Alcohol companies lobby Congress on cannabis drinks (Newsletter: October 22, 2025)

Hemp drinks THC ban is the latest bar fight in Washington, and you can smell the cologne and cold brew fear from K Street to the convenience store cooler. Call it cannabis policy reform by cocktail menu: a tug-of-war over who gets to sell the buzz, who pockets the legal cannabis revenue, and who gets left sweeping peanut shells off the floor. The cannabis industry impact isn’t theoretical anymore. It’s shelf space, shipping lanes, and statehouse hearings, all suddenly converging on a fizzy new frontier—THC beverages born from hemp, living in a gray zone that’s made lawyers rich and regulators itchy.

Here’s the gist. As Congress toys with a federal cannabis drinks crackdown, the alcohol lobby isn’t waiting to see what drips out of committee. It’s ramping up, fast, because a ban or tight cap on hemp-derived THC could redraw the beverage aisle overnight. Big spirits and beer know distribution better than anyone, and they’re reading the same tea leaves as every scrappy hemp startup: the window for easy entry is closing. Payments and delivery giants aren’t standing on the sidelines either; the logistics of age-gating, interstate sales, and compliance are about to stop being polite and start getting real. For a deeper dive into this brawl, see Alcohol Industry Steps Up Lobbying On Hemp Drinks As Congress Debates THC Ban, and picture the boardrooms where “innovation” is code for the regulatory moat you can afford.

Meanwhile, states are running their own experiments in tough love. In Ohio, a House panel moved to scale back pieces of the voter-approved legalization while tightening the net around intoxicating hemp products. That’s not just semantics—it’s the boundary line between a regulated cannabis market and a patchwork of loopholes that undermine it. If you’re a consumer, that can mean fewer protections and more confusion. If you’re a small business, it’s death by a thousand compliance cuts. If you’re a regulator, it’s a map of competing definitions and bad-faith actors. The play-by-play belongs to the locals, but the pattern is national: slow-walk what voters passed, and corral hemp into lanes that look more like liquor than lettuce. Read the contours in Ohio Lawmakers Advance Bill To Scale Back Voter-Approved Marijuana Law And Impose Hemp Regulations—a snapshot of a broader American argument about who gets to define intoxicating.

Then there’s the twist that could make the whole plant-vs.-product debate feel quaint. A federally backed research team says it has cooked up CBD-like compounds from caraway seeds—yes, the kitchen spice—skipping cannabis altogether. Early data suggest these “non-cannabis CBD” analogs can tamp down seizures and support healthier brain cell development in preclinical settings, which raises an unholy trinity of questions: If you can build cannabinoids without cannabis, who regulates them? Who profits—biotech or farmers? And what happens to hemp’s hard-won legitimacy if the next wave of wellness bypasses the stalk entirely? It’s science with a disruptor’s grin and a patent lawyer’s briefcase. Start wrapping your head around the implications with Scientists Develop New Class Of CBD Using A Common Kitchen Spice—Not Cannabis, and imagine the FDA meetings where every syllable matters.

Not all the action lives in labs or Capitol hearings. In Rhode Island, regulators set a real timeline for new dispensary licenses, including social equity applicants and worker-owned cooperatives. That’s the quiet, unglamorous work that actually builds a market: clear dates, transparent scoring, and rules that give people outside the old boys’ club a shot. It’s also a reminder that state cannabis licensing isn’t just policy—it’s opportunity, wealth transfer, and neighborhood change. When timelines are real and rules are readable, investors stop guessing and communities start planning. If you’re tracking where access and ownership might actually broaden, bookmark Rhode Island Marijuana Officials Approve Timeline For Awarding New Dispensary Licenses. And if you’re ready to taste where the market is headed rather than wait for the next hearing, you can explore what’s fresh on our shelves here: https://thcaorder.com/shop/.