How are THC drinks and edibles legal in Iowa, and how are they different from Marijuana?
The THC market has been growing fast.
Here’s what’s legal, what’s not, and the difference between products.
A growing number of hemp-based products and places to buy them in Iowa over the last year say at least one thing about consumers: more and more, they’re becoming A-OK with THC.
But as the United States continues to muddle through a patchwork of state-by-state cannabis legalization, the emerging hemp-based market generating a new buzz has prompted confusion, too. From THC and CBD to Delta 8 and Delta 9, it can be hard to discern legal products from illegal ones.
Curious Iowa — a series from The Gazette that seeks to answer Iowans’ questions about the state, its culture and the people who live here — talked to law enforcement, retail owners, hemp-based THC product manufacturers and local brewers. We asked them about new products flooding the market, how to stay within the confines of the law and why more are trying a new type of drink to unwind.
What’s the difference between hemp and marijuana?
Hemp plants and marijuana plants are part of the same species. The main difference is the concentration of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive element that gives users a “high.“
Hemp has less than 0.3 percent THC by weight. Cannabis or marijuana, whether sold in states that have legalized it for recreational use or sold under Iowa’s medical cannabis program, has more than 0.3 percent THC.
Hemp, legalized federally in 2018 by the passage of the Farm Bill, opened the door to commercial production and transportation of hemp-based products across state lines. Like cannabis products available in states such as Illinois, Missouri and Minnesota, hemp-based THC products can come in many forms — fruit-flavored seltzer drinks, chocolate bars, caramels or gummy candies.
Most drinks on shelves today offer THC in doses of 5 to 10 milligrams. While hemp is limited by its THC concentration, there’s no limit on the number of milligrams an individual product can be made with.
“That’s the part of the process that makes it legal, not going above that threshold,” said Cameron Merritt, owner of Wild Mind Ales, a hemp-based THC drink manufacturer in Minneapolis. “What that means is you need that much more plant matter to achieve a can (of seltzer.)”
Like cannabis products sold at dispensaries over Iowa’s border, hemp-based THC products generate the same kind of high. But unlike cannabis products from other states, they’re completely legal in Iowa.
Why are THC products growing in Iowa?
Hemp-based THC products became legal across the country in 2018. But it wasn’t until the last several months that products have become available in a rapidly growing number of retail shops, liquor stores, bars and restaurants around the Corridor.
“I don’t think people understood the law from a retailer aspect and a consumer aspect,” said Merritt. “Our biggest thing with these beverages is education.”
His company’s new line of hemp-based THC seltzers, WLD WTR, can be found at a number of popular places that sell alcohol in Linn and Johnson counties. In January, the producer released a new line in collaboration with ReUnion Brewery, joining other Iowa-based breweries like Big Grove in serving a new line of alcohol-free drinks that keep the party going.
When the manufacturer started making Iowa deliveries last summer, their box truck was sufficient to deliver about 3,600 cans of seltzer per week to roughly 75 distribution points around the state. This year, they’ve expanded even more through a wholesale distribution partnership with an Omaha company to keep up with demand.
“It’s really caught on fire for us since early fall,” said Seth Groves, an Iowa-based sales manager for the Minnesota company. “In the last two months, it’s been a free-for-all.”
A bottle of simple syrup, containing Delta 9 THC, is seen at River Bluff Collective in East Dubuque, Illinois, on Feb. 7. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)
As the company pushes education about hemp-based THC products, they’ve noticed a changing trend in target demographics. With THC products now available for purchase through legal and conventional means, manufacturers say the average customer isn’t a stereotypical stoner — it’s a stay-at-home mom, college student or older adult looking for an alternative to alcohol.
With the push against the stigma has come a change in packaging for many products — away from the psychedelic graphics of the counterculture era and toward elegant or minimalist designs that exude the confidence of legality.
“The stigma is that this is kids ripping bongs in your bedrooms and getting crazy like we were taught in the ‘80s and ‘90s — ‘Your brain on drugs,’ ” said Merritt. “The way I look at it, it’s just another type of intoxicant.”
RiverBluff Collective, a manufacturer and retailer in East Dubuque, Illinois, sees a growing trend in Iowa. This spring, the company plans to open its new headquarters in Dubuque’s trending Millwork District, where it hopes to capitalize on the growing popularity of hemp.
Dealing in both traditional cannabis and newer hemp-based THC products, owner Ali Gansemer sees a stronger trajectory for growth with hemp-based THC than with the recreational cannabis market in Illinois.
“Just having an open market and the ability to sell into states that don’t have (legal recreational cannabis) opens the door for bigger expansion,” she said. “Consumers like the ability to go into a store and not have to walk past security guards to purchase very similar products.”
ReUnion brew master Logan DePover, who has seen the cross-generational appeal of its drinks with WLD WTR, said the tide against THC products has started to turn.
“We hope people see adults using this responsibly, like alcohol,” he said. “More and more, people are ready to have THC as another option when they’re trying to unwind. As long as the government doesn’t get in the way to prohibit people from doing that, I don’t see why this market wouldn’t continue to grow.”
How do you tell the difference between legal and illegal products?
Alecea (cq) Lombardi displays two flavors of gummies available at River Bluff Collective in East Dubuque, Illinois, on Feb. 7. The strawberry gummies are formulated for use during the day while the grape-flavored gummies are to be used at nighttime. The shop carries CBD, Delta 8 and Delta 9, and other hemp-derived products including caramels, gummies and chocolate bars as well as a simple syrup used to sweeten a beverage or as an ingredient in a recipe. The company is opening a larger facility with offices, a production kitchen and distribution area across the river in Dubuque. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)
Aside from convenience, legality is one of the biggest benefits for consumers seeking THC from a new world of products. Mike Thorson, owner of Don’t Worry, Be Hempy in Cedar Rapids, said many of his customers have stopped making purchases in Illinois thanks to the new hemp-based products he started stocking about five months ago.
The most common first question is whether it’s legal, he said. The second most common question is whether it will give them a buzz.
“They’re finding the same relief with Delta-9 (hemp) products, and now they’re no longer having to be a criminal seeking remedies to help them,” he said. “That’s the most positive side of it — we’re keeping our own in our own state. We’re stopping them from becoming a criminal.”
But not every hemp-based THC product is legal in Iowa. While edible products are largely unregulated, smoked and vaporized hemp products remain illegal in Iowa, according to Ryan Moore, director of narcotics enforcement for the Iowa Department of Public Safety.
For edible and drinkable products, the line between what is legal and what is illegal relies heavily on package labels. For brownies, candies or chocolate, most are not able to distinguish a hemp-based THC product from a cannabis product transported across state lines.
In recent months, law enforcement has seen a trend with traffickers relabeling products that are illegal in Iowa to disguise them as products that are legal in the state.
“For the enforcement part, we’re in a holding pattern,” Moore said. “Enforcement has been tricky.”
One of the top concerns for the Iowa DPS with legal THC products is minors’ access to it. While many retailers and restaurants have self-regulated themselves to restrict sales to minors, there’s no law saying they have to — unlike alcohol and cigarettes.
How long will it stay legal?
Tabitha Benson drops a strawberry cheesecake caramel containing 25mg of Delta 9 THC into a plastic bag as she packages the edibles at River Bluff Collective in East Dubuque, Illinois, on Feb. 7. The shop carries CBD, Delta 8 and Delta 9, and other hemp-derived products including caramels, gummies and chocolate bars as well as a simple syrup used to sweeten a beverage or as an ingredient in a recipe. The company is opening a larger facility with offices, a production kitchen and distribution area across the river in Dubuque. (Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette)
For most Iowans, hemp products are the only legal access they will have to THC in the foreseeable future. Last week, Iowa lawmakers filed a new raft of bills that seek to regulate them.
House Study Bill 665, advanced by Republican lawmakers on Wednesday, would allow the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to regulate sales and distribution while banning the sale of consumable hemp products to those under 21.
But one of its biggest features, and a major point of contention, was allowing HHS to set a maximum potency limit.
Manufacturers surveyed by The Gazette welcomed certain regulations and noted a positive experience with Iowa’s laws, so far, because of their licensing procedures and specificity in guiding producers. They would like to see age restrictions set for THC products, as well as more guidelines on packaging and dosage.
Gansemer, owner of RiverBluff, said packaging should stop using cartoons and illustrations that appeal to children.
“That’s where we need to get to — stop villainizing it, but put in stop gaps to control it a little bit,” said Groves, with WLD WTR. “A teenager shouldn’t be able to go into your Kum & Go and get this out of the fridge.”
