Tuscaloosa Allows Two Local Stores to Sell THC Beverages – For Now
Two stores in Tuscaloosa are now allowed to sell THC seltzers to qualified buyers again after new requirements under Alabama law pulled the products from shelves statewide in January.
At issue are drinks made with hemp-derived THC, which offers similar effects to marijuana but is federally legal under the 2018 Farm Bill - at least for now.
For several years, products like vapes, gummies, smokable flower and seltzers proliferated before state lawmakers began to realize that many of them were functionally legal recreational marijuana. There were also no real regulations about product potency or where they could be sold.
Lawmakers also placed strict limits on where those products could be sold, removing them from gas stations and giving the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board authority to regulate them.
Starting in January, only retailers licensed by the ABC board were allowed to sell these drinks, and none have been sold in Tuscaloosa since then.
Last week, though, the Tuscaloosa City Council approved the sale of consumable hemp products, including seltzers, at two stores: Spirits Package Store on Rice Mine Road and Corks and Tops on Paul Bryant Drive.
With the city council’s blessing and permission from the ABC, both stores are now allowed to sell the THC seltzers again to buyers who are 21 or older.
That seems to have an expiration date, though, during a vote to end the federal government shutdown. US Senator Mitch McConnell added language to the 2026 Farm Bill to close the "loophole" that allowed these high-potency THC products to be made and sold even in states where marijuana is still illegal.
Unless something changes between now and November 12th, that new classification will take effect and outlaw any hemp-derived THC product with more than 0.4 milligrams. That's about 25 times less potent than the 10mg products currently allowed under already restrictive Alabama law and would essentially wipe out the hemp-derived THC industry nationwide.
The Alabama law passed last year includes a provision that any future federal guidance would supersede the state law. As things stand, even the beverages just allowed for sale at the two stores in Tuscaloosa would become federally banned in November and leave the shelves empty again.
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