Reps. Andy Barr and Angie Craig introduced federal legislation that would raise the hemp THC threshold and regulate hemp beverages nationally, as New York's ayrloom and Vermont's Upstate Elevator both expanded their hemp beverage lines this week.
NORTHEAST, July 25, 2026: Representatives Andy Barr, a Kentucky Republican, and Angie Craig, a Minnesota Democrat, introduced the Lawful Hemp Protection Act on July 22, a bipartisan bill that would replace the federal ban on most hemp-derived THC products, set to take effect November 12, with a regulated national framework.
The bill would raise the federal hemp threshold from 0.3 to 1 percent total THC by dry weight, create a federal permitting and registration structure for hemp beverage manufacturers and wholesalers through the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, restrict retail sales to buyers 21 and older, and require finished-product testing while prohibiting synthetic cannabinoids, according to bill summaries from both sponsors' offices. The legislation is relevant to every state in the Northeast, since all eight currently operate under some version of the framework the November deadline would upend.
In New York, ayrloom, marketed as the state's top-selling adult-use cannabis brand, announced July 20 that it had secured more than 600 licensed dispensary doors, up 350 from a year earlier, and sold over 5 million units in the past 12 months, an 85 percent increase. The company said it also completed its first partnership as a hemp-derived THC beverage brand at the Governors Ball music festival, distributing more than 1,000 sample beverages and 3,000 cans over the three-day event, according to the company.
In Vermont, Upstate Elevator, the Burlington-based hemp beverage maker that leads the Vermont Hemp & Beverage Coalition, introduced three new 1mg hemp-derived THC beverages, Green Mango Seltzer, Orange Pop Soda, and Zesty Lime Ginger Ale, at the Vermont Brewers Festival on July 19-20 in Burlington.
Elsewhere in the region, New Hampshire's SB624, which would cap hemp THC products at 0.4mg per container statewide, remains unsigned on Gov. Kelly Ayotte's desk, and New York's SB8575, which would create a defined hemp beverage category capped at 5mg per container, remains without a Senate Rules Committee hearing.
Forma works embedded on hemp and THC beverage formulation and commercial scale-up, from compliant dosing and label claims through co-packer qualification. This wire is a byproduct of the same regulatory tracking that informs that work.
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