Can bars survive a federal crackdown on THC beverages?
Bar owners like Collin Castore are looking to Nov. 12 with a looming sense of dread.
That’s when a de facto ban on THC-infused beverages takes effect, cutting off Castore and his fellow taverners from a product they hoped would make up for flagging interest in alcohol.
Castore co-owns Seventh Son Brewing in Columbus, Ohio.
The Buckeye State is one of several that outlawed THC drinks ahead of the national ban, although some of those restrictions are tied up in court.
“We have dozens of pallets of drinks just sitting in a warehouse,” Castore told Straight Arrow.
Sales of Seventh Son’s products, which beer enthusiasts can find at Castore’s two Columbus tap rooms along with bars and grocery stores throughout central Ohio, have dipped in recent years.
Drinks infused with THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, help make up for that drop, but the brewery owner now worries he’ll have to make cuts, possibly including layoffs.
“All of us are falling behind,” Castore said.
The hospitality industry is fighting back against a provision in a federal budget bill signed into law late last year, limiting beverage containers to no more than 0.4 mg of THC.
Bar and restaurant owners compare that figure to a speck of dust, and say it effectively bans the THC-infused drinks they hoped would pad their margins at a time when fewer Americans drink alcohol.
The wording of the budget bill “would effectively ban these products,” Bob Galligan, director of government relations for the Minnesota Craft Brewers Guild, told Straight Arrow. “No one would want to buy those products, so no one would make them.”
Why is Congress cracking down on hemp-derived THC drinks?
The federal ban was intended to push back against THC supplements and edibles sold in gas stations and convenience stores, which are derisively referred to as “gas station weed.”
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Those products are blamed in part for an alarming rise in marijuana-related calls to poison control centers, particularly among children.
More than 800 children under 12 were exposed to cannabis in Ohio in 2024, the most recent year for which statistics were available, a 52% increase compared with the previous year according to the Ohio Poison Control Center.
“It will keep these dangerous products out of the hands of children, while preserving the hemp industry for farmers,” Sen. Mitch McConnell said of the budget bill in November, according to NPR.
A McConnell spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
Restaurant and bar owners and the trade organizations that represent them have spent hours talking to lawmakers in state houses and in Washington. They fear their own THC drinks, which are tested and age-restricted, are unfairly lumped in with less reputable products.
Some members of Congress appear to be in their corner. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul in April introduced a bill that would let states regulate hemp-derived products, a category that includes beverages infused with small amounts of THC. But it remains unclear whether a deadlocked Congress can move on the bill before the November deadline.
The 2018 Farm Bill gave states the green light to legalize hemp, which comes from cannabis but contains less than 0.3% THC Delta 9, marijuana’s intoxicating ingredient.
However, the law did not cover other cannabis compounds such as THC Delta 8 and THC Delta 10. Convenience stores across the country pounced on this loophole and started selling vape products, gummies and supplements containing those compounds.
Delta 9 is the most abundant form of THC and is a known intoxicant. Delta 8 and 10 are naturally occurring but rare. The compounds can be synthesized in a lab and their effects are not well-studied.
Calls to poison control centers involving cannabis have skyrocketed since those products first made news in the early 2020s.
The Texas Department of State Health Services recorded 923 marijuana exposures in 2019. That figure has climbed every year since, with 2,660 exposures recorded in 2025. Other states have seen similar increases.
That might not all be due to convenience store THC products. The issue is not well studied, and Ohio’s spike in cannabis exposures also correlates with the state’s legalization of recreational marijuana, for example.
Lawmakers, however, made the connection and moved to restrict all forms of THC.
Why are young adults drinking less alcohol?
Sales of alcohol experienced a noticeable drop after COVID-19 broke out in 2020 and have not recovered.
A Gallup poll last year showed that 54% of U.S. adults said they consume alcohol, the lowest percentage the polling firm has ever recorded.
The hospitality industry was already teetering thanks to Covid-era shutdowns and restrictions. Some fear they may never see pre-Covid profit levels again.
READ MORE: For many Americans, ‘one more round’ no longer serves their lifestyle or budget
That’s where the promise of THC infused beverages came in.
The drinks, popular with young people, created a reliable revenue stream in uncertain times, Castore said.
Young adults are less likely to drink alcohol today compared with just a few years ago. Only 50% of U.S. adults between 18 and 34 told Gallup in 2025 that they drink — the lowest percentage of any age group — compared with 59% in 2023.
“It started out around 10% [of what we sold] moving to more than 20% of what we sold had the laws not pulled it out from under us,” Castore told Straight Arrow.
Can states protect THC drinks from federal restrictions?
Ohio State Sen. Steve Huffman sponsored Ohio Senate Bill 56, which was signed into law earlier this year and restricted the sale of THC products to licensed marijuana dispensaries. He took particular issue with packaging that resembled candy.
“The main emphasis was to get rid of unregulated hemp products,” Huffman told Straight Arrow. “Kids were getting to it.”
The bill carved out an exception for THC beverages sold at businesses with liquor licenses.
“We decided to allow for beverages to be sold in a responsible way,” Huffman said, noting that bars and liquor stores check IDs and breweries are well-regulated.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed the bill but vetoed the carve-out. DeWine’s office declined an interview, but referred to a statement his office released following the signing of Senate Bill 56.
“A carve out to allow the further sale of intoxicating hemp beverages for most of 2026 will create confusion for consumers and a lack of conformity with federal law,” the statement reads.
In his statement, DeWine argued that THC is not analogous to alcohol because its effects are different, meaning a partial veto “is in the public interest.”
A tangled alliance of convenience stores and bars sued the state to overturn the ban. A judge ruled last Tuesday that 10 businesses involved in a lawsuit against the state and their associated entities could sell THC drinks, but the order only created confusion, Huffman said.
“A court can’t really carve out 10 people and say it’s legal for them but it’s illegal for everybody else,” he said.
Galligan told Straight Arrow that he’s met personally with several members of Congress this year.
In an interview, he made it clear that he’s not opposed to regulating THC-infused beverages.
“We’ve been advocating for some kind of regulation of these products since 2023,” Galligan said. But banning the products altogether is not the answer, he said.
Resistance to the ban on THC products started almost immediately after it was added. Lawmakers such as Paul, in Kentucky, expressed concern that they were depriving bars and restaurants of a money maker during uncertain times.
Senators, however, voted overwhelmingly against removing the provision.
What does the THC drink ban mean for local craft breweries?
Seventh Son is tucked away in a mostly residential neighborhood several blocks from the state capital’s bustling downtown. The surrounding community long resisted gentrification until modernity gradually crept in as trendy brew pubs and swanky coffee shops sprouted between decades-old single family homes and neighborhood watering holes in the 2010s.
The brewery is a popular hangout for millennial beer snobs and downtown workers on the hunt for an after-work happy hour.
Thirsty patrons uninterested in alcohol gravitated toward the bar’s THC-infused beverages in recent years, but Castore now worries that dependable cash flow is in doubt.
“It’s a significant amount of revenue,” Castore said of the loss of THC drinks. “And the margins for smaller breweries are razor thin.”
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
