Mike Dunn with a can of Alte. photo/Tom Major
High on Hemp
So this month I’m putting my beer/beverage writer hat back on and calling for more state regulation of products people drink to feel buzzed. This might not seem like a radical position to you, but damn, I can’t believe I just wrote that.
Congress’ 2018 Farm Bill (a.k.a. The Agricultural Improvement Act of 2018) made it legal to grow hemp. Hemp and marijuana are two names for the same plant: cannabis. The only difference between them is the concentration of THC in the cannabis 30 days before harvest — below 0.3% is hemp, higher is marijuana, which the feds still consider a controlled substance.
The THC concentration in hemp may be low, but lab techs can still extract it. Furthermore, they can dial in those extraction processes to pull the specific molecules that have a double bond on the ninth carbon atom in the chain: Delta-9.
Delta-9 is optimal for creating a sense of euphoria, while Delta-8 and Delta-10 are more promising for medicinal use. But once it’s isolated, the source of the Delta-9 doesn’t really matter: five milligrams of dope is still five milligrams of dope.
Because hemp and hemp products are not regulated as controlled substances, anyone can sell them and anyone can buy ’em, so long as the seller complies with standard food safety regulations, when applicable. Beverages with THC from cannabis are age-restricted, but Delta-9 drinks from hemp are not. And their purity and potency can vary to an uncomfortable, if not dangerous degree.
“Maine is very favorable” to hemp beverages, said Mike Dunn, who with his wife, Meghan, partnered with Shipyard Brewing founder Fred Forsley to create a hemp-derived Delta-9 THC beverage called Alte. It officially launched at Three Dollar Deweys, in Portland’s Old Port, in late October, but Alte has been available at about 50 locations throughout Maine all fall, including Shipyard’s Portland tasting room on the East End.
Is the state being too favorable toward this intoxicating product? Dunn assured me that all the Maine producers of hemp-THC drinks have sold them responsibly so far.
“Everybody has been great about going in and educating the accounts to say twenty-one–plus,” Dunn said. “We don’t want to sell to underaged children.”
Dunn cited Alan and Robin Lapoint as examples. The couple, part of the team that took over Geary’s Brewing Co. from its namesake years ago, launched 1820 Brewing Company, which produces hemp-Delta-9 iced teas called Hop the Wave. The Lapoints also tell retailers their product is only for adults, the labels of Hop the Wave and Alte indicate they’re 21+ products, and their websites have those popups “restricting” access by minors, even though the law doesn’t require any of that.
I think it should, and then some. Testing for potency and impurities should also be required, as is the case for recreational marijuana in Maine. Dunn said researchers in Minnesota sampled 4,000 hemp-THC products from 1,500 retail locations and found wide discrepancies between labeled and actual concentrations. “Something claiming to be 10 milligrams, in some cases it’s 500 milligrams,” he said. “They found samples that were 1,500 [milligrams] per gummy. The average was 400.”
Dunn says there are out-of-state companies that don’t test every batch or aren’t testing for microbiological growth (mold, bacteria), pesticides, or residual solvents, like butane. And since the Farm Bill deregulated hemp, these products can freely cross state lines, unlike marijuana-derived THC edibles.
Dunn said Alte is the only company in the country using a cold-water extraction process for a nano-emulsion of THC. Many others use chemical extraction methods and then need to mask the nasty residual flavors those processes create with tons of sugar or aspartame. Alte keeps the flavor profile clean and calories low by adding about a teaspoon of agave per can, as well as all-natural, non-GMO botanicals.
When Maine’s new Legislature convenes next year, they should take the opportunity to look into the way hemp-derived THC is being sold in our state, and then begin the process of regulating these beverages to ensure they’re safe for consumption and sold responsibly. And no, I’m not high.
Subject suggestions, praise and castigations can be sent to Tom Major at leagueofbollards@gmail.com
