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Nebraska's attorney general is attempting to crack down on the sale of Delta-8 THC products across the state through a series of consumer protection lawsuits filed against sellers of the hemp-derived cannabinoid.

Attorney General Mike Hilgers announced the "unprecedented" litigation Wednesday, placing an emphasis on what he described as the misleading labeling of Delta-8 products and the potential for harm such labels create for Nebraska's children.

"We have retailers who are selling chemicals to kids — THC-containing products — to children and to Nebraskans around the state," Hilgers said at a Wednesday news conference at the state Capitol. 

"These are mislabeled, they are untested and they are dangerous," he said. 

Hilgers' office filed lawsuits Wednesday against retailers operating in at least 10 counties: Platte, Scotts Bluff, Hall, Madison, Lancaster, Sarpy, Lincoln, Saline, Keith and Dawes.

And Hilgers issued a bulletin Wednesday warning consumers that the Delta-8 products, which are widely available in Nebraska, "may be dangerous for human consumption" due to what the state's top lawyer cast as unknown production processes, mislabeling, unknown health effects and packaging that, at times, is meant to attract children.

The lawsuits mark the Nebraska authorities' latest crackdown on Delta-8, a federally legal hemp-derived cannabinoid that has been sold in the city for more than two years and in August was the subject of several police raids across the state, including in Lincoln. 

Though marijuana remains illegal in Nebraska even for medical use, a provision in the 2018 Farm Bill federally legalized the regulated production of hemp. The law requires that the plant contain no more than 0.3% of Delta-9 THC, but no limits were placed on the hundreds of other cannabinoids present in hemp, including Delta 8, essentially creating a loophole for businesses to sell it.

Hilgers, though, said the lawyers in his office believe the products, when synthetically produced, are illegal — but the attorney general isn’t pursuing criminal action against the retailers. He said consumer protection laws give his office broader authority to halt the sale of the drugs than individual criminal prosecutions would.

Among the targets of Hilgers' suits are 50 Shades of Green and The Cannabis Factory, both Omaha-based companies that operate dispensaries across the state — including in Lincoln — that sell CBD and Delta-8 products.

An attorney for 50 Shades of Green wasn't immediately able to comment on the state's lawsuit Wednesday. Tom Whitmore, an Omaha-based lawyer who is listed as The Cannabis Factory's registered agent in state business records, did not return messages seeking comment.

Hilgers' office also filed complaints against Ms. Vape Shop in Saline County, Greenhouse Grandma in Dawes County, High Flow Cannabis in Hall County, First Stop Vape Shop in Keith County, A Botanical Dream in Lincoln County, Kynd Co. Vape and Smoke in Madison County, Chasing Clouds Vape Collective in Platte County and Zy Glam in Scotts Bluff County.

In a 37-page complaint filed in Lancaster County against The Cannabis Factory, Hilgers accused the retailer of violating the state's consumer protection laws by seeking to "entice and ultimately ensnare Nebraska’s most vulnerable consumers: teenagers and children."

Both in the lawsuits and at Wednesday's news conference, Hilgers pointed to Delta-8 products and packaging that closely resemble those of candy and other household snacks — such as Fritos, Rice Krispies Treats and Nerds candy — as evidence supporting his claims.

"These are gummies that would be indistinguishable even to an adult, let alone a child," Hilgers told reporters Wednesday, pointing to look-alike products that investigators in his office purchased from THC shops across the state.

In the lawsuits, Hilgers was plainspoken about what his office believes is the dispensaries' collective motive: profit.

"... And in seeking to maximize its financial gains, Cannabis Factory has repeatedly misled the public about the substantial dangers of its THC-containing products," Hilgers wrote in one such suit, which, like the others filed Wednesday, seeks an injunction ordering the dispensary to stop selling products that run afoul of consumer protection laws.

The state is also seeking "appropriate monetary relief" for the dispensaries' "numerous and repeated violations."

But more than anything, Hilgers said Wednesday, his office hopes to "to make sure these aren’t sold on the shelves," imploring the state's Delta-8 retailers to cooperate with his office or risk facing "other actions." He declined to comment on any criminal investigations his office may or may not be conducting.

The attorney general's concerns over the products extend far beyond their suspect packaging, which Hilgers indicated also violates trademark laws. He said his office had sent letters to companies like Frito-Lay alerting them to the apparent infringements.

More urgent, he said, are the potential dangers the products pose to all consumers due to often inaccurate potency and ingredient descriptions.

Hilgers said only 15% of the more than 100 Delta-8 products his office purchased and had tested — including vape, flower-based and edible products such as gummies — accurately displayed their potency and ingredients on the label.

Some products that claimed to be Delta-8 were in fact Delta-9 or a different caliber of THC, Hilgers said. Others had claimed a smaller dosage of THC than was actually present in the product.

And, he said, tests revealed heavy metals, mold, ethanol and acetone within some Delta-8 consumables, which Hilgers said are "synthetically" manufactured.

"In a world in which Nebraskans should expect, rightfully, that their product ingredients and packages are 100% accurate — we're not talking about 90% accurate, we're not talking about 70% accuracy — we're talking about 15%," Hilgers said. "It's a game of Russian roulette that Nebraskans are losing."

Between January 2021 and February 2022, national poison control centers received reports 2,362 of Delta-8 THC exposure, 58% of which involved adults, . Seventy percent of exposures required health care facility evaluation, of which 8% resulted in admission to a critical care unit, according to the data.

One child is reported to have died following Delta-8 exposure in more than year's worth of FDA tracking.

Hilgers suggested such poisonings are “almost certainly underreported� and that children have already been hospitalized after consuming — or vaping — Delta-8 in Nebraska, but he said his office wasn’t aware of any deaths in the state tied to the use of the cannabinoid.

“To those who are selling these products: they need to stop," he said. "This is putting Nebraskans at risk. It’s putting Nebraska children, most importantly, at risk.�

Hilgers also claimed that there is "no evidence that any of these stores ID" customers. But he offered no evidence to suggest the retailers don't verify the ages of patrons, particularly young ones.

He said his office had not carried out any compliance checks similar to those regularly conducted on alcohol vendors in the state.

Though Hilgers cast his crackdown on Delta-8 products as "totally separate" from ongoing efforts to legalize marijuana — which remains illegal even for medical use in Nebraska — proponents of legalized marijuana pointed to the consumer protection litigation as evidence in support of their own cause.

"This is exactly why we have been pushing to legalize medical marijuana for the past five years so that we can have a safe and accessible regulatory system," former state Sen. Adam Morfeld, a co-sponsor of the latest petition drive seeking to put the issue to voters, said in a social media post Wednesday.

Hilgers, though, said Wednesday that he remains opposed to legalizing marijuana in Nebraska and doesn't support the regulation of either marijuana or the other cannabinoids present in hemp that he is fighting to remove from the store shelves across the state.

"In my view, Delta-8 is a — it shouldn’t be sold at all," he said. "So I don’t think a regulatory mechanism for Delta-8 would be appropriate because there is no health benefit at all.�