Arsenic Culture

The Nationwide THC Drink Ban Explained: What’s Really Going On | Ep. 154

• Arsenic Culture • Season 4 • Episode 154

Share episode

Congress is pushing a nationwide ban on hemp-derived THC beverages, and the ripple effects are massive, especially in Kentucky where a huge chunk of America’s hemp is grown and processed. Matt and Jason break down what the federal bill actually does, why THC seltzers suddenly became a target, and how the same politicians who legalized hemp in 2018 are now scrambling to shut down the industry they created.

We dig into cannabinoids, legal loopholes, federal overreach, small-business chaos, and why a 5 mg THC drink somehow became a national priority. It’s messy, it’s political, and it’s hitting the entire country at once. And of course, we dissect all of it with the signature Arsenic Culture sarcasm.


#thcdrinks #hempseltzer #cannabisnews

https://www.youtube.com/@arsenicculture
https://instagram.com/arsenicculture
https://tiktok.com/@arsenicculture
https://www.facebook.com/arsenicculture/
https://x.com/arsenicculture

Speaker:

When the US government ended the shutdown, a bill was introduced during that process that essentially banned all THC beverages and related products, period.

Speaker 2:

Welcome back

Speaker:

to Arsenic Culture. I am your host Matt. With me as usual, I got Jason"I Love Stoops" Hale joining us. The biggest, uh, biggest, uh, stoops fan that we have in the state of Kentucky. Uhhuh, yeah. Pushing for him to win every single game so he can remain our coach for the next 20 years. We appreciate all the service you do for us, man. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like, it's like the kid in class where you failed every test up to this point. You make a so like, oh hell,

Speaker 2:

I should get an A

Speaker:

in the class. I know. Yeah. Yeah, but not that, but not that gress. Yeah. Uh, I'm sure he'll never see this anyway, so close. Get out if he doesn't, I don't really care. Anyway, uh, yeah, we're, uh, we're on the road again. We, he just left, um, Chicago hanging out with our buddy Nick, going to prop day over at Goose Island and had a good time. And, um, we were just having a discussion here, um, about something that happened recently. Thought, Hey, maybe let's throw these cameras on. Um, and, and record this real, real quick.'cause this is interesting. Um, and this has I think, major implications for a lot of businesses. There was a new bill. It was a bill, right? Yep. When the US government, um, ended the shutdown, uh, a bill was introduced during that process that essentially banned all THC beverages. And related products, period. Yeah. Correct. That's my understanding of it. I mean, you look at that too. The

Speaker 3:

implications for Kentucky are massive. Right. It's huge. We've got, I think everybody here knows about cornbread, hemp. I mean, that's a big, it's a big name right now. Right.

Speaker 4:

They made big expansions, so they started out with, I think like CBD, gummies, things like

Speaker 3:

that. Yeah.

Speaker 4:

For sleep. Then you have some of the, the

Speaker:

delta nine, Delta eight, whatever. Hell Delta they're on. Yeah. But, uh, there are multiple deltas. Yeah. The seltzers now. Um, and if you go in like Liquor Barn or Total Wine, so our

Speaker 3:

big box stores, they have started out with an end cap. You know, you can see that. Yeah. And it's expanded into right now at Liquor Barn on the other

Speaker:

side of town in Lexington. It's probably at least

Speaker 4:

90% of one

Speaker:

row now. Yeah. At least I think like four, four full like sections Is there even more. Yeah, that's, it's. A profound impact on this. So here's how, here's what I understand so far. And we did an episode where we were talking about, um, THC beverages, and we had, uh, a lot of comments, actually a lot of interaction on that one and how it's grown really fast. And we discussed that. It's not like from a, um, I guess from a, an alcohol perspective, from like the industry perspective, a lot of people were afraid of, uh, THC seltzers, cannibalizing. Um, alcohol based beverages like beer, your wine, spirits, whatever. So I think there's been a lot of lobbying from that sector to kind of, um, squash or or to limit the THC sector. You and I both agreed that I don't think there's, there's gonna be a lot of crossover there. No, I don't. I think, I think what you've seen with this bill going through,

Speaker 3:

or, uh, who's pushed it is, is bourbon too, right? Right. Yeah. I think what they're seeing is our sales are declining. Yeah. So they blame terrorists. They might have something. Yeah. Don't care about politics at all. Yeah. But terrorists would definitely

Speaker:

have some impact. Yeah. But it was already declining before that. It was. It was on its way down. Yeah. Then they also jumped on like, Hey, this is THC Seltzer taking away market share. I don't think its, no, maybe it's 1%. You know what I mean? And it feel it's negligent. I agree. It feels, it almost feels like a reach. It's, it almost is like flailing. It's like we're hemorrhaging, um, profits. We need to figure out how we can stop the bleeding. Let's just start affecting as many things as possible. Just to have an effect. And THC might have a niggling effect on the actual sales of, of bourbon. Let's just talk about specifically about bourbon. Sure. But I don't think it's substantial enough to warrant, you know, lobbying against the entire industry. I think, I think if you had to pick one, I mean, I think it has more of an effect

Speaker 4:

on beer. Right? So they're both canned, right?

Speaker:

I think

Speaker 4:

of it that way. Or like a white collar. I could see people maybe, right. Like a keeling or an outdoor event. Yeah. Maybe grab one of those, like the THC seltzers versus a,

Speaker 3:

you know. Alcoholic drink. Maybe they're thinking less hangover, those type of things. Yeah. But if you're drinking bourbon, like you're

Speaker:

drinking a bottle of bourbon, you're drinking a pour, you're not Yeah. I'm not drinking a beer, I'm drinking a bourbon. Yeah. So it's a totally different thing. And it's a different type of, uh, high, it's a different type of effect. A different effect too. Yeah. It, it, it's like you drink a couple of THC. Cans and honestly, you're ready for a nap, you know? But like the, the thing with alcohol, it's, it's, it's a much more, it's, it's, it has a much more social aspect to it than THC does. Um, now again, I don't go out and I'm not buying THC seltzers at the bar. I don't know if people are, I don't know that you can anymore. We're speaking of that. So what, the local breweries at Lexi, right? Yeah. They used to have a little cooler there where you could buy THC seltzers. I'd see people having them there on site. Oh, interesting. Okay. Last time I went, I know exactly what you're talking about. They

Speaker 4:

signed up and said, these are for offsite

Speaker:

consumption only. Like, huh.

Speaker 4:

I guess there's

Speaker 2:

a law, maybe something about

Speaker:

it. Maybe somebody's cracked down on it. I had not heard that, but it very well, it very well could be. So here's what I, here's what I understand about the actual bill that's being passed. Um, up until now, uh, hemp is classified. Do you know what hemp is? I mean, yeah. It's mar it's, it's, it's marijuana. Yeah. It's a marijuana plant for all intents and purposes. It's literally the same plant as marijuana. The only, you have like the buds, right? Well, yeah. The only, the only differentiating factor on paper is that hemp has lower THC than marijuana does, and I think it's 0.3 milligrams per dry ounce or something like that. Um, but it's, it Hemp is a marijuana plant that is. Physically bred to have lower THC content. Um, they can still use that stuff to produce CBD, but the idea was, uh, hemp, especially hundreds of years ago, uh, during, during like wartime efforts and stuff, I think during World War ii, which wasn't a hundred years ago, there was a big push in hemp to create like fiber for like rope and stuff like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Stuff like that. After that, uh, hemp industry was essentially shuttered because they didn't need it anymore. Um, and then, uh, there was a widespread, uh, bill that passed, I think in, was it like the early two thousands, or no? Seventies? I think it was seventies, to where they essentially outlied. Outlawed marijuana and just threw hemp in with that.'cause it was essentially marijuana and there wasn't enough support to, to keep hemp going. Right. Yeah. Um, fast forward to like the two thousands and there was a lot of buzz that you could, that hemp was good for other things other than. Fucking rope, you know, let's be honest. And, um, a lot of that hemp is producing, manufactured in Kentucky. So Mitch McConnell, uh, did a strong push, I think it was, was it 2018? So he passed the bill to differentiate on paper hemp from marijuana so producers could grow produce. Sell hemp and make money, um, and use it for like, in like, um, like infrastructure and goods and stuff like that. Going back to like the rope and textiles and stuff like that. I think CBD was a big part of that too. Right. So CBD was lot of like pain control things. Yes. Holistic medicine a little more. Yes. But people with like arthritis, stuff like that, I mean, they're big into their CBD creams that really work for these people. And again, there is some benefit to that. I mean, I've seen it with, with people I know. Well, what I think, well, so what happened after Mitch McConnell made this push to Illegalize Hemp is that hemp production was a. Through the roof and CBD production was through the roof because everybody was flooding the market. Hey, it's a new industry, new product, we can make a lot of money. It ended up becoming so saturated that as everybody knows in the past five years, you can go to any gas station and find CBD ointments, you know, and it becomes so ubiquitous that it, the market saturated and then all of a sudden all these hemp manufacturers, they can't. Make money like they're intended to make money so all of a sudden they're screwed again. Um, come to find out some enterprising people realized that you could take the CBD in hemp, go through, uh, a short catalyst period or some sort of change, and you could essentially turn it into THC. Yeah. And you could get high off it NCA or something like that. Yeah. So there's like delta eight, there's delta 10. There's different variations on. This THC that quote unquote don't fall under fall under the definition, definition of actual marijuana. So they seized on a loophole in the system to be able to continue to ma uh, manufacture hemp and then use it to make legal weed Yep. And get high off it. Since that loophole, it has existed over the past few years or whatever, uh, the market again has really been saturated with a lot of products that you can get high off of. And this is where THC seltzers come from. What hemp MA manufacturers found out is that they can make a whole lot of money off this, where they weren't making money before we re, we created an entire industry, and that's what we'll call it, THC seltzers. But there's gummies and there's all kinds of things that you can do, but we'll just say for the sake of argument, we're talking THC seltzers here. I think it's a big thing. You talked about money there, so I think that might be the push with alcohol coming after them too, right?

Speaker 4:

Yeah. Bourbon. So what they're taxed at the normal tax rate in Kentucky, which is 6%.

Speaker 3:

Right?

Speaker 4:

That's what C, B, D and those products are. They're

Speaker 3:

6%. Like those, those THC seltzers we're talking about? Yeah, or the whatever Delta, something seltzers. Sure. Those are 6% regular. So if you go in the store though, you have like the alcohol tax, right? So you have that on top. Yes. So I think that's what they're saying too, is it's

Speaker:

not a level playing field. Yeah.

Speaker 4:

If they're considering them the same product that we are, you're only buying.

Speaker:

Those in mainly like liquor stores. Sure. So that's where they're coming from. That's from the government perspective. Yeah, but I mean, I think the big, the big business,

Speaker 3:

right? So bourbon. Okay. Yeah, they're, they're like, well, hell, we're not getting taxed like they are. Yeah. We're getting taxed a lot more, but they're making a lot more money than us. And if you look Oh, yeah. At prices, when you go in store, you'll see four packs of these THC seltzers. They're like 20 something bucks. Yeah. So I mean, you're five, $6 a can, like a, I think of make. Right. Yeah. Oh yeah. But if you look at like beer, I mean, they're looking at like 16 bucks for a four pack of 16 ouncers. Yeah. 16 or 18. Oh yeah. And

Speaker 4:

that's got the tax

Speaker:

built in essentially. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. That's profit margin more on the thc. Sure. Yeah. But it's still, um, you look at these, these companies, uh, well you talk like cornbread, hemp, um, there's some other brands I got. Has one? Well, the breweries has one. Do they really? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Um, there's a lot of brands you can find on the shelves, but this industry is, it started to boom really fast and there was a lot of talk that it's gonna be a really huge surging market in the next few years. We did talk about in the past, I don't think it was gonna take off quite as much as people thought they were, but lo and behold, now this new law has passed. Um, I think it was, uh, there was like a representative out of Oklahoma that started it, but Mitch McConnell again. Was a strong push in, in putting it in this new bill. Ironically, since he's the one that helped fund or helped push through the bill. Yeah. To make hemp legal. Now they're saying that all these variations, Delta eight, delta 10, THCA, everything that was created as uh, a variation of actual THC now are included in the description of marijuana, which means, um. If you have any sort of marijuana derivative that is greater than 0.3 perc Yeah. Or 0.3% THC per ounce or whatever the definition is. Um, it's, it's illegal. So especially you would make all those products right, because you have to take across the market. Yeah.'cause one can, could any be anywhere five milligrams to 10 milligrams. The lowest I've seen is two and a half. I've seen. Yeah, I've seen two. The highest I think I've seen is 10 I've, that's exactly what I've seen. There's nowhere near. This is saying if you do that, it has to be less than 0.3% for the entire can, which is so negligible. It's pointless. Yeah. So that's how it's ineffective, like banning it. So I think they did give what they say once it goes into effect, they have a year. Yeah. So it's basically a year from now. Yeah. And they're doing that to give businesses a chance to figure out how to Sure. Shut down. Yeah. Because that's what it is, right. That you brought into Kentucky for jobs and all these things is now essentially gonna be noll and void.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. And do have Rand Paul out of like, uh, I think Western Kentucky's where he's at. Yeah. He's actually been a pretty

Speaker:

big, pretty big voice Yeah. Going against this. Yeah. Which is

Speaker 3:

crazy.'cause I think they're

Speaker:

both Republicans. They are. They are. Yeah. Ram Ram Paul's kind of a wild car. Like he's, he's got some weirder opinions. I don't trust any politicians. I agree. Besides the point.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I think, I think it's kind of weird. At least he's trying to take up, in my opinion, what

Speaker:

I've seen take up for Kentucky, take up for those jobs because Right, you know, our state, but we can't really afford to lose any jobs. So the hemp market as it stands is Mitch McConnell passed that hemp bill in 2018 and he's trying to, uh, uh, create the marketing in, in a boon for Kentucky to have. Money, more revenue coming in. That's what he is doing with the hemp bill. But the thing is like nobody was really buying hemp for hemp anyway. Yeah. It was the only way they were making money was CCB D bracelets every now and then, right? Yeah. That's not, I mean, for industrial purposes, nobody's actually using it because there's cheaper alternatives that are more efficient. So CBD came along, okay, this is good. Became saturated. Hemp hemp producers are screwed even though it's legal. Ch HC comes along, holy hell. Like we can finally make money. And now it's getting shut down again. Uh, I think what we're seeing is that hemp is obsolete. Like the whole point of it is, uh, well there is no point now, like it's not gonna be able to use, be used for anything. Yeah. We're not buying shirts. We don't need the shirts don't need the pants. I mean, if you did, if you buy a t-shirt, let's say that's regular made of what? Cotton or whatever, right?

Speaker 3:

Probably 20. 25 bucks, the hemp version

Speaker:

might be 50 just because it's, you know, we can get the cotton cheaper. Exactly. And even the other uses, I, I think they, they say you can use it for biodegradable plastic, which is great, but again, it's too expensive. We don't have, we, yeah, we don't have the established infrastructure in order to mitigate the cost. Uh, same thing with rope. Like you can just use like nylon and it's, it's so much cheaper, so nobody's actually buying hemp. So what we're in effect doing is we're destroying the hemp industry. We might as well, we might as well just say. WW hemp is pointless. Now that's, that's, that's what we're doing. So not only are we killing that industry, we're killing the industry of the THC shelters, which we just created. Um, so what, what benefit are we getting out of passing this bill? It's a question. I don't know.

Speaker 4:

I think what they're, we're selling this bill on is to

Speaker:

keep people safe with your eyes. They're saying unregulated, which I guess it is, because it very much is, it's not under the, the, the alcohol board. No. Whatever the No, no, no. You know what I mean? Yeah. So that. That's part of it. I guess there's some

Speaker 3:

of these things, I mean, they have vapes, they have, you know, edibles, all these things, and some of those have that psychoactive effect, right? They do. Like marijuana does. So I think that's what they're getting onto. It's again, people that kind of pushing that, but I've not heard, I've not heard.

Speaker:

The news stories I've not seen in person. I don't know of anybody like overdosing or getting, you know, high and committing crowds. I, I haven't either, but I got, I got two things to say. So, one, I think this was a matter of time you consider, uh, Mitch McConnell specifically who's behind it. Um. The dude's been pushing this, he's been pushing, I guess, his own values in his agenda forever. So I think it, it was a matter of time before he was like, oh no, we don't want kids smoking the devil's lettuce because they're all gonna get addicted and, and die from ha uh, from, uh, overdosing on marijuana. Right? I mean, that's, that's been the push behind marijuana in the first place, which. Just watch Reef for Madness. Yeah. Which we all know is ridiculous. So the fact that we're still pushing that narrative is kind of insane, but it's because we're listening to a 80, 88-year-old dude that was born a different generation. Depends. I mean, I think it's just, it's not him. We're using his name because that's who's behind it right now. Right. It's politicians in our system and

Speaker 3:

it's a long story, but I mean the lobbyist, right? So you have buddy coming. You funding these things and pushing your views and trying to change your views. And if you got the bourbon industry, which is huge in Kentucky, you got the beer industry too. Yeah. You

Speaker 4:

got all these things

Speaker 3:

pushing against you. Yeah. Um, things are gonna move probably that's where we're at. So I'm interested to see,

Speaker:

um, where it goes from here. I know you have one more thing, but

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker:

I'm thinking ahead. Like, I've not heard one thing that I know of from these companies that had the tac seltzers. You, you mean like the response? No, no. Well, this happened very, very recently, so. I, a lot of these companies have to be scrambling. Oh yeah. Like, what do we do with all the millions of dollars we've invested in this business? Now we're gonna have to shut our doors. Um, but that kind of brings to the second point as far as like the effects and the reaction from the public. Because we had talked about, uh, I came back from Europe and the way they handled vice over there, especially in places like Amsterdam where wheat is legal, um, you treat. Substance or you treat, I'm sorry. People as being able to, adults responsible. Yeah. To kind of like, you know, learn and adapt for themselves and eventually they become acclimated to the point to where something that is bad for them, they're not intrinsically going to just abuse it and kill themselves. They get, they understand alcohol is literally the perfect example because it's legal. And it can kill you. Yeah. You know, people die from, uh, alcohol abuse all the time, you know, and there's a lot of people that are addicted to it. It's still legal, you know, but we still, we treat marijuana. Like it is worse for you. Yeah. Right. I think we do. And then you look at people, places like Europe, where. The drinking age is 16. In some areas, weed is legal and everybody is like healthier over there than they are over here and everybody's fine. Once you take vice and you make it, you can, obviously you need to regulate it to a degree. Sure. But you make it. Available to where people can get used to it, they become desensitized and it's not something I'd be afraid of. A, a new industry like the THC Seltzers that comes out. Yeah. There's gonna be a push for everybody to quote unquote abuse it as it were not as in, oh, we're just gonna chug THC seltzers until we go to the hospital. But people are trying to get used to it and trying to figure it out, you know? But once that kind of luster wears off, it'll just fall into the mainstream line like anything else. This is my opinion, but I think that's. Exactly what they've done over in Europe and they were able to achieve, which is they have all those things linked over there, but they've also banned high fructose corn syrup. Yeah. Additives, artificial flavors. They're probably worse for you than those things. It is, yeah. And a lot of that leads to a lot of other issues like ob, ob, obesity, and like increased cancer rates, like increased healthcare risk. We, yeah. And then that leads to like a horrible, like insurance com. Uh um. Infrastructure, you know, for health insurance. Uh, yeah. I mean, that's something we need to really be talking about, not is, you know, 16-year-old Jimmy gonna find, buy a weed gummy at a gas station and end up taking a longer nap than he needs to. I don't think 16-year-old Jimmy is, he gotta be 18 or 21. Well, it's still, I don't know. I, I, yeah, either way. I mean, it's, we're splitting hairs on something that I think needs, we need a, a new generation of people to look at this with fresh eyes. I think it's a common sense

Speaker 3:

aspect to me. Yeah. Like, you know. Weigh the pros and cons of that. Yeah. In my eyes, I don't really

Speaker:

see what you're doing. Yeah. It doesn't make

Speaker 4:

any

Speaker 3:

sense.

Speaker:

So yeah. I, I don't know, hot topic. Hot topics for sure. I, I agree. I think the, the introduction of this is gonna do overall just a lot more harm than good. I would've liked to them, have them actually introduce language into the bill that formalize it as an industry rather than just say you can't do it. Yep. Um, that feels very shortsighted to me, but I think this is driven by an agenda that is not looking at the actual, um, wellbeing of the nation. That's right. Yeah. It's not taking it hard, so we've not also not heard from the people that really rely on those products. Right. Yeah. So for medical issues, instead of taking pain pills Yeah. Or taking that. I mean, that's a big, that's a big deal too. Yeah. So, I don't know. I, I would really like to hear what people think. Not off in the comments. Um, we had a lot of, uh, banter in our, in the, in the last video we did. So I wanted to hear what people say about this. Within a year. It's either gonna be THC seltzers and their, you know, counter or their. Gummies and all that stuff are gonna be completely gone. Or maybe somebody like Rand Paul's gonna come in and, and maybe do some change to where they can formalize it as an industry. But we've got a lot of businesses that are probably getting ready to shut their doors and a lot of the entire industry's just gonna be completely gone. So let us know what you all think. I'd like to see. I wanna see how this plays out. It's very interesting. But, uh, thanks for more arsenic culture. You check us out on all our socials. We are at arsenic culture. I can subscribe on YouTube. We'll see you on the next one.

Speaker 5:

When the US government ended the shutdown, a bill was introduced during that process that essentially banned all THC beverages and related

Speaker 6:

products, period. Welcome back to Arsenic Culture. I am your

Speaker 5:

host, and with me as usual, I got Jason. I love stooped Hail joining us. The biggest, uh. The biggest,

Speaker 6:

uh, stoops fan that we have in Kentucky. Uhhuh Uhhuh.

Speaker 7:

Yeah.

Speaker 6:

Pushing for

Speaker 7:

him to win every single game. Yeah. He gonna remain our coach for the next for sure. Four years. We appreciate all the service in you freshman. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's like, uh, it's like the kid in class where you've failed every test up to this point and you make an A minus someone you're like, oh, hell, I should get an A in the class. Right. I know. Yeah. That's what I feel like our coach is right now. Yeah. But I, but I digress. I digress. Yeah. Uh, I'm sure he'll never see the same way. Yeah. If he does get out, if he doesn't, I don't

Speaker 5:

really care. Anyway, uh, yeah, we're, uh, we're on the road again where he just left, um, Chicago, hanging out with our buddy Nick. Going to Prompt Day over at Goose Island. Had a good time. And, um, we were just having a discussion here, um, about something that happened recently. Thought, Hey, maybe let's throw these cameras on. And record this real quick, because this is interesting. Um, and this has, I think, major implications for a lot of businesses. There was a

Speaker 6:

new bill. It was a bill, right? Yeah. When the US government, um, ended the shutdown, um, a bill was introduced

Speaker 7:

during that process that essentially banned all THC beverages and related products. Period. Yeah, correct. That's my understanding of it. I mean, you look at that, the implications for Kentucky are massive, right? I mean, we've got, I think everybody here knows about cornbread, hemp. I mean, that's a big, that's a big name right now. Right? They've made big expansions. So they started out with, I think like CBD gummies, things like that. Yeah. For sleep. Then you have some of the, the delta nine, Delta eight, whatever. Hell Delta they're on. Yeah. But, uh, they have some of that too. I mean, they have the seltzers now. Um, and if you go in like Liquor Barn or Total Wine, so our big box stores, they have started out with an end cap. You know, you would see that. Yeah. And it's expanded into right now at Liquor Barn on the other side of town in Lexington, it's probably 90% of one row now. Yeah. Like it's cra and plus cold, like four, four full. It's even more now, they just expanded. Yeah. So it's, it's really gonna have a profound impact on us.

Speaker 5:

So here's how, here's what I. Understand so far. And we did an episode where we were talking about, um,

Speaker 7:

THC beverages and we had, uh, a lot of comments, actually a lot we, we did, and how it's grown really fast. And we discussed

Speaker 6:

that. It's not like from a, um, I guess from a, an alcohol perspective mm-hmm. Like the industry perspective. A lot of people

Speaker 5:

were afraid of. Uh, THC seltzers, cannibalizing, um, alcohol based beverages like beer, wine, spirits, whatever. So I think there's been a lot of lobbying from that sector to

Speaker 7:

kind of, um, squash or, or

Speaker 5:

yeah, limit the THC sector. You and I both agreed that I

Speaker 7:

don't think there's, there's gonna be a lot of crossover there. No, I don't. I think, I think what you've seen with this bill going through, or, um, who's pushed it, it is, it is bourbon too, right? So the big industry in Kentucky and. I think what they're seeing is our sales are declining. Yeah. So they blame tariffs. They might have something to do with it. Hell not. Don't care about politics at all. But tariffs will definitely have some impact. Yeah. But it was already declining before that, and then you think on its way down. Yeah. Then they also jumped on like, Hey, this is THC Seltzer taking away our market share. I don't think it is. I mean. Maybe it's 1%, you know what I mean? Maybe it's a one percenter, but it's nothing. It's negligible.

Speaker 5:

I agree. It feels, it almost feels like a reach.

Speaker 7:

Yeah.

Speaker 5:

It, it almost is like flailing. It's like we're hemorrhaging, um, profits. We need to figure out how we can stop the bleeding. Let's just start affecting as many things as possible just

Speaker 7:

to have an effect. Yeah. And THC might have a niggling effect on the actual sales of, of bourbon. Just talk about specifically about bourbon. Sure. But I don't think it. Substantial enough to warrant, you know, lobbying against the entire industry. I think, I think if you had to pick one, I mean, I think it has more of an effect on beer, right? So they're both canned, if you think of it that way. Or like a White Claw. I could see people maybe going to like a Keeneland or an outdoor event, tailgating, maybe grab one of those, like the THC seltzers versus a, you know, alcoholic drink. Maybe they're thinking less hangover, those type of things. Yeah. But if you're drinking bourbon like. You're drinking a bottle of bourbon, you're drinking a pour, you're not Yeah, I'm not drinking a beer, I'm drinking a bourbon. So that's, that's totally different thing. And it's a different type of, uh, high, it's a different type of a hundred, a hundred percent different effect. Yeah. Yeah. It, it, it's like you drink a couple of THC

Speaker 6:

cans and honestly, you're ready for a nap,

Speaker 5:

you know? But like the, the thing with alcohol, it's, it's, it's a much more, it, it has a much more social aspect to it Yeah. Than THC does. Now again, I don't go out

Speaker 7:

and I'm not buying THC seltzers at the bar. I don't know if people are, I don't know that you can anymore. Well, speaking of that, so one of the local breweries in Lexington, I don't wanna name 'em just in case, but they used to have a little cooler there where you could buy THC seltzers. I'd see people having them there on site. Oh, interesting. The last time I went, I know exactly, they had a sign up that said these are for offsite consumption only. Like, I guess there's a law, maybe something about it. Maybe somebody's cracked down on it. I had not heard that, but very, I haven't either, but yeah, it could be. So here's what I. Here's what I understand

Speaker 5:

about the actual bill that's being passed, um, up until now. Uh, hemp is classified. Do you know

Speaker 7:

what hemp is? I mean Yeah. It's mar it's, it's it's marijuana. Yeah. It's a marijuana plant.

Speaker 5:

For all intents and purposes, it's literally the same

Speaker 7:

plant as marijuana. It doesn't have like the buds. Right?

Speaker 5:

Well, yeah. The only, the only differentiating factor on paper is that hemp has lower THC than marijuana does.

Speaker 7:

Sure.

Speaker 5:

And I think it's 0.3. Milligrams per dry ounce or something like that. Um, but it's, it, hemp is a marijuana plant that is physically bred to have lower THC content. Um, they can still use that stuff to produce CBD, but the idea was, uh, hemp, especially hundreds of years ago is, uh, during, during like wartime mm-hmm. Efforts and stuff. I think during World War ii, which wasn't a hundred years ago, there was a big push in him to create like fiber. Like rope and stuff like that.

Speaker 7:

They did some clothes too, like pants, stuff like that.

Speaker 5:

After that, uh, hemp industry was

Speaker 7:

essentially shuttered'cause they didn't need it anymore. Yeah. Um, and then, uh, there was a widespread, uh, bill that passed I think in, was it like the early two thousands? I think. I think he said, I think the

Speaker 5:

seventies to where they essentially outlaw, outlaw marijuana and just threw hemp in with that.'cause it was essentially marijuana. Same. And there wasn't enough support to, to keep hemp going. Right. Yeah. Um, fast forward to like the two thousands and. Was a lot of buzz that you could, that hemp was good for other things other than fucking pro, you know? Yeah, yeah. Let's be honest. And um, a lot of that hemp is producing manufacturing in Kentucky. So Mitch McConnell, uh, did a strong push, I think it was, it was in 2018. That sounds right. He passed the bill to

Speaker 7:

differentiate on paper hemp from marijuana. Some producers could grow, produce, sell hemp, and make money. Yep. Um. And use it for like, like, um, like infrastructure and goods and stuff like that. Going back to like the rope and textiles and stuff like that. I think CBD was a big part of that too. Right. So you had a lot of like pain control things and then we started looking at holistic medicine a little more. Yes. Um, and people like arthritis, stuff like that. I mean, they're big into their CBD creams that really work for these people. And again, there is some benefits. Oh, a hundred percent. A hundred. I mean, I've seen it with, with people I know.

Speaker 6:

Yeah. Well,

Speaker 5:

what I think, well, so what happened? Through Mitch McConnell made this push to legalize hemp is that hemp production was through the roof and CBD production was through the roof because everybody was flooding the market. Correct. A new industry, new product, we can make a lot of money. And it ended up becoming so saturated that as everybody knows in the past five years, you can go to any gas station and

Speaker 6:

find CBD appointments. Yeah. You know,

Speaker 5:

and it becomes so ubiquitous that it, the market's saturated and then all of a sudden all these hit manufacturers, they can't make money. Yeah. Like they're intended to make money. So all of a sudden they're screwed again. Um, come to find out some enterprising people realized that you could take the CBD in hemp, go through, uh,

Speaker 7:

a short catalyst period or some sort of change, and you can essentially turn it into THC. Yeah. And you could get high off it THCA or something. The French. Yeah. Delta, delta eight. There's delta 10. There's different variations on this THC that

Speaker 6:

quote unquote don't follow under fall under the definition, definition. Of actual marijuana. Yeah. So they seized on a loophole

Speaker 5:

in the system to be able to continue to ma uh, manufacture hemp and then use it to make

Speaker 6:

legal wheated. Yeah. And get high off it. Since that loophole had exists,

Speaker 5:

has existed over the past few years or whatever, uh, the market again has really been saturated with a lot of products that you can get high off.

Speaker 6:

Yeah.

Speaker 5:

And this is where GAC seltzers come from. What hemp manufacturers found out is that. They can make a whole lot of money off this, where they weren't making money before we re, we created an entire industry, and that's what we'll call it, THC seltzers. But there's gummies and there's all kinds of things that you can

Speaker 7:

do. Yeah.

Speaker 5:

But we'll just say for the sake of

Speaker 6:

our, I think we're talking THC

Speaker 7:

seltzers here. I think it's a big thing. You talked about money there, so I think that might be the push with alcohol coming after him too. Right? So beer and bourbon. So we, they're taxed at the normal tax rate in Kentucky, which is 6%. Right? That's what C, B, D and those products are. They're 6% like those, those THC seltzers we're talking about? Yeah, or the whatever Delta, something seltzers. Sure. Those are 6% regular. So if you go into the store though, you have like the alcohol tax, right? So you have that on top. Yes. So I think that's what they're saying too, is it's not a level playing field. If they're considering them the same product that we are, you're only buying those in mainly. Like liquor stores. Sure. So that's where they're coming from. So they want more That's perspective. Yeah, but I mean, I think the big, the big business, right? So bourbon beer, they're like, well, hell, we're not getting taxed like they are. I mean, we're getting taxed a lot more, but they're making a lot more money than us. And if you look at the prices when you go in the store, you'll see four packs of these THC seltzers and they're like 20 something bucks. Yeah. So I mean, you're five, $6 a can, like a. Think of Michelob Ultra, can the Slims, you know? Yeah. Oh yeah. But if you look at like beer, I mean, they're looking at like 16 bucks for a four pack of 16 ouncers. Yeah. 16 or 18. Oh yeah. And that's got the tax built in essentially. Yeah. So less profit margin, more on the tc. Sure. Yeah. But it's still, um, you look at these, these companies, uh, well you talk like corn bread, Napa. Mm-hmm. Um, there's some other brands. I guess The Grain has one, one of the breweries has one. I can't remember the name. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Um, there's a lot of brands you. The

Speaker 5:

shelves, but this industry is, it started to boom really fast, and there was a lot of talk that it's gonna be a really huge surging market in the next few years. We did talk about in the past, I don't think it was gonna take off quite as much as people thought they were, but lo and behold, now this new law has passed. Um, I think it was, uh, there was like a representative out of Oklahoma that started it, but Mitch McConnell again was a strong push in, in putting it in this new bill. Yeah. Ironically, since he's the one that.

Speaker 7:

Help fund or the initial one build Yeah. To make hemp legal. Now

Speaker 5:

they're saying that all these variations, Delta eight, delta 10, THCA, everything that was created as uh, a variation of actual THC now are included in the description of marijuana, which means, um, if you have any sort of marijuana derivative that is

Speaker 7:

greater than like 3% or 0.3. C per ounce or whatever the definition is. Um, it's, it's illegal. Essentially, it would make all those products, right? You'd have to take 'em off the market. Yeah. Because one can could only be anywhere. Five milligrams, 10 milligrams. I think the lowest I've seen is two and a half, and I've seen 'em in store. Yeah. I've seen 10. And the highest I've think I've seen is 10. But this is saying there's nowhere near where the threshold will be. You're saying if you do that, it has to be

Speaker 5:

less than 0.3% for the entire can. Which is so negligible. It's pointless.

Speaker 7:

Yeah. That's what it said. So

Speaker 5:

that's how it's effectively

Speaker 7:

banning it itself. Now. I think they did give, what'd they say? Once it goes into effect. They have a year. Yeah. So it's basically a year from now. Yeah. And they're doing that to give businesses a chance to figure out how to Sure.

Speaker 5:

Shut down.

Speaker 7:

Yeah. Because that's what it is, right? I mean, the industry that you brought into Kentucky for jobs and all these things is now essentially gonna be null and void. Yeah. We do have Rand Paul out of like, uh, I think Western Kentucky is where he is at. Yeah. He's actually been a pretty big, pretty big voice, um, going against this. Yeah. Which is crazy.'cause I think they're both Republicans, you know? I mean, either way. Yeah. Grandpa's kind of a wild car. He's a weird dude. I think. I think they're, well, I don't trust any politician, but besides the point, I think, I think it's kinda weird to see, at least he's trying to take up, in my opinion, what I've seen take up for Kentucky, take up for those jobs.'cause you know, our state, we don't, we can't really afford to lose any jobs. So the hemp market

Speaker 5:

as it stands. Is Mitch McConnell passed that hemp bill in 2018, and he's trying to, uh, uh, create the marketing in, in a boon for Kentucky to have more money, more revenue coming in. That's what he was doing with the hemp bill. But the thing is like nobody was

Speaker 7:

really buying hemp for hemp anyway. Yeah. It was the only way they were making money was you'd see some bracelets every now and then, something we talked about. Yeah. Yeah. That's

Speaker 5:

not, I mean, for industrial purposes, yeah. Nobody's actually using it because there's cheaper alternatives that are more efficient. So CBD came along, okay, this is good. Became saturated hemp. Hemp producers are screwed even though it's legal. CHC comes along, holy hell,

Speaker 6:

like we can finally make money. And now it's getting shut down again. Yeah. Uh, I think what we're seeing is that hemp is obsolete.

Speaker 7:

Like the whole point of it is, uh, well, there is. Point now. Yeah.

Speaker 6:

It's not gonna be

Speaker 7:

able to use be used. Yeah. We're not, we're not buying shirts. We don't need the shirts, don't need the pants. I mean, if you did, if you buy a T-shirt, let's say that's regular made of what, cotton or whatever, probably 20 bucks, 25 bucks. The hemp version might be 50. Just 'cause it's, you know, you can get a cotton cheaper, you can make it cheaper. And even the other uses, I, I think they,

Speaker 5:

they say you can use it for biodegradable plastic, which is great, but again, it's too expensive. Cost. Yeah. We don't have the established infrastructure in order to mitigate the cost. Uh, same thing. With rope, like you can just use like nylon and it's, it's so much cheaper. Yeah. So nobody's actually buying hemp. So what we're in effect doing is we're destroying the hemp industry.

Speaker 7:

Yeah. And the jobs, we might as well just say hemp is pointless

Speaker 6:

now. Yeah, that's, I agree. That's what we're

Speaker 7:

doing. I agree. So not only are we killing that industry, we're killing the

Speaker 5:

industry of the TC, which we just created. Um, so what, what benefit are we getting out of.

Speaker 7:

This? Well, I mean, I, i's

Speaker 5:

the question,

Speaker 7:

I don't know. I think what they're, we're selling this bill on is to keep people safe, right? So they're saying it's unregulated, which I guess it is because not, not, it's not under the, the, the alcohol board, it's under the tt, whatever the hell it's called. You know what I mean? So that's, that's part of it. I guess they're some of these things, I mean, they have vapes, they have, you know, edibles, all these things, and some of those have that psychoactive effect, right? Like marijuana does. So I think that's what they're getting onto. It's again, people that. Kind of pushing that, but I've not heard, I've not heard the news stories. I've not seen in person. I don't know of anybody like overdosing or getting, you know, high and committing crimes on it. I haven't either, but I got, I got two things to say.

Speaker 5:

So, one, I think this was a matter of time you consider Oh, for sure. Uh, Mitch McConnell specifically, who's behind it. Um, the dude's been pushing this. He's been pushing, I guess, his own values in. His agenda forever. So I think it, it was a matter of time before he was like, oh no, we don't want kids

Speaker 7:

smoking the Devil's Light.

Speaker 6:

Yeah.

Speaker 7:

It's 'cause they're all gonna get addicted and, and die from ha uh, from uh, overdoing underwater, right? Yeah. I mean that's, that's been the push behind marijuana in the first place, which Yeah. Is what Reef for Madness. Yeah. Which we all know is ridiculous. So the fact that we're still pushing that narrative is kind of insane, but it's because we're listening to a 80, 88-year-old. Well, and in his defense, I mean, I think it's just, it's not him we're using his name 'cause that's who's behind it right now. But it, it's politicians in our system and it's a long story, but I mean the lobbyists, right? So you have a lot of money coming at you funding these things and pushing your views and trying to change your views. And if you got the bourbon industry, which is huge in Kentucky, you got the beer industry too. Yeah. You got all these things pushing against you. Yeah. Um, things are gonna move probably. And that's where we're at. So I'm interested to see. Um, where it goes from here. I know you have one more thing, but I'm thinking ahead. Like, I've not heard one thing that I know of from these companies that had the THC seltzers. Have you I've not seen the press release. Yeah, I've not seen anything. Well, this happened very, very recently. It's only happened like last week. I, a lot of these companies have to be scrambling. Oh yeah. Like what do we do with all the millions of dollars we've invested in this business, now we're gonna have to shut our doors. Um, but that kind of brings to the second point as far as like

Speaker 5:

the effects and. From the public because from, we had talked about, uh, I came back from Europe and the way they handled fights over there. Yeah. Especially in places like Amsterdam where weed is legal. Um, you treat substance

Speaker 7:

or you treat, I'm sorry, people as being able to Adults Responsible. Yeah. Adults. It's kind of like, you know, learn and adapt for

Speaker 5:

themselves and eventually they become acclimated to the point to where something that is bad for them, they're not intrinsically going to just abuse it and kill the. They get, they understand alcohol is literally the perfect example because it's

Speaker 6:

legal and it can kill you. Yeah. You know? Yeah. People die from, uh, alcohol abuse all the time. All the time, and there's a lot of people that are addicted to it. It's still

Speaker 7:

legal, you know, but we still, we treat marijuana like it is worse for you. Yeah. I, I think we do. And then you look at people, places like Europe where

Speaker 5:

the drinking age is 16. In some areas weed is legal and everybody is like. Healthier over there than they are over here and everybody's fine. Once you take vice and you make it, you

Speaker 7:

can, obviously you need to regulate it to a degree. Sure. But you

Speaker 5:

make it available to where people can get used to it, they become desensitized and it's not something that can be afraid of a new industry like the THC Seltzers that comes out. Yeah. There's gonna be a push for everybody to quote unquote, abuse it as it were not as in, oh, we're just gonna chug THC seltzers until we go to the hospital, but. People are trying to get used to it and trying to figure it out, you know? But once that kind of luster wears off, it'll just fall into the mainstream line like anything else. Yeah. This is my opinion, but I think that's

Speaker 7:

exactly what they've done over in Europe and they were able to, well, what you said is they have all those things legal over there, but they've also banned high fructose corn syrup. Right. Like additives. That's that's probably, that's probably worse for you than those things. It is, yeah. And a lot of that leads to a lot of other issues. Ob ob obesity and like increased cancer rates, like just to increase healthcare risk and, you know, all, all over. So that,

Speaker 5:

that leads to like a horrible, like insurance,

Speaker 7:

uh, uh, infrastructure. Yeah. You know, for health insurance. Uh, yeah, I mean that's something we

Speaker 5:

need to really be talking about, not is, you know, 16-year-old Jimmy going to find, buy a weed

Speaker 7:

gummy

Speaker 5:

at a

Speaker 6:

gas station and

Speaker 7:

end up taking, I don't, I don think, I don't think 16-year-old Jimmy is, I think he gotta be 18 or 21, don't you? I think either way, either way. Either way.

Speaker 5:

We're splitting hairs

Speaker 7:

on something

Speaker 5:

that I think needs, we need a,

Speaker 6:

a new generation

Speaker 5:

of people to look

Speaker 7:

at this reflect, I think, I think it's a common sense aspect of anything, right? Like, you know, you gotta weigh the pros and cons of that. And in my eyes, I don't really see what you're doing. It doesn't make any sense. Um, but I, I don't know. Hot topic. Hot topic for sure. I, I agree. I think the introduction

Speaker 5:

of this is gonna do overall just a lot more harm than good. I agree. I would've liked to have. Actually introduced language into the bill that formalized it as an industry rather than just say you can't do it. Yeah. Um, that feels very shortsighted to me, but I think this is driven by an agenda that is not looking at the actual,

Speaker 7:

um, probably the best people's. Yeah, that's right. That's right. Yeah. It's not taking much, so we've not also not heard from the people that really rely on those products. Right. So people for medical issues instead of taking pain pills Yeah. Or taking that. I mean, that's a big, that's a big deal too, you know. So, I don't know. I, I would really like to

Speaker 5:

hear what people think, not off of the comments. Um, we had a lot of banter in our, in the, in the last video we did. So I wanted to hear what people say about this. Within a year, it's either gonna be THC seltzers and their, you know, counter or their gummies and all that stuff. We're gonna be completely gone. Or maybe somebody like Rand Paul's gonna come in and, and maybe do some change to where they can ize it as an industry. But we've got a lot of businesses that are probably getting ready to shut their doors and. Industry's just gonna be completely gone. So let us know what you all think. I'd like to see. I wanna see how this plays out. It's very interesting. But, uh, thanks for more arsenic culture. You check us out on all the socials we are @arsenicculture. Like and subscribe on YouTube. See you on the next one.