Eric Berger - Kaiser Health News

The 2018 farm bill that legalized hemp created a loophole for an unregulated copycat of marijuana. A form of delta-9 THC — the psychoactive substance in pot — doesn’t face the same regulations as marijuana and is poised to upend the cannabis industry.

A cannabis product called delta-8 was made legal when the 2018 Farm Bill legalized hemp. But unlike its cousin CBD, delta-8 has psychoactive properties. And the FDA warns it has “serious health risks.” The agency has received more than 100 reports of bad reactions among people who consumed it.

The FDA has approved a cannabis-derived drug to treat some forms of epilepsy. Now people who have other forms of the condition are using over-the-counter products, but doctors and patients worry about the unbridled world of CBD, in which product ingredients can be a mystery.

Missouri has the worst COVID vaccination rate for nursing home workers in the nation. There, the federal mandate for workers to get vaccinated reveals the problems that operators have hiring staff, keeping them, and providing decent care.