In the beer and wine section of Fareway, between the cases of Busch Light and White Claw, you can find a range of nonalcoholic beverage brands, all local. There’s Climbing Kites, a zero-calorie, zero-sugar citrusy sparkling water reminiscent of La Croix or Topo Chico (although they’ve rolled out two, more indulgent “Kitetail” Infusions: a caffeinated, noncarbonated iced tea lemonade and Transfusion, a version of the grape juice and ginger beer cocktail popular on golf courses).
Another brand is Day Dreamer, mixed and canned at Field Day Brewing in North Liberty. These sparkling waters come in Lemon Ginger, Blueberry Lavender, Raspberry Hibiscus — the kind of flavors that make kombucha and other tea-based drinks so fresh and comforting.
Then there’s The Happy Can, an Urbandale company offering root beer, grape soda and Citrus Haze, a Mountain Dew-esque pop. Prefer your drink as sweet as candy? Harvest Time Lemonade made by Clinton’s Great Revivalist Brewery and Bluff Pop, a partnership between Dubuque’s 7Hill Brewing and East Dubuque’s Riverbluff Collective, will make you feel like a kid rewarded with a can of Minute Maid or Hawaiian Punch.
Of course, none of these drinks are for kids. Each 12 ounce can contains 4 milligrams of THC, the naturally occurring chemical in cannabis that gets people high. A seasoned stoner may not notice, but the average adult will feel a light buzz within about 15 minutes of drinking.
“We’re not in the industry for people to get obliterated,” said Ashley Hartman, chief strategy officer of The Happy Can. “We’re in it to just provide a little bit of a leap to make them happy. And we believe that this is a great alternative to alcohol.”
This new beverage market has been bubbling in Iowa since spring 2023, but the products have been in development far longer. Climbing Kites brand manager Nick Iversen said their partners at Lua Brewing and Big Grove aren’t looking to please weed aficionados, but serve “as a runway for people to get into the THC space for the first time.”
“Alcohol consumption is down, non-alcoholic consumption is up in a very exponential way. And in between those two spaces, cannabis-infused beverages fit nicely,” Iversen said. “It is not frequent cannabis users that are purchasing and consuming this stuff. It’s your regular everyday mom or dad, business professional, yoga mom, soccer mom, golfing dad.”
One thing all those moms and dads probably wonder: How is this legal?
In the beginning, there was the 2018 Farm Bill. Among its many, many provisions, this federal law removed hemp from the controlled substances list. Hemp is legally defined as a cannabis plant that contains 0.3 percent or less THC (tetrahydrocannabinol). Any more THC, and it’s classified as “marijuana.”
Hemp may not be as dank as its cousin, but the THC extracted from it is scientifically identical to marijuana’s. Most is delta-9, the best-studied form of THC. Before long, entrepreneurial beverage makers, especially in the Midwest, began adding delta-9 THC emulsions to flavored drinks.
“Cannabis beverages are the fastest growing beverage category of all time, according to the limited data that can be collected at this point in time,” Iversen said.
“It’s kind of trickled out from the Midwest,” added Joe Selix, co-founder of Field Day Brewing and Day Dreamer. “And now you’ve got people all over the country that are making these hemp-derived THC beverages, and we think they’re great. We opened in August last year, and we almost immediately started looking at producing THC beverages.”
The 2018 Farm Bill left hemp — and hemp-derived THC — federally unregulated, allowing states to decide its fate. For the 10 states in which recreational cannabis was legal (now 25 states and D.C.), the hemp industry slotted snuggly into existing regulations. Iowa, on the other hand, had much catching up to do.
The staunchly anti-pot Republicans in the statehouse scrambled to pass a hemp bill in 2019, setting a potency limit of 0.3 percent THC by weight, per serving. According to Rep. Steve Holt, the bill’s sponsor, lawmakers didn’t realize the THC could be scaled with water, chocolate, sugar and other heavy ingredients to create high-inducing over-the-counter products.
“It is the Wild West in Iowa thanks to the loopholes we did not know we created, and the careless federal law that was passed,” Holt wrote in a March column for the Iowa Standard, in which he calls THC a “gateway to destruction” and misleadingly links marijuana to homelessness, mental illness and teen suicide.
“It is unfortunate that federal hemp laws prevent us from prohibiting THC altogether,” he added.
The new hemp bill Holt introduced, SF 2417 — which passed and went into effect in July — sets many common-sense rules: 21+ to buy, clear labeling, no synthetic THC or mixing with alcohol. Iowa’s cannabis beverage companies were already abiding by these standards, and were happy to see them codified.
“This wasn’t a loophole,” Selix said. “This was a good thing that was created. From the very beginning, we’ve been advocates for rules and regulations. … We have had zero instances of anything negative happening [from] our products, and we haven’t heard of anything in the cannabis beverage space at all. So they’re safe, they’re tested, they’re regulated.”
SF 2417 also bans smoke and vape products, sets a 25 percent tax on cannabis beverages purchased at bars and restaurants (but not at stores), and caps THC levels at 4 mg per 12 oz container.
It was that last provision that caused Iowa’s fledgling but sure-footed cannabis drink-makers to bristle. As they understood it, and thought lawmakers did too, 4 mg is an appropriate limit per serving, not per container. Their 10 mg THC drinks had 2.5 servings per can, and had proven more popular with customers than the 7 mg and 4 mg varieties.
Hartman said paranoia about “dangerous products,” as Gov. Kim Reynolds described them after signing SF 2417, isn’t coming from consumers. “It’s really a legislator push. And that’s where I just wish I knew and understood where and why their push was happening. Is it money?”
“Cannabis has been a sore subject for so many years, and there’s been a stigma,” she continued. “And I think that if we can professionalize the industry and show people that we’re in it for the right reasons, we can see movement forward.”
In June, Climbing Kites and Day Dreamer teamed up to sue the state, arguing the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services’ interpretation of the new law was incorrect and would likely force the companies to relocate their business out of state. A federal judge refused to block enforcement, and the beverage companies decided to drop the lawsuit and comply with the new standard. They proceeded with the expensive task of eliminating their bestselling 10 mg THC products from stock.
“There is an alternative [universe] where we didn’t have these things at all,” Selix said. “That was pretty scary.”
Kites, Dreamer and Happy Can all say they have no intentions of leaving Iowa. And since cans are heavy to ship, they’re not even all that interested in distributing out of state, apart from unloading their 10 mg stock where it can be legally sold.
“We wanted to continue our business here in Iowa, since it is the hub and catalyst of our business,” Iversen said. Cannabis-infused beverages are pricey to make and to buy (typically $20 a four-pack). The fact Iowans are readily willing to pay it, even after the 4 mg THC cap, indicates they’re as enthusiastic about this new breed of beverage as the brands themselves, he explained.
Each brand has its own colorful can design, meticulously tested flavors and niche within the market. And they all seem to agree: rising tides lift all boats.
“At the end of the day, we’re all at the Capitol together,” Hartman said. “We’ve got to keep coming back every year and fighting for it.”
Minnesota is the best model for a cannabis-friendly state, according to Selix. When recreational marijuana became legal there in August 2023, the hemp-derived market was already thriving. Today, cannabis beverages have their own sold-out tasting festivals in the Twin Cities, and have contributed to more than $10 million in tax revenue in the first year.
“They have such tight regulations and monitoring of it. And there’s some really innovative companies out there making really cool stuff,” Selix said. “I think every state should look at what Minnesota has done. They’re onto something. They’ve done it right.”
The Gopher State set the THC limit on beverages to 10 mg a container. Selix said there are “rumblings” within the industry that federal regulations may advance in the near future, making 10 mg the standard across the country — and giving Iowans their favorite potency back.
“We really want the federal government to say, ‘This is what we want out of these products,’” Selix said. “That would be kind of a dream scenario for us.”
For now, it’s enough to have broken the glass ceiling of Fareway’s refrigerator section.
This article was originally published in Little Village’s October 2024 issue.
