Stew Leonard’s Wines and Spirits of Norwalk, Danbury and Newington started stocking their shelves with THC beverages in September 2023. The CANN THC tonics pictured above at the Norwalk location come in flavors like lemon lavender, grapefruit rosemary, and blood orange cardamom.
Kalleen Ozanic/Hearst Connecticut Media Group
Connecticut law restricts the sale of cannabis to a small number of licensed, highly regulated stores. Among the products are gummies and cans of infused seltzer, and a single dose of each can contain enough THC to get an adult high.
But that exact same can of seltzer is being sold in liquor stores and markets across Connecticut, none of which are licensed to sell cannabis products. Those stores are selling the cans legally and don’t actually need a license under what multiple people interviewed for this story called a “loophole” that has to do with the listed serving size.
The cans that you buy in a cannabis retail outlet might be 7.5 ounces and are considered one serving, just like a can of soda or iced tea that can be bought at a local gas station. However, the same can of cannabis-infused seltzer, sometimes 7.5 or 12 ounces, is labeled as five servings in a package at a liquor store or market.
The label denoting five servings rather than one is added after production of the cannabis seltzer, rendering it legal to be sold anywhere in the state, provided other elements of the packaging align with state rules.
“You can sell that in a local convenience store. It’s a seltzer. It doesn’t have any alcohol in it. It is a non-alcoholic beverage,” said Larry Cafero, Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of Connecticut executive director. “The manufacturer, in order to get around a Connecticut law, is creating stickers that turns a 12-ounce can that they had initially labeled as one serving into multiple servings, so that they could comply with the THC-per-serving standard.”
“So, we have this little loophole,” said Cafero, the former Republican leader in Connecticut’s House of Representatives.
Department of Consumer Protection spokesperson Kaitlyn Krasselt confirmed that “a package containing less than 1 milligram of THC per serving and less than 5 milligram per package is not considered cannabis, and may be produced and sold without a license.”
The issue that Cafero and others have raised demonstrates the continually evolving nature of Connecticut’s one-year-old cannabis market. The law that allowed THC-infused seltzers to be sold in package stores and convenience stores went into effect in October, and lawmakers say they are considering revisions to that law in the upcoming legislative session, an attempt to close the “loophole” Cafero described.
“This is constantly evolving, and we realized as a committee that we’ve got to get further ahead of this so that’s why this session we’re going to be changing that definition to make it even just a more bright line rule,” said state Rep. Michael D’Agostino, D-Hamden, chairman of the legislature’s general law committee. The legislative session convenes Feb. 7.
The current plan, he said, is to reduce the limit to .5 milligrams of THC per container. Any products containing more THC than that would be only legally sold in licensed cannabis retail outlets and dispensaries.
DCP issued further guidance this past week to liquor stores, clarifying that while THC-infused seltzers are legal to sell, they cannot be labeled as “cannabis.” That includes seltzers labeled as “canna-beverage.” As a result, some liquor stores began removing products from their shelves after receiving the guidance. The guidance followed inquiries made by a CT Insider reporter to DCP about the cannabis-infused seltzers that have been sold in liquor and grocery stores.
“The question is, what is cannabis or not cannabis right now? The products that do not meet the definition, i.e. under 5 milligrams of THC per container, are not cannabis and therefore they’re not subject to the cannabis laws,” D’Agostino said. “But once we change this and lower the threshold, even more of those laws will apply.”
Retailers across Connecticut have been selling these seltzers that contain cannabis legally, but many said they pivoted in the last week when the guidance came out.
“As we understand this very new development, the DCP issued a statement that THC-infused beverages are legal, however the can must have the verbiage ‘THC-infused’ and not use the word ‘cannabis,'” said Blake Leonard, president of Stew Leonard’s Wines & Spirits. “We’ve been advised by the distributors to cover the word ‘cannabis’ on the packaging with a sticker. Stew’s Wines will re-label all THC-infused beverages so that the word ‘cannabis’ is no longer visible as we await newly packaged product from our distributors.”
New York-based Sarene Craft Beer Distributors, which distributes brands including Delta Cannabis Water and Cann said they “were very recently made aware” of the “specific label issues regarding the use of the word ‘cannabis’ among other things.” Co-founder Matthew Schulman said in an email that the company has advised suppliers that “we are no longer selling their products, and are actively communicating and working with them to ensure proper compliance going forward.”
Edward Cooper, vice president for public affairs and community relations at Total Wine & More, which previously stocked cannabis seltzers, said “We are reviewing and responding to the DCP’s recent guidance to the industry and taking immediate steps to ensure that all THC-products sold in our stores comply with that guidance.”
A separate set of regulations
While a sticker changing the serving on the back of can allows retailers across the state to sell a THC-infused seltzer, that same can may be sold without that sticker by licensed cannabis retailers and dispensaries.
Krasselt confirmed that licensed cannabis retailers in Connecticut may legally sell THC-infused beverages that exceed the per-serving standard, but they are not subject to the same regulatory scrutiny as other cannabis products sold by the same retailers. The THC in such beverages has been converted from legal CBD, derived from hemp.
Because it’s been processed from hemp, and because it falls below the statutory limit of 5 milligrams per container or one milligram per serving, it’s not legally considered cannabis and so it is not subject to the same regulations.
Cannabis THC products sold legally by licensed cannabis retailers must be grown, processed and tested in Connecticut. Krasselt confirmed that hemp-derived products — containing THC that has been converted from CBD — may be grown, processed and manufactured elsewhere, and are not subject to the state’s seed-to-sale tracking program. Sales of such products are not tracked by the state.
“I don’t know if we are able to regulate that stuff coming in from out of state other than making sure it’s sold in our regulated stores,” D’Agostino said. “I guess the analogy is, there’s plenty of wine made in Connecticut that we regulate and oversee in Connecticut but you can also buy beer made elsewhere out in Connecticut and that can be a function of legalization of the marketplace.”
Cafero said THC products should be regulated in the same manner that alcoholic beverages are regulated, regardless of how they are made.
“I’m in an industry that is one of the most heavily regulated ever. They tell you where to sell it, who could sell it, to whom you could sell it, what time you could sell it, what you could sell it for, etc, etc., and that’s proper. I was a free market Republican, but that’s proper when you’re talking about an intoxicant. It’s a drug,” he said. “I don’t care whether it’s derived from hemp, oranges, whales, I don’t care what it’s derived from. If you ingest it, and it causes a high that could pose a danger to others in a motor vehicle or in any other way, it should be regulated.”
Among the brands of THC seltzer sold in Connecticut are Cann, Delta Light, Flyers Cocktail Co., Groov, Pamos, Rebel Rabbit and Wynk. The total THC content in those beverages ranges from 2 to 5 milligrams of THC in 7.5- and 12-ounce cans.
THC beverage manufacturer, Wherehouse Beverage Co., which makes the Wynk brand, said in a statement that the company “is committed to leading the way in creating a responsible, trustworthy industry with safe, vetted products.”
In accordance with Connecticut law, Wherehouse said none of its beverages contain more than 5 milligrams of THC in one can.
“Connecticut’s hemp-derived framework allows for no more than 5 milligram g of THC per container – Wynk contains 2.5 milligrams or 5 milligrams of naturally-occurring THC, falling within the guidelines,” the company’s statement said. “Specific cannabis licenses are not required to sell products at or below the limits of ‘high THC products’’ as previously defined.”
The company’s statement said that it complies with “strict safety standards and (works) exclusively with licensed retailers that utilize age-gated safety measures” as it “supports any efforts to create a safer adult use cannabis industry in Connecticut.”
H/T: CTInsider
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