Congress keeps postponing a hemp ban that would kill the THC drink industry. Postponing again. And again. The federal government has decided the best way to regulate intoxicating beverages is to threaten an entire industry with extinction every few months while never actually pulling the trigger. Bold strategy.
THC drinks are booming because people want to get high without smelling like a college dorm or drinking themselves into calling their ex at 2 AM. The market found a legal loophole in the 2018 Farm Bill that lets companies sell delta-8 and delta-9 THC derived from hemp. Not marijuana. Hemp. Different plant. Same high. The distinction matters to lawyers and no one else.
Now Congress wants to close the loophole but can't agree on when or how. So they delay. Then delay again. Every delay sends manufacturers into panic mode because you can't build a beverage company when your product might be federally banned next Tuesday. Distributors won't stock your shelves. Investors won't fund your production. Consumers start hoarding cases like it's toilet paper in March 2020.
The crackdown would hurt makers and distributors, sure. But the real victims are the people who discovered they could buy a mild high at 7-Eleven instead of figuring out which of their coworkers sells edibles. These are the same people who panic-sold GameStop at $40 after buying at $380. They finally found a legal way to cope with their losses and Congress wants to take it away.
Retail traders have already lost everything on meme stocks, SPACs, and whatever the f*ck a Solana is. Now they can't even enjoy a THC seltzer while watching their portfolio bleed out in real time. The chart was supposed to go up. It did not go up. At least the drink made the loss feel smaller.
Congress will delay the ban again next quarter because doing nothing is the only thing Congress does efficiently.
Photo by Elsa Olofsson on Unsplash
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