It's Friday afternoon at Total Wine and More in Arlington, Va., and the shelves are sparkling with shiny bottles and cans. They include an option that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago: drinks containing THC instead of alcohol, in more than 30 flavors and varieties.
With names like Mountain High, Buzzin' Breeze and Citrus Bliss, most of the drinks have only low doses of THC, the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis. Because their THC is derived from hemp, the drinks are legal — for now (see below). Priced at $5 to $7 a can, some are fruit-flavored seltzers while others mimic cocktails.
"This one is the Mary Jane Mule," says Nathan Wilkinson, as he puts a can in his shopping basket. "So that's kind of clever, but it's a Moscow mule. It tastes like ginger beer, you can have it with a little bit of lime and put it on ice."
Wilkinson, who's in his late 40s, says he's been increasingly mindful about his alcohol intake. A few weeks ago, he decided to try a THC drink, as a non-alcoholic option that also promises a bit of relaxation. Today, he's buying a few beers along with THC drinks.
"I have never used weed, so this is sort of a nice entry point for me," Wilkinson says. "I wouldn't have normally tried this, but because of the way it's being marketed, I'm up for it."
The transaction is unremarkable except for a key detail: Virginia law forbids the sale of cannabis products. But selling THC drinks is legal in dozens of states if the active ingredient comes from hemp, as defined by the Farm Bill of 2018, creating legal cover that spawned a new market.
That market is buzzing, but that boom may come crashing down soon, thanks to a new law. When Congress recently approved a spending bill ending the government shutdown, it also set a one-year deadline to close the hemp loophole, with new restrictions. The move threatens the broader hemp market — estimated to be worth tens of billions of dollars — with what one economist calls "an extinction-level event."
An 'explosion of demand'
THC drinks first appeared on the counters of gas stations and corner shops. But with more Americans like Wilkinson seeking alternatives to alcohol, they've gone mainstream in places like Total Wine; Target recently started selling them at stores in Minnesota.
"It has been a complete explosion of demand," says Tanner Johnson, CEO of Pure Shenandoah, a THC and hemp company based near Harrisonburg, Va. The family-run business got into THC beverages a few years ago; Johnson says the company's distribution deal with Total Wine took things to a new level.
"Since we got with them, we've basically seen a double of revenue every month," he says.
Johnson says Pure Shenandoah's current challenge is canning enough drinks to keep up with customers' thirst.
All of this was enabled by the easing of laws regulating hemp.
Despite U.S. policy distinctions, hemp and marijuana are cultivars of the same plant, Cannabis sativa L. Under the 2018 Farm Bill, if a plant contains no more than 0.3% of Delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol or THC, the compound that gives users a buzzy high, it's considered hemp.
As a result, hemp-derived THC products can be shipped from state to state and sold where local laws allow. Compare that to cannabis plants that have higher levels of THC and are classified as a Schedule I drug, alongside heroin. They remain subject to onerous federal restrictions, including a ban against interstate trade.
Strong customer demand and the ability to operate as legitimate businesses drove the hemp-derived THC drinks industry to mature rapidly, says Christopher Lackner, founder and president of the Hemp Beverage Alliance, a trade association.
Producers who started out driving their drinks to market personally are now shipping them in semitrucks, he says.
"These are not small operations doing mom-and-pop stuff out of their shed in their backyard," Lackner says. "These are factories. These are people with 250 employees."
The THC beverage sector blossomed into a billion-dollar industry. But Johnson says the looming federal changes are already affecting business in his state.
"We've seen big-box brands like Food Lion and Giant and Circle K, which were all pretty close to moving forward in Virginia, either pause or fully pump the brakes," he says.
Expanded access tapped into a new group of consumers
The meteoric growth of THC drinks crystallized a revelation for the cannabis industry: A sizable segment of U.S. consumers wants access to legal, low-dose THC.
Hemp-based drinks "introduced a whole new tier of folks that enjoyed THC" but prefer to visit a neighborhood store rather than a dispensary, says Terry Mendez, CEO of Safe Harbor Financial, which provides banking services in the cannabis industry.
"The model that you saw [emerge] for intoxicating hemp was similar to alcohol and beer," he says, describing the grab-and-go option as "much more consumer friendly" than visiting a dispensary.
While THC drinks are available in some states with regulated recreational markets, they're also easily found in states that don't, such as Florida and South Carolina. To help customers navigate the offerings, stores like Total Wine post signs recommending new THC drinkers start with low-strength options from 2 to 4 mg, rather than cans holding 5 or 10 mg. At the Virginia store, a note reads: "Onset as soon as 20 minutes."
Justin Garcia, chief marketing officer of SunMed Growers in Maryland, a company that works in the state's regulated cannabis market, wants to see THC drinks remain on liquor store shelves — but only if hemp producers meet the rigorous standards states require of legal cannabis companies.
"We think that this drink thing is huge," he says. "I think it's how the next wave of consumers enters the cannabis space. You know, smoking is never really going to be perceived to be healthy, but drinking an adult beverage is something that people can wrap their minds around a little bit easier."
As of September, THC beverages were legal in 28 states and legal with restrictions in another nine, according to Whitney Economics, an industry consulting firm. Six states have banned them, the group says, while seven others require the drinks to be sold in marijuana stores.
Hemp industry faces a one-year countdown
The contentious vote in Congress to tighten rules on hemp came after dozens of state attorneys general issued a letter warning of the risks of an unregulated hemp THC market, and the dangers it could pose to children.
The restrictions were a hot topic for investors and entrepreneurs at the Cannabis Capital & Policy Summit, held last week in Washington, D.C. Speakers repeatedly noted that the hemp industry is on a countdown to find a way to survive. They included Democratic Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, who told an audience, "This is not a partisan issue" — and pointed to his vote alongside Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who opposes the hemp crackdown.
Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., has introduced a bill to repeal the section of the spending measure that restricts hemp. But citing the confusing patchwork of cannabis laws in the U.S., many at the conference called for going further.
Kraig Fox, a media and cannabis industry veteran and founder of U-Bet Advisory, says the goal is to reach "a fair compromise to allow people to enjoy these products in a way that's safe for human consumption, that's age-gated, that children won't get their hands on them."
Possible federal measures could include standardizing tests and monitoring of hemp products and requiring an ID check at liquor stores selling THC drinks.
Before the hemp rollback, many in the industry were anticipating a possible rescheduling of cannabis as a less harmful drug — a prospect President Trump said was under consideration in August. The timing of such a move would bring even more changes to the cannabis sector.
Despite uncertainty over how federal laws might change, the hemp THC beverage market continues barreling along. Lackner, of the Hemp Beverage Alliance, says that after news of the federal clampdown emerged, a drink supplier in the alliance told him that they called their distributor in Georgia to confer about what it might mean for them. The conversation was short, Lackner says.
"They said, 'Yeah, we heard about it. We need 24 pallets of your product shipped straight away.'"
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