Cannabis-Infused Products Gain Traction in Convenience Stores

Photograph courtesy of CSP Staff

When it comes to cannabis-infused products, Hilary Bricken, partner at Kansas City, Missouri-based Husch and Blackwell, said Sept. 13 at CSP’s Tobacco Plus Forum in Schaumburg, Illinois, that she sees more of this coming into convenience stores.

“The biggest segment I see is beverages,” she said. “These cannabinoids are to get you buzzed. Every time you turn around there’s a THC in seltzer.”

Bricken believes that eventually this craze will peak and that the “really good household names will start to emerge and remain so long as they don’t get stamped out by state government and the [Farm Bill] loophole is not closed.”

The Farm Bill hemp loophole for hemp-derived intoxicating cannabinoids (HDIC) has led to a proliferation of HDIC products across the country in a variety of consumer products, she said.

“The result though is that these HDIC products, allegedly, can have similar or greater intoxicating effects than state-licensed cannabis products, but they don’t come with the hassle of having to secure those products from state-licensed retail stores,” she said.

If c-stores are going to carry “derived intoxicating cannabinoid products in food and beverage, they also need to comply with the state regulations that permit it,” Bricken said.  

If there are no state regulations, c-store operators are relying “wholesale on the Farm Bill and there is no oversight so they have to rely on good actors, which I would not recommend,” she said.

When it comes to adult use of cannabis, Bricken said it is adopted in states almost entirely by voter initiatives.

“Emphasis in state policy remains on issues of product and consumer safety, testing accountability, youth access, local control as well as advertising and marketing restraints,” she said.

On the federal front, Bricken outlined the latest efforts regarding the rescheduling of cannabis under federal law. The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) is now reviewing more than 40,000 comments it received in response to rescheduling cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III.

Bricken told the audience that it is “highly unlikely” that rescheduling occurs before the Presidential election. An administrative hearing on rescheduling is expected in December, she said.

The DEA will have the final decision in the rulemaking process to reschedule marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III.

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