Rep. Andy Barr's bipartisan Lawful Hemp Protection Act would replace the looming 0.4mg federal THC cap with a 1% dry-weight standard, as Southeast states otherwise saw a quiet week on hemp beverage regulation.
SOUTHEAST — July 24, 2026 — U.S. Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., introduced federal legislation Tuesday that would scrap the 0.4-milligram-per-container THC limit set to take effect nationwide on November 12 and replace it with a 1% total-THC-by-dry-weight standard, offering the hemp beverage industry its most concrete alternative yet to a deadline that threatens to pull most existing products off shelves.
The Lawful Hemp Protection Act, co-sponsored by Rep. Angie Craig, D-Minn., would also require consumable hemp products to be grown, processed and packaged entirely in the United States, restrict retail sales to buyers 21 and older, and direct the Food and Drug Administration to set cannabinoid content limits within 12 months of passage. It would create a three-tier manufacturer-distributor-retailer system for hemp beverages modeled on alcohol distribution and impose a federal tax of 5 cents per milligram of THC on beverages, according to a release from Barr's office. Barr cited roughly 4,700 acres of hemp grown in Kentucky in 2025 and framed the bill as protection for the farmers who shifted from tobacco to hemp. The Kentucky Hemp Association and the U.S. Hemp Roundtable both endorsed the bill and called on Congress to extend the November 12 deadline while lawmakers negotiate a permanent framework.
Elsewhere in the region, North Carolina's House Bill 328 took a modest but concrete step into effect: a provision barring hemp consumable sales to anyone under 21 became law July 15, five days before this reporting window began. The bill's more consequential piece — conforming state law to the same 0.4-milligram-per-container total-THC standard at the center of Barr's federal bill — does not take effect until November 12. The North Carolina House passed the measure 66-35 on July 1, and the Senate concurred 37-6 the next day, sending it to Gov. Josh Stein. Coverage of a July 8 round of bill signings tied to the state budget referenced expanded hemp regulations, though no report identified House Bill 328 by name among the bills signed that day.
In South Carolina, hemp THC beverage brand Oasis, made by cbdMD, expanded into the state's liquor retailers this month through a partnership with distributor Morales Beverage Group, formerly known as Mexcor, according to a PR Newswire release. The launch covers Oasis's Social Tonic seltzer line, THC-infused shots and a new THC-infused non-alcoholic spirit called Mixer. The expansion comes even though South Carolina lawmakers failed in late June to pass a bill that would have set a 21-and-older age restriction, a licensing system and labeling requirements for hemp products, leaving the state without any of the three.
No other Southeast state — Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Louisiana or Arkansas — saw legislative or regulatory action on hemp beverages this week. Georgia's SB 33, originally a hemp THC-limit measure, had its hemp language stripped and replaced with a property tax proposal before this year's session ended, leaving a companion beverage-restriction bill, SB 254, in limbo. Mississippi remains the region's outlier with no legal pathway for hemp-derived THC beverages outside its medical cannabis program.
The federal deadline hangs over all of it. Barr's bill is one of several efforts industry groups are backing to avert what the Midwest Hemp Council has called the recriminalization of a $30 billion to $40 billion domestic hemp market. Whether Congress moves on the bill — or on any extension — before November 12 remains the question the entire region, and the industry nationally, is now watching.
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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