Tobacco Shop Accused of Selling Weed Edibles Containing Fentanyl

Law enforcement officials near Philadelphia say that some delta 8 gummies sold by the Tobacco Hut chain have tested positive for fentanyl, and one product also contained heroin.

Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele and police officials from three county townships held a press conference Friday to announce that lab tests showed some delta 8 edibles sold at Tobacco Hut stores under the brand name Strictly Delta contained fentanyl, and others contained fentanyl, heroin and methyl fentanyl.

Multiple flavors of Strictly Delta’s Delta 8 THC 600 MG Happy Cubes tested positive for fentanyl. Officials said some edibles sold at Tobacco Hut stores under the brands Urb Extrax and Packwoods Coned also tested positive for fentanyl.

"Individuals should not consume any flavors of these Strictly Delta brand of CBD gummies,” Steele said. “If anyone has any of these gummies, do not eat them.” Officials said two non-fatal fentanyl overdoses were traced to products sold at Tobacco Hut.

Two reported non-fatal fentanyl overdoses traced to laced packaged Delta-8 and Delta-9 THC gummies sold in Montgomery County, PA. @MontcoDA says they were bought at Tobacco Hut stores, says don’t eat and don’t share. Unclear if produced this way or tampered post-production. pic.twitter.com/QjhjGTxDWY

— Jim Melwert (@JMelwert) February 24, 2023

Some Strictly Delta products also tested positive for spice—one of the names used for a group of synthetic cannabinoids known for producing unpredictable and sometimes serious medical reactions in some users. Spice has lost popularity since passage of the 2018 Farm Bill and subsequent court decisions made hemp-derived cannabinoids legal.

“We’re victims, we were the middleman, we bought our product from a legit source and we just sold it,” Tobacco Hut’s operations manager told the Philadelphia Inquirer. Tobacco Hut is a tobacco shop chain based in Virginia.

Ryan McNeil, a harm reduction researcher at Yale University’s addiction medicine program, told the Inquirer he was unaware of any similar incidents, and described the Montgomery County situation as “really unusual.”

Because hemp-derived cannabinoids like delta 8 and delta 10 THC, HHC, and THCP are not regulated federally or by most states, buyers should only purchase them from manufacturers and retailers able to show test results for the products they sell.

Another hemp-derived cannabinoid, THC-O, was recently declared illegal by the Drug Enforcement Administration because it doesn’t occur naturally in the hemp plant.

Image courtesy YouTube.