Do you enjoy a double espresso with a couple drops of CBD from your local barista before work? What about that CBD cocktail from your fave mixologist? If you indulge in any sort of CBD cocktail or beverage at a bar or restaurant, you might wanna sit down because we’ve got some bad news. Governor Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 2914 this week, which prohibits bars and liquor stores from selling alcoholic drinks that contain tetrahydrocannabinol or cannabinoids –that’s THC and CBD for the noobz in the crowd.
Since 2015, several Los Angeles restaurants and bars began adding CBD beverages to their menus. The pricey boozy drinks have fallen somewhere between status symbol and novelty item for restaurants offering the non-psychoactive cannabis extract as a supplement to various drinks. This trend only enhanced after California’s recreational market opened at the beginning of the year.
Hold up. AB 2914 prohibits selling alcoholic drinks that contain CBD. Coffee isn’t alcoholic. What’s the deal?
While AB 2914 only alludes to the prohibition of alcoholic beverages that contains CBD or THC, we have reason to believe that all products containing such substances will come to a halt. Back in July, the California Department of Public Health issued a statement that determined that restaurants and bars are not permitted to serve any products with CBD until the Food and Drug Administration approves it to be safe. Now that a state authorized bill aligns with the state’s bureaucrats, there’s minimal wiggle room.
Additionally, the passage of AB 2914 comes on the heels of several major beverage companies piquing interest in the CBD market. These companies will have to keep their hooch in Canada [or states where these libations aren’t outlawed –ed.], which is having its own troubles. Until the FDA provides some clarification as to what safe CBD is, those $59 CBD shakes you’ve savored in West Hollywood are a thing of the past.
To be clear, while the passage of this law seems like a little bit of closing the barn doors after the horses have left, the move makes sense. We all understand that CBD and THC both are controlled substances that need to be handled by licensed professionals to ensure proper doses, after all. While the bill itself will certainly put a pinch on some of the Golden State’s best mixologists in a concentration of major metro areas across the state, the rationale behind the measure makes sense.