Industry Pushing Back; Seeks Federal Solution During Grace Period
November 19, 2025
Legal Expert Doesn’t Expect Pending Ban to Kill Fast-Growing Hemp THC Sector
The agreement to open the US government last week included a potential beverage industry casualty — hemp-based THC drinks. As part of the deal, Congress and President Donald Trump closed a loophole embedded in the 2018 agriculture act that previously legalized hemp farming. Last week’s law will effectively ban hemp-based THC drinks a year from now, following a grace period. The loophole in the 2018 act has unintentionally led to the proliferation of ready-to-drink canned beverages infused with psychoactive hemp-based THC, mostly by way of a cannabinoid called Delta-9. Manufacturers have...
I’ve never been a pot smoker, aside from some low-key experimentation in college. The idea of trying hemp-based THC drinks was daunting, I’ll admit.
As a 55-year-old who came of age during the Reagan “Just Say No” to drugs era of the 1980s, there is still stigma and apprehension attached to marijuana for me. That’s despite 15% of US adults telling Gallup last year that they smoke marijuana, up from 7.0% in 2013. Forty-seven percent of Americans said they have tried marijuana. THC is now legal in some form in all but four states.
Danone has launched a yogurt-based drink for GLP-1 users and those pursuing weight loss called Oikos Fusion. The drink “is designed to support muscle maintenance and digestive health,” the company said. The drinks have ...
Channel Offers Trial, Education as Consumers Adopt THC Habit
August 6, 2025
Convenience stores offer the fastest and most effective retail path for the rapidly growing market of hemp-based THC drinks, an industry advocate told participants at the Hemp Beverage...
Entrepreneurs Thread Regulatory Needle, Seek Strength in Numbers
July 15, 2025
New Congressional Scrutiny Threatens Burgeoning Consumer-Driven Category...
BD attended the second annual Hemp Beverage Expo hosted last week in Atlanta by the Hemp Beverage Alliance. The event was dedicated to beverages such as “seltzers, sodas, mocktails, coffees, teas and other drinks that contain an infusion of hemp-derived cannabinoids.” The cannabinoid at the center of