Whiskey Company Scales Back Operations, Citing ‘Consumer Shifts’ Toward Marijuana As Alcohol Alternative

When the bar lights dim, the market speaks

Marijuana as alcohol alternative isn’t a trend anymore; it’s a course correction you can taste in the empty chairs at your neighborhood tasting room. Heritage Distilling Company, an independent craft outfit with roots in Oregon and Washington, just announced it’s scaling back: shuttering tasting rooms, shifting to contract production, and leaning into direct-to-consumer. In a frank note to customers, the company cited a cocktail of reasons—tax friction, regulatory grind, and, yes, changing habits as adults reach for cannabis instead of another round. The move, detailed in this press release, lands like a last call warning across the spirits world.

The new happy hour is getting higher

Call it the cannabis industry impact on a legacy bar tab. Spirits giants have admitted the pressure. THC beverages have slipped from novelty to weeknight habit. Retailers—some of them very big—are testing shelves. Veterans’ halls are experimenting with hemp-derived THC as an off-ramp from booze. The signals keep piling up:

• A major spirits CEO acknowledged cannabis is putting heat on liquor revenues.
• Big beverage names have turned up their federal lobbying on cannabis policy as THC seltzers surge.
• A leading alcohol trade association welcomed its first THC beverage member—symbol over steak, but symbols move markets.
• Target quietly soft-launched THC drinks in select Minnesota stores, a corporate toe in the infused waters.
• VFW posts are partnering with a hemp THC brand to offer alternatives to the ritual pour—where camaraderie and caution intersect.

And if you’re wondering whether this is all just clever marketing, remember: an airline rumor about THC sodas on flights fizzled—wishful thinking at 35,000 feet isn’t policy. What matters is ground truth: legal cannabis and hemp-derived THC are rewriting what “after work” looks like, from barstools to back patios.

Numbers don’t lie; consumers don’t either

Polls show most Americans now see cannabis as a healthier option than alcohol, and many think nationwide legalization is within reach in the next five years. Surveys of THC beverage drinkers say four out of five cut back on booze; more than one in five quit altogether. Among millennials and Gen Z, one in three is trading pints for infused cans at happy hour. That health narrative has traction beyond vibes. New research is probing how cannabis and alcohol collide—or diverge—in the body, including findings that frequent cannabis use may correlate with lower risk of alcohol-related liver disease. For context on that emerging science, see Frequent Marijuana Use Is Tied To Lower Risk Of Liver Disease From Alcohol, New Study Finds.

Policy crosswinds: where the register meets the rulebook

Heritage didn’t just blame weed. Taxes and regulatory costs in Oregon and Washington made the math tougher—asset-light starts to sound like survival when the check comes due. Meanwhile, the marijuana policy reform landscape is messy: state-legal cannabis on one side, federally legal hemp on the other, and a sprawling gray zone in between. Retailers experiment. Regulators recalibrate. Revenues pile up—or don’t move at all. West Virginia has medical marijuana dollars earmarked for treatment programs that sit idle thanks to federal jitters, a cautionary tale about intent vs. execution captured in West Virginia Medical Marijuana Revenue Is Supposed To Support Drug Treatment Programs, But Sits Unspent As Officials Worry About Federal Prohibition. Voters are ahead of many politicians, and that gap is starting to cost—economically, culturally, electorally. If candidates want to keep pace with the Michigan cannabis market’s lesson writ large—adapt or fade—they might start by reading the room, as argued in New Jersey Gubernatorial Candidates Need To Step Up For Cannabis Consumers (Op-Ed). And as jurisdictions tinker at the edges of the drug toolbox—training first responders and clinicians for the next wave—the policy horizon broadens, not narrows; see Ohio’s investment in education detailed in Ohio Health Agency Grants $400,000 To Fund Psychedelics Education And Training For First Responders, Doctors And More.

What the shakeout says about tomorrow’s bar

If you run a distillery, a bar program, or a convenience aisle, the assignment is clear: diversify or get edged out by a can with cannabinoids and a clean label. The cannabis taxation debate will decide who thrives and who limps, but the consumer has already voted with their lips. Heritage’s pivot isn’t surrender; it’s adaptation, the kind scrappy operators make when the ground shifts underfoot. For drinkers, this isn’t a moral referendum. It’s a lifestyle remix—less hangover, different buzz, more control. For policymakers, it’s a budget line waiting to be stewarded, not squandered. For the rest of us, it’s a reminder that markets move like nightlife: fast, fickle, a little dangerous—and always more interesting after last call. Want to taste where the culture’s headed next? Explore our selection here: https://thcaorder.com/shop/.