Can you take me higher? THC seltzers are booming in SC, but new rules could slow them down
Craft and Draft co-founder Kellan Monroe has seen several beverage trends roll through Columbia since opening the bottle shop and bar in 2014.
At the time, customers were interested in bitter IPAs. Then, a few years later, they moved onto alcoholic seltzers. Now, things are switching up once again, but this time Monroe said he finds customers drifting to a new kind of product: THC seltzers.
The non-alcoholic beverages contain doses of delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, a compound found in cannabis plants, the same plants that give us marijuana. The drinks are an option for people seeking a social beverage who don’t want to consume alcohol, Monroe said.
Seeing more demand from customers, breweries and retailers in Greenville, Charleston and Columbia have jumped on the trend. At Craft and Draft, Monroe has been selling THC seltzers from different vendors, such as Peak Drift Brewing Company and Triple, since December. He said he was first approached by distributors about adding the beverages about a year ago.
“It went from probably three to four brands that were available to now there’s a new brand about every week,” Monroe said.
Around for a couple years in South Carolina, the seltzers have been causing an increasing buzz around Columbia in recent months. But with some state lawmakers looking to tighten the loophole that makes them legal, their future in the area remains unclear.
‘It’s growing’
In operation since 2023, Columbia’s Peak Drift Brewing Company began producing test batches of its THC seltzers in June 2024. The company officially launched the product in August.
The brewery originally thought the seltzers wouldn’t be a lasting trend, said Quinn Sellers, non-alcoholic sales division manager for Peak Drift.
“We started pulling numbers throughout the state and doing some research and realized that it’s actually not going anywhere,” Sellers said. “It’s growing. If anything, it’s exponentially growing faster and faster.”
Right now, Peak Drift produces three flavors and sells them at the brewery and other places across Columbia. The seltzers contain either 5 milligrams or 10 milligrams of THC.
Sellers said he’s found that the drinks help “take the edge off the day.”
“You wake up the next morning feeling refreshed, instead of having a couple beers with your friends and kind of setting yourself back for the next day,” he said.
Sellers said that most people who have come in to order the THC seltzers have been the older generations, which surprised him. Over at Craft and Draft, Monroe said he sees more people in their 50s to 60s reaching for the new beverages, rather than younger age groups.
Monroe said he thinks the switch is part of a desire to drink more products that are non-alcoholic.
“The craft beer crowd is aging into a time where they’re drinking less alcohol,” Monroe said. ‘They’re also looking for options so they can still enjoy a beer, but not have the same negative side effects that alcohol comes with.”
How is it legal?
Marijuana remains illegal in South Carolina. But a federal farm bill passed in 2018 legalized hemp production, allowing for the sale of hemp products. These are defined as containing no more than 0.3% of delta-9 THC in dry weight.
South Carolina doesn’t have any regulations on hemp beverages, but two ongoing bills in the State House are looking to change that. The bills, H. 3924 and H. 4004, look to regulate more how the product is sold and distributed.
State Rep. Chris Wooten (R-Lexington), who is sponsoring both bills, said he’s concerned people will take advantage by producing products with more THC in them, no longer making it a hemp product. He wants the bills to help regulate the hemp industry and feels like there could still be more research done on hemp products, he said.
“Right now, any hemp-derived beverage should be regulated at whatever level,” Wooten said. “We can’t say that it’s illegal to put a certain amount of THC in a drink and limit it to a certain amount of THC, because THC in South Carolina is illegal currently … that’s why we went with the idea of any hemp-derived beverage.”
Ongoing discussions about the product are occurring in not just South Carolina. Will Spartin, co-founder and chief operating officer of Triple, said the company is keeping up with bills across 18 different states that are looking to regulate the product more, noting that the number of places they’re being challenged is “ever evolving.”
Triple launched its drinks in March 2024 and produces 3 milligram hemp-derived THC seltzers. The company sells to different retailers and stores in Columbia and across South Carolina. Spartan said that if a state doesn’t have regulations set in place, the company will self-regulate its own products.
Some states have regulations in place, while others default to federal law. In California, hemp products containing THC have been temporarily banned since September.
“There are states out there that have banned it, but there also are an increasing number of states that are allowing these projects and choosing to regulate them, because they’re seeing the true demand out there for them,” Spartan said. “We’ve all seen before that prohibition doesn’t work.”
Hopes for expansion
While talks of regulating THC seltzers in South Carolina are still ongoing, Peak Drift is hoping to add a fourth flavor to the three it already offers.
The brewery is looking at other non-alcoholic options as well, with Sellers saying they could start looking at producing canned water or nitro cold brew coffee.
But Sellers said he does want to see more regulations be put in place in South Carolina, so that it can “level the playing field” and make the products more easily accessible and available to customers.
“I do think that they’re very useful to pretty much anybody in any walk of life,” Sellers said. “If you deal with any kind of stress in your life and you already drink alcohol, this is a good alternative.”
This story was originally published March 16, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
