Alcohol Retailers Push Congress To Delay Hemp THC Ban While Regulations Are Crafted

Federal hemp THC ban delay is the fight of the moment, and it’s happening in the same fluorescent aisles where Pinot and Pappy already earn their keep. Picture a late November switch flipped by Washington that snaps hemp-derived THC beverages back into the shadows. That’s the current script—a federal hemp THC ban set to kick in this fall—unless a new push buys time. A freshly minted alliance of major alcohol retailers wants Congress to pump the brakes and pass the Hemp Planting Predictability Act, a two-year reprieve that would let regulators, producers, and retailers craft a workable system before the hammer drops. The stakes are real: low-dose, hemp-derived THC beverages are already on shelves, courting the sober-curious and the cannabis-curious alike. Prohibit them overnight and you shove consumers toward sketchier alternatives. Regulate them? You build a legal bridge between the alcohol playbook and a chaotic hemp market—one that’s grown faster than Congress has figured out how to handle it. This isn’t abstract policy; it’s a retail reality, a supply chain, a bar code at the register. It’s also the latest skirmish in a broader war over cannabis taxation, marijuana policy reform, and who actually gets to define “responsible” in the American marketplace.

The coalition is the Beverage Alcohol Merchants Coalition—BAMCO, if you like your acronyms clean—an alignment of giants like Total Wine & More, BevMo by Gopuff, ABC Fine Wine & Spirits, and Spec’s Wine and Spirits & Finer Foods, paired with hemp wholesalers who’ve been living this gray zone for years. Their pitch is blunt: alcohol retailers know how to sell regulated products. They do it every day, under a three-tier system that makes accountants happy and compliance officers sleep at night. They’re not asking for a free-for-all; they’re demanding rules. Think strict 21+ sales, clear THC serving limits, mandated testing and labeling, sober marketing guardrails, taxes earmarked to pay for enforcement, and a multi-tier distribution chain with licensed wholesalers and retailers—plus state flexibility layered over a clear federal framework, according to BAMCO’s policy platform. The vibe isn’t culture war; it’s logistics and liability, SKU counts and shelf sets. Do it right, they argue, and the Michigan-cannabis-market’s lessons and the alcohol industry’s muscle can make hemp-derived THC beverages safe, transparent, and predictable.

BAMCO launches today: Top alcohol merchants united for responsible federal regulation of low-dose adult-use hemp beverages.
We know how to sell regulated products—we do it every day—using the proven three-tier system for safe, transparent access.⁰Read: https://t.co/PHhNDlX8VF

— Jonathan Grella (@JonathanGrella) January 21, 2026

Zoom out and you see why this coalition formed. A law President Donald Trump recently signed would federally recriminalize hemp-derived THC products—including those easygoing, low-dose sippers—by November. That’s a curveball with bad spin for everyone: consumers who’ve swapped booze for hemp beverages, small producers who finally found a lane, and regulators who’d rather not build an entirely new traffic system overnight. Trade groups in the booze world—longtime masters of the three-tier maze—are signaling the same thing: regulate rather than ban. And in the political trenches, prohibitionists are not waiting around. They’re bankrolling rollbacks and muddling the message anywhere they can, because chaos makes great politics. For a look at how those forces move money and narrative, consider ‘Dark Money’ Anti-Marijuana Group Is Bankrolling Ballot Measures To Roll Back Legalization In Multiple States, Records Show. The fight over hemp beverages isn’t a sidebar—it’s part of a national tug-of-war over what gets to live in the light and what gets shoved back into the gray.

Meanwhile, the map keeps shifting. States are experimenting, recalibrating, and sometimes contradicting each other in real time. The ballot remains a pressure valve and a battleground; you can see it in the islands as lawmakers weigh direct democracy in Hawaii Lawmakers File Bills To Put Marijuana Legalization On The Ballot For Voters To Decide, and in the Midwest, where activists grind through the paperwork gauntlet in Ohio Cannabis Activists Resubmit Referendum Petition After Attorney General Rejects Initial ‘Misleading’ Version. Inside hospitals, the compassion question hits differently; when life is measured in months, rules should serve people, not the other way around—see the debate in Delaware Lawmakers Consider Bill To Allow Medical Marijuana Use In Hospitals By Terminally Ill Patients. These stories aren’t detours; they’re the larger mosaic. Federal cannabis taxation, labeling, and access won’t make sense until the country stops pretending hemp and cannabis are separate universes. They share consumers, supply chains, and a persistent fog of stigma. The BAMCO push is one pragmatic attempt to clear that fog.

So what happens next? If Congress passes the Hemp Planting Predictability Act, the industry gets two years to codify a sane framework: age gates at the door, dosing that respects Tuesday mornings, and labels that speak plain English. That’s time to curb the bad actors and protect the good ones—time to harmonize a market that already exists with rules that should’ve arrived yesterday. If lawmakers punt and let the federal hemp THC ban slam shut in November, expect the predictable: consumers wandering back to the unregulated wilds, small businesses crushed by whiplash, and enforcement scrambled by the sheer scale of demand. America’s relationship with intoxication is older than our flag; it will not be managed by vibes or wishful thinking. It will be managed by policy that treats grown-ups like grown-ups and products like products. If you’re navigating this evolving landscape and want a place to start, you can always explore our curated selections here: https://thcaorder.com/shop/.