How Is a Total Wine & More Selling THC Drinks?

Westword

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Dear Stoner: I saw a photo of a Total Wine & More with an aisle display of marijuana drinks. Not hemp or CBD, mind you, but THC seltzers and sodas. I couldn't find out much else. Has to be fake, right?
Thirsty Traveler

Dear Thirsty Traveler: Your eyes did not deceive you, young stoner. Total Wine and other beverage retailers in Minnesota are allowed to sell non-alcoholic beverages and edibles dosed at five milligrams of THC or less per serving. The THC must be derived from hemp, but the effects are essentially the same as a five-milligram weed beverage you'd find at a licensed dispensary in Colorado.

click to enlarge

THC drinks can be sold in low doses in Minnesota if they're derived from hemp, but Colorado doesn't play by those rules.

Jacqueline Collines

Minnesota is the only state allowing traditional retailers like Total Wine to sell THC drinks and edibles because state lawmakers there unintentionally legalized low-dose THC edibles derived from hemp in 2022. The law was crafted to regulate hemp-derived THC, which is federally legal but the focus of increasing crackdowns on the state level, but all it's done is widen the reach of those products in Minnesota. In Colorado, though, all THC products must be purchased from a dispensary — not that we wouldn't love to see a weed aisle at Argonaut Wine & Liquor, too.

Send questions to [email protected].