COLUMBIA -- Stress-relieving. Pain-assuaging. Mood-regulating. These are some of the many potential benefits that Peak Drift Brewing Co. ascribed to its new line of Delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) seltzers, now available for purchase in restaurants across Main Street and at the brewery's home base on North Main.
At Peak Drift, both President Jordan Styles and Non-Alcoholic Division Manager Quinn Sellers resisted using the word "high" to describe the effects of these new seltzers.
In a Sept. 3 press release, Sellers likened the experience to "the feeling you get when ... someone says something really hilarious that you just can't stop laughing about (and) the sense of calm that washes over you as you finally catch your breath."
In an interview with the Free Times, Sellers added he's seen the drinks "curb anger," reduce inflammation and "take the edge off" during a person's menstrual cycle.
"These products aren't necessarily designed to do that (produce a 'high')," Styles added. "That is why these products are legal and have fallen onto that side. It's because they're not able to produce those effects."
Instead, Sellers and his team stick to phrases like "light euphoria" and "relaxation" when discussing the aftermath of consuming one of Peak Drift's seltzers, which come in three flavors -- a sweet and drinkable "Peach Daze," with 5 milligrams of THC, as well as a tart pineapple flavor and a floral blood orange and hibiscus blend, both of which contain 10mg of THC per can.
With the addition of 10mg of cannabidiol (CBD), a non-psychoactive component in cannabis that may aid in reducing anxiety and inflammation, in every can, both Sellers and Styles argue these drinks will not cause consumers the same motor and cognitive impairments associated with marijuana intoxication.
"They just relax you -- that's the crazy thing. It's not really like the other legal marijuana products, because this is a hemp product," Sellers said. "It's a functional, non-alcoholic beverage."
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Delta-9 THC is legal when it's derived from hemp plants, rather than marijuana. In South Carolina, Peak Drift isn't the first to utilize the increasingly popular product -- Charleston's High Rise Beverage Co. and Greenville's Rebel Rabbit offer a wide range of Delta-9 seltzers.
"Hemp, as a plant, is supposed to have essentially non-traceable amounts of THC," said Lisa Buffo, founder and CEO of the Cannabis Marketing Association, an organization that supports cannabis entrepreneurs in building and scaling a brand. "But, it can be extracted in this way -- and sold in this way."
But contrary to their seemingly small percentages of THC, Delta-9-based products are not a watered-down version of marijuana-derived THC. In fact, Buffo characterized this clause in the Farm Bill as a "loophole" for the creation of legal, intoxicating THC products.
"It ended up happening in a way that, I think, was not intended by the folks who wrote the Farm Bill," Buffo said. "That is something that they are working to address."
In South Carolina, the Department of Public Health requires THC-infused beverage manufacturers to follow federal labeling regulations, which include listing a product's active ingredients. These rules come after previous guidance that companies could not list THC, CBD or Delta-9 as ingredients in their hemp-derived products, despite the fact that these compounds are legal derivatives of hemp.
Shifting language in South Carolina's THC product regulations can lead to some challenges -- and, at times, discrepancies -- in cannabis marketing. Like other manufacturers, Peak Drift is tasked with navigating them as a brewery that has mostly produced alcoholic beverages.
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Peak Drift's product fact sheet still outlines specific guidelines for consumption -- including sipping your first beverage "slowly over about 30 minutes" before drinking another, which accounts for the "15 to 20 minutes" that Peak Drift says will the consumer to feel its effects.
The fact sheet also states the lower-dose Peach Daze "performs like a light beer," whereas the two higher-dose flavors are best suited for "a more experienced THC user." Peak Drift also suggests not consuming more than four drinks in one sitting, "as the more the customer consumes, the more relaxed they will get."
In the case of Peak Drift's seltzers, the advertised "relaxed" effect can be best described as a slowing down of your senses -- including cognition, judgment and reaction time. The effects are mostly cerebral, with an added, slight body tingling, making it an unsafe fit for a casual sip behind the wheel or for those pursuing complete sobriety.
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Like all other THC products across the country, Peak Drift's seltzers are illegal for consumers under the age of 21.
Sellers said the seltzers "aren't intoxicating. ... But because the laws are there, we have to follow that."
Buffo cited the need for brands to explain the nuanced effects of different THC products to consumers as one of the challenges of marketing a cannabis product -- especially since the effects of one THC product might vary on an individual basis.
"It can be very intimidating for businesses and marketers to start to tackle," she said. "How do you explain to folks that there's multiple different chemical compounds involved, (and) that they can have different effects individually and in combination with each other? That depends on each person with their biochemistry."
Inconsistency in the messaging around THC products, Buffo said, is especially common in states like South Carolina without legal cannabis dispensaries -- where hemp-based products can be sold in grocery stores, smoke shops and other retail spaces.
"With cannabis marketing, you have to go into the dispensary, and you have to talk to someone," Buffo said. "Those were all put in place for a reason, and this (hemp-derived market) sort of steps out of that."
When it comes to marketing Peak Drift's seltzers, Styles said he and his team have found an unexpected target audience in "older generations."
"(For) the generations that came through the '70s and the '80s, and may have dabbled in this stuff before, it's a different avenue for them to reintroduce themselves and re-explore the space that they may have had when they were in college," Styles said. "We may have not necessarily expected it on the forefront, but I think we've seen a very wide audience."
But Styles also cited critics of the product who "think you're just going to get high" from the seltzers, he said. "That's not exactly what the product is."
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