Cheech & Chong’s launches a THC drink weeks before federal ban

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Cheech & Chong’s is launching Agua Yesca, a 10-milligram hemp THC beverage, with retail rollout set for early December, days before the December 11 ban.

It’s a push to show the hemp category is here to stay. 

The other side is gearing up for a fight: Former Louisiana Rep. Cedric Richmond and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson led calls Monday to hold the date, Bloomberg Government reports.

“We really are the top-of-funnel consumer acquisition channel for the rest of the regulated cannabis market, and that gets lost,” said Cheech & Chong’s President Brandon Harshbarger.

Online hemp sales give the company first-party customer data, which it uses to send buyers to partner dispensaries nearby. That pipeline shuts off December 11.

Harshbarger explains in the full interview why dispensaries are “absolutely not” a home for hemp drinks, the 30 jobs on the line, what the company told Utah’s congressional delegation, and who he blames for the ban.

-JB

“It is known by everyone and widely discussed among senior administration staff that Susie put her finger on the hemp policy scale because of her family,” Calley Means, a former senior adviser to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., told Politico Pro of the recently departed White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles. 

Wiles’ son-in-law, Bret Worley, is the CEO of MC Global, a hemp distributor. President Trump intervened at the 11th hour to delay the implementation of the hemp-derived THC ban by a month during Senate negotiations in August. The Daily Caller reports that Worley and his company deleted a string of LinkedIn posts discussing his role in securing the extension of the ban.

Two Texas House Democrats prefiled matching bills Monday to legalize recreational cannabis for adults 21 and older, with a 2-ounce possession limit, 12-plant home grow, a 15% tax on wholesale transfers, and a 20% retail tax. The session opens in January after Democrats won Texas’s statewide offices and a House majority last week.

A coalition of 16 Democratic governors, led by Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, sent a letter to House and Senate leaders Monday urging passage of the SAFE Banking Act, citing the push to reschedule cannabis and the safety risks of a cash-heavy industry. The House has passed versions of the bill several times, but it has never become law.

Illinois’s ban on intoxicating hemp products takes effect Thursday, but the six plaintiffs suing to block it and members of the Illinois Healthy Alternatives Association, a trade group of about 250 businesses, can keep selling until at least Nov. 19, when U.S. District Judge Martha Pacold hears the case. Illinois is keeping its November deadline even though the federal hemp ban was pushed back to Dec. 11.

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Curaleaf says it received all required competition clearances in Canada and Germany for its hostile bid for Canadian cannabis company Aurora, which expires Dec. 4. Aurora has instead backed Organigram’s C$7.80-per-share rival deal, which topped Curaleaf’s offer and still needs shareholder, court, and regulatory approval. $CURA $CURLF $ACB

Sweed’s new Green Wednesday guide draws on two years of data from dispensaries on its platform, where transactions nearly doubled on the day before Thanksgiving in 2025. It covers stocking, staffing, and promos ahead of this year’s Nov. 25 rush, plus how to turn first-time shoppers into regulars. Sweed is a Cultivated partner.

A clinical review in JAMA puts cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome-related emergency department visits at 22.3 per 100,000 in 2022, up from 4.4 in 2016, with adults 18 to 35 accounting for about two-thirds. The authors tie the syndrome to daily, long-term use, possibly worsened by higher-potency products, and say quitting is the only reliable long-term fix.

One week after Massachusetts voters overwhelmingly rejected Question 8 — dealing a historic defeat to cannabis prohibitionists by a 75-25 margin — Ryan Dominguez of the Massachusetts Cannabis Coalition joined Cultivated Live to break down the campaign, the strategy, and what comes next.

In case you missed it »

The $38 Billion Hemp Industry Has One Month To Live | Forbes

The Mass. cannabis industry was meant to help those hurt by the war on drugs. Many say it failed. | WGBH