When the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America (WSWA) issued a policy position in support of a state\u2019s right \u201cto establish a legal, well-regulated, adult-use cannabis marketplace,\u201d it took many industry observers by surprise. Drawing a clear analogy between its own products and the herbal competition, WSWA said it \u201ccalls on the federal government to respect the right of states to legalize cannabis if they adopt cannabis market regulations that meet a framework similar to that governing beverage alcohol.\u201d<\/p>\n
Recent reports<\/a>\u00a0have highlighted the fact that\u00a0medical marijuana legalization decreased alcohol sales<\/a>, and it appears that power players in the alcohol industry are pivoting to figure out how not to get left behind, now that it\u2019s apparent the tide of cannabis legalization isn\u2019t slowing down.<\/p>\n In a July 12\u00a0press release<\/a>, the acting executive vice president of WSWA, Dawson Hobbs, drew positive parallels between the cannabis and alcohol industries.<\/p>\n \u201cEight decades ago, Americans acknowledged that the Prohibition of alcohol was a failed policy,\u201d he said. \u201cThe state-based system of regulation, adopted after Prohibition, created a U.S. beverage alcohol market that is the safest, most competitive and best regulated in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n In their recent announcement, WSWA outlined several factors for what it considers \u201can appropriate regulatory threshold\u201d for legal cannabis\u00a0\u2014 most of which are similar to alcohol regulations. These include a minimum age of 21 for purchase, possession and use; penalties for providing cannabis to minors; the establishment of a standard for driving under the influence and restrictions on hours and days of sale in \u201cparity with beverage alcohol.\u201d<\/p>\n Tellingly, the press release also notes that the \u201clegal cannabis market continues to expand in the United States, generating $7.2 billion in economic activity in 2016.\u201d<\/p>\n This move by WSWA may reflect a growing awareness of the opportunities for the alcohol industry to get in on the cannabis action through fusion products that combine both cannabis and alcohol.<\/p>\n For example,\u00a0Province Brands<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0Ontario is developing\u00a0the first beer to be brewed with parts of the cannabis plant<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 primarily the stalks, stem and roots \u2014 rather than barley and grains. It may be a novelty product, but it is one likely to make a splash, even if it isn\u2019t actually psychoactive (or at least no more psychoactive than beer brewed the traditional way.) And another Ontario firm,\u00a0Canopy Growth<\/a>, is developing a line of\u00a0cannabis-infused cocktails<\/a>. Those actually will have psychoactive cannabinoids.<\/p>\n Cannabis-infused beer is also foreseen for the stateside market, but in the more puritanical atmosphere of the United States, politicians have already\u00a0broached banning it.<\/a><\/p>\n This does seem to be a dramatic turn-around for the WSWA. While they haven\u2019t had a public position on the cannabis question, they have appeared\u00a0to work against cannabis legalization in the past. In 32016,\u00a0Marijuana.com<\/a>\u00a0noted that the notorious WikiLeaks dump of Democratic National Committee e-mails included a paid advertisement from WSWA urging Congress members to fund a study of \u201d\u00a0marijuana-impaired driving.\u201d<\/p>\n Now, the whole question of \u201cmarijuana-impaired driving\u201d is\u00a0widely misunderstood<\/a>\u2014 cannabis does not impair motor function in the same way alcohol does, for instance. There is a sense that WSWA was exploiting the issue to slow down the push for cannabis legalization.<\/p>\n In fact,\u00a0The Guardian<\/a>\u00a0in October 2016 reported that the Arizona Wine and Spirits Wholesale Association donated\u00a0$10,000 to Arizonans for Responsible Drug Policy, the group that was then campaigning against the state\u2019s cannabis legalization initiative, Proposition 205. While the November 2016 ballot saw big advances for cannabis in other states, Prop 205 was\u00a0rejected by Arizona voters<\/a>.<\/p>\n Recent\u00a0research has found<\/a>\u00a0that teens polled about their substance use are now saying cannabis was their first drug experience more often than alcohol or cigarettes. Of course, under the law, teens aren\u2019t supposed to be using any of those three. However, the trend presents an interesting warning to the alcohol industry, as today\u2019s teens will be tomorrow\u2019s legal consumers. The booze industry may fear being left behind and is figuring out how to keep their piece of the pie.<\/p>\n TELL US<\/strong>, do you think wine and weed can get along?<\/p>\n The post The Alcohol Industry Is Changing Its Mind About Cannabis<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
When the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America (WSWA) issued a policy position in support of a state\u2019s right \u201cto establish a legal, well-regulated, adult-use cannabis marketplace,\u201d it took many industry observers by surprise. Drawing a clear analogy between its own products and the herbal competition, WSWA said it \u201ccallsContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[363,5118,200,5119,605,50,3990,5120,461,648,170,139,369,5121,1209,5122,874,5123],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28168"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28168"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28169,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28168\/revisions\/28169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Potential for Industry Fusion<\/h4>\n
WSWA\u2019s Prohibitionist Past<\/h4>\n
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\nRead More: The Alcohol Industry Is Changing Its Mind About Cannabis<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"