A white beverage delivery truck with one roll-up bay open and stacked cases of cans, parked in a dawn alley past a small shop's closed back door and an empty hand truck

Big Liquor Is Lobbying on Your Hemp Drinks. Here Are the Filings.

That hemp seltzer in your fridge has 53 days left. On December 11, federal law caps hemp products at 0.4 milligrams of total THC per container, and that's less than a tenth of the 5 milligrams per serving one House bill would allow.

Some of the loudest money trying to change that isn't coming from hemp at all. It's coming from the alcohol business.

We pulled the filings. Here's what they show, what the alcohol industry is asking for, and what it could mean for the shop where you buy your drinks.

What the lobbying filings show

Total Wine & More, the national wine and spirits chain, has one issue on its federal lobbying reports this year. Its third-quarter disclosure, signed October 7, lists it plainly: "Regulation of Low Dose Hemp Derived Beverages."

According to The Marijuana Herald, which tallied the reports, the company spent $140,000 in the first quarter, $180,000 in the second and $190,000 in the third. That's $510,000 this year on hemp drinks alone, aimed at the House, the Senate and the White House.

Total Wine isn't the only one. On October 16, the National Beer Wholesalers Association filed a report through its lobbying firm, EB Consulting, that names both House hemp bills for the first time: H.R. 9830, the Lawful Hemp Protection Act, and H.R. 10079, the Beverage Regulatory Parity Act. The Herald reports that the wholesalers say they're neutral on specific bills but want THC drinks held to at least the same standards as alcohol.

When Representatives Beth Van Duyne and Greg Landsman introduced H.R. 10079 on August 10, the supporter list read like an alcohol trade show: Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America, American Beverage Licensees, the Beverage Alcohol Merchants Coalition, Texas package stores, Spec's and Total Wine. Hemp groups were on it too, including the Hemp Beverage Alliance.

The good news: they want your drinks regulated, not banned

Let's be fair about this. Nobody in these filings is pushing a ban. Total Wine's own statement says H.R. 10079 "brings low-dose hemp-infused beverages into the same three-tier system that has safely regulated beer, wine, and spirits for decades."

That matters. For a year, the loudest voices in this fight have wanted hemp gone. Now some of the biggest names in American beverage retail are telling Congress the opposite: these drinks have customers, they can be sold responsibly, and they belong on a legal shelf.

Both bills also get a lot right. They set the age at 21. They require testing and real labels. H.R. 9830 requires every product to be tested by an ISO 17025 accredited lab, with a QR code to the certificate of analysis, and it shuts out lab-made cannabinoids like HHC and THCP. That's close to what we've asked for from the start.

The catch: who gets to sell them

Here's the part worth reading twice. Both bills would put hemp drinks into a three-tier system, the same setup used for beer and liquor.

Under H.R. 10079, a drink maker can sell only to a licensed wholesaler. A retailer can buy only from a wholesaler, "but not from a manufacturer." And "no person may hold any interest, directly or indirectly, in more than one tier." H.R. 9830 tells the Treasury to build the same system, with the same one-tier ownership rule.

Under H.R. 10079, federal oversight of drinks would move to the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, the agency that regulates beer, wine and spirits. Drinks could carry up to 5 milligrams of THC per 12-ounce serving.

For a liquor store, that's business as usual. For a hemp shop, it's a new world:

The small brand that drives cases to local shops would need a wholesaler to carry it first.
A company that makes its own drinks couldn't also own the shop that sells them.
Wholesalers would decide which brands are worth the truck space.

None of that is a ban. It's a gate. And gates tend to favor the companies that already own the road.

Why the alcohol business wants in

You don't need a theory here. Read the filings and the press release. The alcohol industry sees hemp drinks as a beverage category, wants them regulated like one, and has an existing system ready to handle them. The beer wholesalers' report also lists state alcohol control, the 21st Amendment and funding for the TTB among its issues. This is their lane, and they're defending it.

That's a reasonable thing for a trade group to do. It's also a reminder that the people writing these rules have their own customers. Farmers, small brands and independent shops need to be in the same room.

What we want instead

Our position hasn't changed. Regulate the real plant. Ban the fake stuff. Sell to adults 21 and up, test every batch and label it honestly.

If Congress uses an alcohol-style system for drinks, we want room built in for the businesses that created this market: a path for small producers to reach shelves without a middleman they can't afford, and a way for local hemp shops to keep selling the drinks their customers already buy. A framework that protects consumers and wipes out the corner shop isn't a fix. It's a takeover with better paperwork.

Right now, nothing passed by Congress replaces the December 11 cap with a real framework. That leaves a short window to get one passed, and a shorter one to make sure it's fair.

Tell your members of Congress to regulate hemp, with room for local shops. It takes two minutes: take action here. Regulate it. Don't eliminate it.

Sources

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