Total Wine wants hemp drinks sold like beer as Illinois pulls them

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What happened: Illinois’ ban on intoxicating hemp takes effect Nov. 12, reclassifying low-dose THC drinks as cannabis and moving them out of non-dispensary retailers.

Total Wine says about 1,000 Illinois locations sell the drinks, including Target, Circle K, and Binny’s.

Members of the Illinois Healthy Alternatives Association, a trade group of about 250 businesses, can keep selling until at least Nov. 19, when a federal judge hears their challenge.

The federal ban hits synthetic cannabinoids Nov. 12 and most other hemp products Dec. 11, capping legal hemp at 0.4 milligrams of total THC per container.

What they’re saying: “America already has a solution,” said Total Wine & More CEO Ryan Ross. 

“For nearly 100 years, the three-tier system used for alcoholic beverages has enabled safe sales of beer, wine and spirits. It’s time to apply that same framework to low-dose THC beverages.”

Why it matters: The federal cap ends sales of intoxicating hemp and many full-spectrum CBD products outside dispensaries, from gas station gummies to the drinks on liquor store shelves.

Hemp farmers have been scaling back and winding down since June, as Cultivated reported. Cheech & Chong’s is launching a THC drink anyway, and its president told me dispensaries are “absolutely not” a fallback for beverages.

What’s left is a turf war over which shelf the drinks sit on. Total Wine wants them in the alcohol system, and says Illinois sales alone top $50 million a year. Hemp groups including the National Hemp Association are pushing for a regulated pathway too. Regulated cannabis is lobbying the other way.

The American Trade Association for Cannabis and Hemp is flying in on Nov. 17 to urge lawmakers in both parties to keep the restrictions in place, and the US Cannabis Roundtable is holding a Hill briefing the same day.

Illinois’ own leaders are on that side, urging Congress to let the federal ban take effect without further delay.

What’s next: The Illinois challenge gets its hearing Nov. 19. Congress has until Dec. 11 to write a regulatory pathway or let the restrictions take effect. Illinois is about to show what the second option looks like.

-JB

“I don’t want to sound ungrateful, because I thank God for the opportunity to participate in the legal cannabis industry through social equity,” Duane Harden, the owner of Massachusetts cannabis delivery company BlazeExpress, told GBH. 

“But on the flip side, the regulations made it almost impossible. It’s like they set us up for failure, you know?”

Harden took advantage of a Massachusetts policy that let social equity entrepreneurs like himself launch cannabis delivery companies, which cost less to start than full retail shops. He says red tape and competition have left his three-year-old business unlikely to survive.

It’s a good warning for states looking to establish social equity programs to learn from past mistakes in places like Massachusetts and New York rather than repeat them.

The DEA sent orders to show cause to medical cannabis businesses in California, Illinois, Delaware, North Dakota, Oregon, and DC, adding to Minnesota and citing state rules that allow dual medical and recreational licenses or sales without a doctor’s written certification. The more than 900 dispensaries it registered last month are all in states without legal recreational sales.

House Republicans elected Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan minority leader and Senate Republicans kept South Dakota Sen. John Thune as conference leader, as the party heads into the minority in both chambers next year. Jordan has voted against cannabis reform 27 times, and Thune signed a 2024 letter urging regulators to keep cannabis in Schedule I, though he voted in August to delay the federal hemp ban.

Watchdog group American Oversight filed records requests for communications involving former White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles that touch on hemp or CBD. Her son-in-law, Bret Worley, runs hemp distributor MC Global, and a former Kennedy adviser has accused Wiles of tipping hemp policy toward her family, including the one-month delay of the federal ban.

Canadian cannabis company MediPharm Labs launched a full-spectrum CBD oil in Brazil with local partner Alko do Brasil, sold by prescription through pharmacies. $LABS.TSX ( ▲ 8.33% )

Canopy Growth CEO Luc Mongeau joined Jay and Jeremy on Cultivated Live to break down the company’s recent quarter and what’s next for European growth and beyond. The company’s iconic Smith’s Falls facility recently received EU-GMP certification.

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