards’ storefront sells hemp products. But it’s one particular product on her shelves — and other business owners like her — that is grabbing national attention.
“Unfortunately, it’s not regulated right now,” Edwards said.
The cannabis sativa plant can produce both marijuana and hemp, with the difference being the amount of the chemical compound Delta 9 tetrahydrocannabinol. Anything above a percentage of 0.3% of the plant’s dry weight constitutes marijuana, and anything under that threshold can be considered hemp.
“Delta 9 is the main psychoactive ingredient in THC, where we think, ‘That’s going to get me high,'” Virginia Commonwealth University researcher and professor Dr. Michelle Peace told 13News Now.
So what then, is Delta 8?
It’s a different, but closely related, naturally-occurring cannabinoid within the cannabis sativa plant, of which there are more than 100 cannabinoids produced by the cannabis plant.
