Iowa’s top drug enforcement official says a new marijuana derivative is showing up in Iowa.
Office of Drug Control Policy director Steve Lukan briefed a governor’s budget panel on the so-called hash oil that’s being used in electronic cigarettes. Hash oil is produced by boiling down marijuana leaves.
Lukan says the oil has a high percentage of the psychoactive compound known as THC.
“Instead of adding a flavored nicotine product to an electronic cigarette,” Lukan says, “they’re adding the high-potency oil.”
Lukan says the substance is likely arriving in Iowa from states that have liberalized their marijuana laws.
“If you're in states like Colorado,” Lukan says, “there's been an explosion of products with very little regulation, oil, food products, candies.”
Lukan says unlike the low-THC cannabis oil approved for limited medical use in Iowa, the hash oil is illegal. The derivative is also called "wax," and Lukan says some of the product is showing up in Iowa schools.
