MILWAUKEE —
Marijuana remains illegal in Wisconsin, but you can get the same effects, in a perfectly legal THC drink.
The drinks are flying off store shelves from neighborhood bars to liquor stores, to grocery stores.
At first glance, the section at Otto’s Wine and Spirit in Cedarburg might look like just another section of beer, canned alcohol cocktails or even soda pop. But on closer inspection, it’s what’s inside that makes them quite different.
They're drinks infused with Delta 9 THC, the same intoxicating substance in marijuana.
"We were raised for so long, many of us that, you know, this was an off limits," said OnMilwaukee.com writer Molly Snyder. "This was a drug. And alcohol was socially acceptable. But the thing is, that that's changed even in Wisconsin," she said.
Snyder has done a series of articles for OnMilwaukee.com on the new THC drinks, now available not only at liquor stores, but bars, grocery stores and even coffee shops.
"They're very light. they make you just feel very relaxed. And some people identify this feeling, because it's new and it's different, and it's not like being drunk," Snyder said.
The drinks vary in potency, starting at 2.5 milligrams of THC per can, and going up to 50 milligrams and higher.
Otto's only began selling a few brands of the drinks last summer, but as of last month they’d grown so much in popularity, they now have their own section several shelves wide.
This all stems from the 2018 federal farm bill, allowing THC products to be sold nationally, provided the THC comes from hemp, a marijuana cousin, that has the same intoxicating THC, but in a lower concentration per plant.
The law change had entrepreneurs, like Matt Swanson and his business partner in Calumet County, planting hemp as a cash crop. But when wholesale prices dropped, they had to get creative.
"So, you know, we were standing at our waist-high hemp in a hot July afternoon, kind of look at each other like, 'What are we going to do with this?'" Swanson said.
Their answer: Alcohol-free THC cocktails they dubbed "Drinkin' Buds."
Swanson showed off several varieties of their canned cocktails, including Old Fashioned and Mai Tai. The cans are decorated with an image of a marijuana leaf.
"So we want our can to be really straightforward with our branding. What is this about? It's pretty obvious that our offering is cannabis-based, and we put the cocktail in the can. And most folks are pretty familiar with the flavors that, you know, we're bringing out," Swanson said.
The Sheboygan company sold 25,000 cans in 2023, 420,000 last year and expects to sell more than a million cans of their 5 milligram THC drinks this year.
"Five is a dose where most people are going to have an appreciable effect, but it won't be overwhelming. And that's why we package it five," Swanson said.
Milwaukee criminal defense attorney Ben Van Severen addressed the legality of hemp-based THC in Wisconsin.
"So as long as it comes from the hemp plant it is legal to be infused in either edibles or obviously in drinks," Van Severen said.
Still, he said drinkers should be extremely cautious when driving.
"There is still a zero-tolerance policy for having any concentration of Delta-9 THC in your blood, at any time," Van Severen said. "So, if you are driving a vehicle and they believe you're intoxicated, they do a blood draw and there's any amount of Delta-9 THC, they'll hit you with operating with restricted controlled substance regardless of where it came from. If it has that Delta-9 and that Delta-9 shows up in your blood under Wisconsin law right now, they can prosecute you as if you were smoking a blunt," Van Severen said.
With no law prohibiting them, new brands and new flavors are appearing every month, which is just fine with the growing number of people who enjoy drinking them.
"What's always recommended is that you take a few sips and you wait, you know, a few minutes, maybe 15 minutes, you know, maybe even longer as you learn for yourself. Where is your threshold?" Snyder with OnMilwaukee.com said.
"It's very low-key. It's nothing that is going to, you know, rock your world or anything. As long as you take it easy and start small, you're going to be just fine," she said.
Snyder stressed, however, that no one should drive under the influence of THC.
Stores WISN 12 News checked with said they had a policy of not selling the drinks to anyone under 21, the same as the alcoholic drinks. However, there is no law preventing them from being sold to people under 21.
The Drinkin’ Buds’ Swanson said he’d welcome Wisconsin legislation to regulate THC drinks in the state, including age limits and labeling requirements that would clearly state the source of the THC and the dosage per can.
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