IN THE SPOTLIGHT imate reckoning happening in terms of the viability of this category and these products. Not because people don ' t want them, not because consumers aren’ t demanding them, but because there are questions around who gets to participate in this category, in this industry, who gets to thrive and benefit on the commerce side of this category and industry. And again, I think to be very direct and upfront about it, how to do so safely, consistently and on an even playing field from a regulatory standpoint.
So, if we do nothing as an industry on November 13th, 2026, this will effectively all go away. But I can tell you, I ' ve been on calls, wall to wall, for the last better part of eight or nine days since this all transpired.
We ' ve also been on calls. We ' ve been in trade group conversations. We ' ve been on interviews. And when I say‘ we’, I mean the category, and specifically the beverage part of this category. We have been talking and screaming and shouting about regulation well before this language got put into place. And I think that is one of the things that I also try to stress in this.
There are so many people in this industry who want to treat consumers with respect and with safety in mind, and are asking to be regulated, just simply not prohibited.
KS: Some of the legislators now deciding what’ s next for this industry have suggested that THC drinks should be sold at dispensaries instead of liquor stores. What are your thoughts on that?
XS: We were selling [ Artet ] in dispensaries in California, and people liked the product. People liked it when they discovered that it was something they could ask for. This was very novel at the time in certain ways, particularly for us, a beverage that is a low-potency, high volume of liquid.
And I bring this up to say that we never felt like we had a product market fit or a product consumer fit challenge. We knew we had something that resonated with people, but what we struggled with was the channel we existed within. And my pie-in-the-sky idea has always been around, whether it ' s THC from cannabis or THC from hemp, that regulations and frameworks will exist such that specialists in categories can actively handle this ingredient. So what does that mean? Obviously, beverage is an easy one, right? Where you see the Total Wines and places of the world who already do 21−plus carding when they sell products to people, doing the same thing for the liquid format of this product. Same with on-premise for bars and restaurants.
Dispensaries can sell flower, can sell vapes to people. There ' s no retail experience quite like a dispensary, where you ask somebody on the side of the retailer to be an expert on things. You eat, drink, smoke, inhale, give it to your dog so it doesn ' t bark when the doorbell rings, you know, you it rub on your joints if you ' re recovering from an injury, and so forth. So it ' s sort of, at the moment, a very naive way of thinking about commerce around this category, around this plant, and around this substance, to say that everything needs to go through a dispensary.
Now, a lot of people may not agree with me. But I do think that the easiest way to do this is have people who are already regulating and controlling active ingredients treat it similarly. Maybe amend some of the thinking and logic around it for whatever nuances equate to compare to alcohol. But this exists. The capabilities to do this exist. You know, even in the world of alcohol, there are bans of what ABV can be for wine or for whiskey, and how it ' s all taxed.
There was a world in which people were drinking moonshine and then they said,‘ Okay, well, actually, you know, we need to rein that in.’ So there are so many parallels that have existed in history that tell me, and tell the people in our category who are trying to do this, that this is not an impossible ask, or an impossible feat.
It ' s just, I think, education, coordination and a willingness to maybe on the margins make some sacrifices in what can be done in pursuit of what is allowed to exist and thrive as a longterm future market.
KRYSTINA SKIBO: Absolutely. Everything that you just said, I ' ve been hearing from people, not just in the cannabis industry, but also in the beverage alcohol industry. It ' s kind of a nobrainer how the alcohol industry has been handling it. I mean, it just makes sense to follow those same regulations and make it work for everybody. So given these changes that can really www. beveragewholesaler. com Summer 2026 • Bevearge Wholesaler 25