The retail giant Target is soft launching sales of THC-infused beverages at select stores in Minnesota, an executive of one cannabis drink company participating in the rollout and other industry leaders told Marijuana Moment.
In one of the latest examples of the normalization of cannabis in mainstream commercial marketing, Target’s move in Minnesota—where the company is headquartered—reportedly involves putting a dozen THC drink brands on shelves in 10 select stores in the state.
The move comes as Congress is debating legislation to recriminalize hemp-derived products with a quantifiable amount of THC, and as states across the country continue to evaluate their own laws.
“Given everything that’s going on around hemp and the conversations about regulation versus prohibition, Target getting into it now is monumental,” Jason Dayton, co-founder of Trail Magic, told Marijuana Moment. “And this is a moment that shows that regulation work.”
“I think all of us, collectively, would say we want more regulation—not less,” he said. “We want age-gating, we want testing, we want all of the rules of the road that have allowed the alcohol industry to become a $250 billion a year category, with everything included: Countless jobs and tax revenue associated with that.”
The THC drink brands that are being sold at Target of Friday include Birdie, Cann, Find Wunder, Gigli, Hi Seltzer, Indeed, Señorita, Stigma, Surly, Trail Magic, Wyld and Wynk, according to Dayton.
Photo via Jason Dayton, Trail Magic.
Adam Terry, CEO of Cantrip, said that while he’s “bummed” his company is not part of the launch, the development is “still HUGE for the category and big props to those in the set.”
Marijuana Moment reached out to Target and to some of the other drinks brands for comment, but representatives were not immediately available.
“I’ve long wondered when the heavyweights of retail, distribution, and alcohol would decide to wade into hemp beverages,” Aaron Edelheit, CEO of Mindset Capital, said in a blog post on Friday. “While we’ve seen major state-level distributors and large alcohol retailers like Total Wine enter the space, we haven’t yet seen a true retail behemoth take the plunge. That changed today.”
Whether the test pilot leads to a more national expansion of hemp beverages at Target locations beyond Minnesota is yet to be seen.
But the move also comes at a precipitous time in the state and federal hemp policy debate, with some lawmakers angling for a ban of cannabis products containing any amount of THC—despite the federal legalization of the crop and its derivatives under the 2018 Farm Bill, which was signed into law by President Donald Trump during his first term.
In Minnesota in particular, hemp beverages have been a mainstay even before the state moved to legalize marijuana for adult use.
Gov. Tim Walz (D) signed legislation in 2022 making it so all hemp-derived cannabinoids including CBD could be legally sold in food items, beverages, topicals and more—as long as the products contain less than the federal limit of 0.3 percent THC. Edible and beverage products are limited to a total of 5 mg THC per serving and 50 mg per package.
About a year later, former Minnesota House Majority Leader Ryan Winkler (DFL), who championed the state’s legalization law over multiple sessions, announced plans to launch his own hemp beverage company.
The mainstreaming of cannabis beverages comes as a new polls shows that a majority of Americans believe marijuana represents a “healthier option” than alcohol—and that most also expect cannabis to be legal in all 50 states within the next five years.
Another survey found that four in five adults who drink cannabis-infused beverages say they’ve reduced their alcohol intake—and more than a fifth have quit drinking alcohol altogether.
Target isn’t alone in joining the cannabis train as state laws continue to evolve.
Home Depot, one of the largest employers in the United States, last year shifted its employee drug testing policies to remove cannabis from screening panels entirely and stop pre-employment drug testing of most of its workers, according to a document obtained by Marijuana Moment.
In 2022, Amazon, the second largest private employer in the U.S., also backed a Republican-led bill to federally legalize, tax and regulate marijuana. It previously expressed support for a separate, Democratic-led legalization bill. Amazon has also worked to adapt to changing marijuana policies internally as it’s backed congressional reform, enacting an employment policy change in 2021 to end drug testing for cannabis for most workers, for example.
Meanwhile, Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) of the United States recently entered a first-of-its-kind partnership with a hemp THC beverage company, with a licensing branding deal that will support a variety of veterans services and promote cannabis drinks as a potential alcohol alternative with the drinks being available at VFW posts across the country.
Separately, while Target is apparently moving into the THC drink space, the airline Virgin Atlantic denied satirical and false claims earlier this year from a cannabis beverage company about a deal to sell its THC-infused beverages on flights.
