The THC beverages industry represents a $1.6 billion opportunity for restaurant and bar operators, according to estimates from the National Restaurant Association.
But these products could soon be (mostly) illegal.
Hidden inside the massive 2025 federal spending bill is a provision that would prohibit most hemp products by capping THC at 0.4 mg per container. For comparison, most “micro-dosing” products contain at least triple the amount of Delta-9 THC.
While this law was set to go into effect in November, it was recently pushed back until December after the Senate passed a stopgap funding bill. With a one-month delay in place, advocates for hemp-based products are again pushing for industry regulation instead of restriction — and that includes the foodservice sector.
However, even with such a massive opportunity on the table, very few restaurants are serving THC beverages. Houston-based Logan’s Roadhouse is one of the only chain restaurants we could find advertising THC beverages with their new THC-infused cocktails.
So, why is it so hard to find restaurants serving hemp-based menu items?
The answer is simple: The legal landscape for hemp and THC-based products is complicated and ever-changing.
“Every state that permits these products has reached its own answer on dose, on how dose is measured, on labeling, on age verification, and on who needs a license to sell,” Adam Brownrout, an attorney with Reed Smith law firm, said. “And the ground keeps moving. Several states have overhauled their rules in roughly the last year. An operator can build a program around one set of requirements and watch the category close before it returns anything. What makes that combination difficult is the consequence of getting it wrong.”
The legality of cannabis-derived products began to change in 2018 with the passage of the 2018 farm bill, which removed hemp from the Controlled Substances Act — essentially legalizing it for the first time in decades. Since then, the FDA spent four years studying hemp-derived cannabinoids to figure out how best to regulate them and determined that Congress should create a new regulatory agency or authority to navigate this new territory.
Over the past several years, Congress has not acted, leaving a regulatory vacuum that has been filled by wildly varying state guidelines and restrictions, some of which overlap.
- 24 states allow the sale of hemp products but with local rules like age-based restrictions, or sales only through a dispensary. For example, in New York and New Jersey, you must be 21 to purchase, and in California you can only purchase through a registered dispensary.
- In 10 states, it is legal but potency or dose-restricted, like Louisiana and Maine, where THC servings are capped at 8 mg, and Minnesota, where products are capped at 10 mg.
- Five states have no specific legal framework; federal regulations apply.
- In 12 states, hemp-based product sales are limited to registered dispensaries, like Massachusetts and Connecticut.
- In 11 states, THC products are outright banned, including Idaho, California (which moved to ban THC-based products in an emergency October 2025 rule), and most recently Texas, which banned consumable hemp products of a concentration more than 0.3%.
Several states actually have specific guidelines in place for foodservice establishments, like New Jersey, which states that operators must obtain a license from the New Jersey Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control, and cannot sell more than 5 mg of THC per serving.
If nothing happens and the near-total THC product ban goes into effect in December, then it’s up to individual states to enforce the new federal law as a baseline or to impose other stricter regulations.
“State legal cannabis is federally unlawful … and that could be the same outcome with respect to state hemp THC products: federally unlawful, state legal, and being sold because there’s no federal enforcement,” Seth Goldberg, a partner at Pashman Stein Walder Hayden P.C., said. “Federal policy with respect to state legal cannabis has been hands-off for years. Provided states are regulating THC in hemp, the policy may not differ.”
With these legally murky waters in mind, it’s no wonder that most operators are not touching THC-derived products with a 10-foot-pole, even if it represents a new and exciting revenue stream.
For Logan’s Roadhouse — one of the brave few — these products represent an opportunity, and the company is confident that it is correctly following the law.
“Guests are looking for more choices in what they drink, including alternatives to traditional alcoholic beverages, and we see THC cocktails as another option we can responsibly offer adult guests,” Kaila Hughes, director of marketing at Logan’s Roadhouse, said. “We’ve been encouraged by the interest in the drinks since introducing them in Texas, and we plan to continue offering them as long as they meet the standards and regulations that apply to our restaurants.
Contact Joanna at joanna.fantozzi@informa.com