Virginia Hemp Businesses Consider How To Pivot With Federal Ban Looming

“It’s a bad situation for a lot of hemp growers and processors and retailers.”

By Charlotte Rene Woods, Virginia Mercury

Richmond-based Bingo Beer legally joined a nationally-growing market for hemp-derived THC products earlier this year when it unveiled THC seltzers.

The nonalcoholic beverage option has been growing nationwide as an alternative for people who are looking to cut back or cut out alcohol altogether. A recent Gallup poll showed the percentage of Americans drinking alcohol has fallen to 54 percent.

Analysts and farmers say the hemp-based THC industry, however, could come to an abrupt halt by November of next year as Congress voted to ban most hemp-derived THC products in a last-minute addition to a government spending bill that ended the most recent government shutdown.

The THC seltzers and other hemp-based products are a “big and growing segment of the economy,” Bingo Beer co-owner Jay Bayer told the Mercury earlier this year.

“I don’t think the solution is to put the genie back in the bottle,” Bayer said in a recent call.  He added that offering THC products has been a “lifeline” for some in the alcoholic beverage industry to stay afloat while meeting consumers’ needs.

But as Virginia continues to explore a legal cannabis market, Bayer is eyeing possible ways to pivot.

“If we were to switch over to THC from marijuana, consumers would come over with us,” he said.

Uncertain future

Hemp businesses nationwide are trying to map their next steps. In North Carolina, for example, hemp businesses are bracing for potential legal battles to defend their industry, like other states where cannabis isn’t legal.

“We can’t really pivot,” Dana Burham, co-owner of Otherside Hemp, told NC Newsline last month.

But Virginia is in a “privileged” space, Pure Shenandoah co-owner Tanner Johnson said in a recent call. He runs the company with several of his siblings as their products run the gamut of industrial hemp uses, from a “hempcrete” study contract with the U.S. Air Force they were awarded in 2023, to being the supplier for Bingo Beer’s THC seltzers.

While Congress laid the groundwork for businesses in the industry in 2018, Johnson likened the hemp-limited provision in the government spending bill as “pulling the rug” from under people. But companies like his own with diversified portfolios and Virginia businesses could have an easier time pivoting than those in states with no existing or forthcoming legal cannabis market. Still, he said, he’s keeping an eye on things nationally.

As a representative of  the Virginia Cannabis Association, he will also lend insights and ideas to lawmakers as they craft and pass the legislation to enable the new market.

“It’s a bad situation for a lot of hemp growers and processors and retailers,” Johnson said. “But in Virginia, we kind of feel like we’re almost threading a needle, where this industry is coming to a close right as another industry opens.”

This story was first published by Virginia Mercury.

Photo courtesy of Brendan Cleak.