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It’s no secret that we love Highline Wellness. They were our first foray into the Land of Cannabinoids, and introduced us to the mellow plant-based calm that CBD bestows upon all it meets.
And while they’ve been busy churning out gummy after gummy in between influencer collabs, the team behind HW also found time to launch Reform Wellness, a new endeavor based on Delta 8 THC, another hemp-derived cannabinoid that’s psychoactive, unlike CBD.
Best, of all Reform Wellness is giving us Delta 8 in gummy form.
Delta 8 THC
For the uninitiated, Delta 8 THC is a cannabinoid found in hemp, alongside CBD, CBN, and 120+ other naturally occurring cannabinoids, including the infamous Delta 9 THC.
Delta 9 is the molecule that is commonly just called THC. It’s the molecule that’s most responsible for cannabis’ psychoactive effects, and is the molecule in cannabis that is still, unfortunately, federally illegal in the US.
Delta 8, on the other hand, is a molecule that’s virtually identical to Delta 9, and can have similar psychoactive effects. Most people report that the Delta 8 experience is significantly less anxious/paranoid, more somatic, and kind of lighter overall.
Basically you get the same benefits without feeling super “stoned”.
We said, sign us up! And Reform Wellness did. They sent us a welcome box with samples to try 🙌.
Yep, they sent them in the mail. Does this mean Delta 8 is legal? Technically yes, although there’s some controversy around that at the moment.
Farm Bill of 2018
Here’s why Delta 8 is legal: the Farm Bill of 2018 draws a distinction between “hemp” and “marijuana,” despite them being essentially the same plant: cannabis.
“Hemp” is defined as cannabis having less than 0.3% Delta 9 THC by dry weight.
The Farm Bill legalized all cannabinoids derived from hemp, as long as they still contain less than 0.3% Delta 9.
Delta 8 is a naturally occurring cannabinoid in hemp, although it’s found in extremely small quantities, not enough to be able to extract on any worthwhile scale.
But! Good ol’ CBD, derived from hemp, can be transmuted via the miracles of chemistry into Delta 8 THC, through a process called isomerization: essentially rearranging the atoms in CBD molecules to create Delta 8 THC.
Because Delta 8 is created from CBD derived from hemp, and is distinct from Delta 9, it’s technically legal in the eyes of the Farm Bill.
Reform Wellness claims
our Delta 8 gummies are the first of their kind; currently the only THC product that can be safely, easily, and legally purchased online, from any state.
Update: The long arm of the law is slowly reaching into the land of Delta 8, and in some states Delta 8 sales are banned. Those states are Alaska, Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Idaho, Iowa, Mississippi, Montana, Rhode Island and Utah.
It might surprise you to see a place like Colorado on the list, as they’re notoriously friendly towards psychoactive substances and are actively decriminalizing stronger substances left and right.
However, the Marijuana Enforcement Division in Colorado states that “chemically modifying or converting any naturally occurring cannabinoids from industrial hemp is non-compliant with the statutory definition of ‘industrial hemp product’” in their state law. So there ya go.
We’ll keep updating this as the situation evolves.
Reform Wellness
Reform Wellness’s mantra is “Consume with Intention,” and this is an idea that we absolutely get behind. Here in the Gummy Galaxy, we believe in reverence towards plants.
And when you’re working with plants that might have psychoactive effects, making sure that you’re approaching it with conscious intention and mindful appreciation makes all the difference.
We absolutely love that Reform Wellness provides literature around working with this product for promoting self alignment, embarking on self-discovery and self-growth.
As a country, we’ve come a long way with our understanding of Hemp/Marijuana/Santa Maria. But part of the reason we personally aren’t super into “weed culture” is because so many people still treat it as a way to casually check out or just get high.
Of course, you do you, but we love to see a THC brand inspiring “Intention Based Consumption.” Call us Psychonaut Nerds.
Ultimately, at the end of the day, we’re just grateful we’re moving towards THC being declassified as an illicit substance.
It’s especially inspiring and powerful to see Reform Wellness dedicating 10% of all sales to The Last Prisoner Project, a nonprofit working to bring justice to those incarcerated for nonviolent, cannabis-related “crimes.”
What is Delta 8 like?
We’ll be honest, we were a little nervous to take these!
Not that we don’t love a “calm, psychoactive journey”, but Delta 9 THC experiences can go left for us real quick. Calm and creative one second, paranoid, antisocial and anxiety-riddled the next.
Even though Reform Wellness’ info brochure assures us that Delta 8 is “better for those overwhelmed by regular THC”, we were still a little apprehensive. Let’s just say we’ve been overwhelmed by THC before, especially edibles, and we weren’t exactly in a rush to put ourselves in that position again.
But we’re on a mission to intrepidly explore every gummy in the cosmos, so we dove in.
Here’s the funny thing about working with cannabis: it’s touted as great for brainstorming, having great, meaningful conversations with friends… but also for sleep.
We find things that help us snooze generally turn our brains off rather than on, but we gave Delta 8 a go in a variety of settings and with a few specific intentions:
Sleep
First, we did try it as a sleep aid. The idea was two-fold: first, we can always use a little nudge into dreamland, and two, if things did go left, we’d just be in bed. The stakes felt mercifully low.
And within thirty minutes, we discovered that Delta 8 might be our new favorite thing.
No joke, our first though was “this is what CBD is supposed to be.” No shade to CBD, but in our experience, the vibe was more in line with the embodied melting calm of a CBD experience rather than a mental “high”.
Electric CBD is how we like to think of this. Not once have we veered into paranoid thoughts or an anxiety-driven monologue about how we’d like the experience to end.
We’ve taken Reform Wellness gummies before bed a few times now, and we’ve mostly awakened giddy, refreshed, our moods as sunny as the day. A few times we’ve also awoken to some grog and brain fog.
So, as always, use mindfully and with circumspection.
Daytime
If you take these while you’re awake, it can be a whole other experience. For us, they kick in noticeably after about an hour, and gradually build to a peak within another hour or so.
In a lot of ways, it’s an experience very similar to a classic Delta 9 one, but somehow friendlier, more relaxing and focused, more grounded in your body than caught in your head.
Don’t expect this to be like CBD — it’s definitely psychoactive. But it’s somewhere sort of in between CBD & THC. Less intense than THC but still mind-expanding, with a kind of glow of physical well-being similar to CBD.
These are strong enough that we highly encourage intentional consumption. Definitely don’t take them if you need to work, drive, operate machinery, etc.
These would make incredible tools for bodywork, yoga, creative practices, or just chilling with some good friends.
Dosage
Reform Wellness provides Delta 8 gummies in 5 milligram and 10 milligram potencies. We’re fond of the 5 mg gummies — again, we’re lightweights but the 10 mg gummies are pretty strong, at least for us. We recommend starting with the 5 mg.
Safety
It’s also important to note that because of the recent explosion of popularity of Delta 8, and the “technically legal” status, it’s kind of the wild west out there right now.
A lot of sketchy, fly-by-night companies have popped up, selling Delta 8 products in gas stations, smoke shops…it’s kind of everywhere at the moment.
Because the process of converting CBD into Delta 8 involves a chemical process in a lab, it’s critical to know what who is creating your Delta 8 gummies, and what exactly is in them. Poorly-made Delta 8 products can contain chemical byproducts & solvents, or the (still-illegal) Delta 9 THC.
Reform Wellness publishes third-party certificates of analysis, and are GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices) certified.
Tasting Notes
You might be wondering how dank this tastes.
The blueberry square is delicious and definitely tastes from the same blueberry flavor factory that creates Highline Wellness’s iconic CBD Day and CBD Sleep gummy.
The strawberry is equally delicious: nothing chemically or earthy about it, just sugar-dusted gummy goodness.
Final Thoughts
We can’t recommend these enough, and are grateful that Reform Wellness blessed us with a welcome box, because we’re not sure we would have tried these otherwise.
These are strong! And we’d like to formally remind everyone that this isn’t candy, keep it in your adult hands, and of course, consume with intention.
Oh yeah, these are vegan, gluten-free, and super reasonably priced, too, at $30 for fifteen of the 5 mg gummies.
