Filed Under: The Buzz Is Stronger
They were laughing. Alcohol execs, brand barons, and mocktail marketers at SXSW.
They were laughing at a plant.
While they dumped billions into spiked tea and hop water, cannabis was engineering the slowest coup in beverage history. No party girls. No YouTube ads. Just a smooth 5 milligrams hidden behind a matte can and a label nobody noticed until it was in their fridge.
They don’t think it’s funny anymore.
Cannabis drinks are not a novelty. They are a reckoning.
The U.S. market for infused beverages is expected to break one billion dollars this year. That number is projected to quadruple by 2028. Beer volume has dropped nearly six percent. Wine and spirits are down more than nine.
It wrecks your sleep.
It wrecks your mood.
It wrecks your face.
Cannabis drinks do not.
They give you calm without chaos. Euphoria without shame. Sleep without spinning. Wake up without the inner courtroom of guilt. These drinks are not trying to replace beer pong. They are replacing self-loathing.
Retailers are not debating the trend. They’re profiting off it. In Minnesota, THC beverages already make up fifteen percent of total drink sales in liquor stores. One South Carolina distributor claims their hemp-based drinks now rival wine and spirit sales. Retailers in Tennessee report surging demand for THC seltzers, now stocked alongside energy drinks in gas stations. This is not happening in hipster boutiques. It’s happening in real America.
And that’s why Big Booze is scared.
Constellation Brands is scouting THC seltzers. Pernod Ricard has already held meetings. Molson Coors, Boston Beer, and Tilray are launching drinks. These are the same companies that spent decades lobbying against cannabis legalization. Now they’re crawling into the sector like nothing happened.
But cannabis consumers have long memories.
They remember who wrote the checks that locked them up.
They remember the scare campaigns.
They remember the lies.
And they do not want THC poured by the same hands that branded alcohol as the only acceptable release valve for adult pain.
This isn’t just a market correction. It’s a cultural fuck-you.
Cannabis drinks are not safer alternatives. They are a better proposition entirely.
Alcohol is loud. Cannabis is quiet.
Alcohol is clumsy. Cannabis is clear.
Alcohol wants to make you forget. Cannabis lets you remember what matters.
F O R T H E C U L T U R E B Y T H E C U L T U R E
From Foam to Flower: THC Taps Are Rewriting Bar Culture
Bars in Wisconsin, South Carolina, and Minnesota are pouring THC from draft taps, replacing beer foam with cannabis fizz. With alcohol use hitting historic lows, low-dose THC drinks are reshaping nightlife rituals and exposing the hypocrisy of booze-friendly laws. The future of bar culture isn’t brewed in hops, it’s flowing from cannabis kegs.
Jones Soda Quits Cannabis
Jones Soda just sold off its entire cannabis beverage brand, Mary Jones, for a modest three million dollars. The move signals more than a corporate pivot; it’s a sign that THC drinks still face steep barriers to success. From compliance breakdowns to marketing overreach, this isn’t just an exit; it’s a reality check.
Scam in the Can
Willie Nelson’s face is on the can, but the weed isn’t in it. Pot Culture rips the lid off the hemp drink hustle, where celebrity branding and legal loopholes sell weak THC as wellness. This is not cannabis culture. This is a scam wrapped in citrus.
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The new generation doesn’t want to black out. They want to be present. They want control, ritual, and intention. THC drinks let you choose your dose and your vibe. They don’t punish you for wanting peace.
And the tech behind them is real. Nano-emulsified cannabis breaks down in the bloodstream quickly. Onset times are often under twenty minutes.
The flavors are dialed. The branding is smart. The packaging doesn’t scream STONER. It whispers balance. These drinks don’t feel like rebellion. They feel relieved.
That’s what terrifies alcohol executives.
Cannabis isn’t stealing their market. It’s rewriting what a drink even is.
You don’t need to put on cologne, find a bar, fake a smile, and chug shots. You can sip a blood orange THC seltzer on your back porch and feel better than you ever did three vodka sodas deep.
And this isn’t limited to blue states. In red markets like Missouri and South Carolina, hemp-derived THC drinks are flying off the shelves. The 2018 Farm Bill created a legal gray zone. The feds still haven’t figured out how to shut it down. Most state lawmakers haven’t either.
So Big Booze is moving in, but they’re moving blind.
Anheuser-Busch backed out of its Canadian Tilray joint venture. Molson Coors killed its CBD line. Constellation took a bath on its Canopy Growth investment.
They’re not just slow. They’re bad at this.
Because you can’t buy authenticity.
Cannabis drinks were built by people who understood the plant. Who understood pacing. Who didn’t market it as a party or a personality?
They built it for people who wanted an experience. Not a mask.
And right now, that experience is what people want.
Look around.
The Surgeon General is warning Americans that alcohol causes cancer.
Dry January has become a cultural institution.
Twenty-one percent of participants replaced alcohol with cannabis or CBD. That number jumps to thirty-four percent for ages 21 to 24.
The next generation is not just experimenting. They’re done.
They watched their parents burn out.
They watched the hangovers, the affairs, the DUIs, the liver scans.
And they don’t want it.
This isn’t about weed winning.
This is about alcohol losing.
Cannabis drinks are filling a vacuum that alcohol left behind when it over-promised and under-delivered.
And no amount of brand rehab can fix that.
Booze had its run. It monopolized adulthood. It wrote the rules. It paid the lobbyists. It jailed the competition.
But cannabis slipped through.
And now it’s teaching people they never needed a drink. They just needed something that made them feel human again.
So here’s the future:
Fridges with THC iced tea next to LaCroix.
Bars with infused cocktails and zero-proof spirits.
Dinner parties where weed drinks pass as easily as wine.
No slurred words. No bar fights. No regrets.
Just calm. Connected. Conscious.
Big Booze can keep pretending this is a trend. But this isn’t temporary. This isn’t regional. This isn’t disruptive.
This is a replacement.
And it’s already happened.
They used to call cannabis the gateway drug. Turns out it was the escape hatch.
© 2025 Pot Culture Magazine. All rights reserved. This content is the exclusive property of Pot Culture Magazine and may not be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission from the publisher, except for brief quotations in critical reviews.
F O R T H E C U L T U R E B Y T H E C U L T U R E
Reefer Report Card Vol. 28: The Rescheduling That Wasn’t
This week’s Reefer Report Card cuts through the hype around cannabis “rescheduling,” exposing how a label change left federal prohibition fully intact. Arrest authority, workplace punishment, and immigration penalties remain untouched. Headlines claimed progress. Reality delivered none. A week defined by performance over policy, and reform that never arrived.
THE SCHEDULE III SCAM
Federal officials claim cannabis is moving forward, but Schedule III changes nothing that matters. This investigation breaks down what rescheduling actually does, what it deliberately avoids, and why prohibition logic remains intact. Arrests continue. Markets remain conflicted. Reform language replaces reform action. The system shifts labels while preserving control.
LEGAL WEED, OLD RULES
Legalization promised freedom but preserved prohibition logic. This investigation examines how cannabis reform left arrests, racial disparities, job punishment, medical blame, and equity barriers intact. By tracing enforcement, employment law, healthcare practice, and licensing rules, it shows how legalization changed the label without dismantling the system.
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