Louisiana Hemp Drink Makers Form Coalition as Layoffs Begin

SOUTHEAST, August 3, 2026: Louisiana hemp beverage manufacturers formed a state trade coalition Tuesday, July 28, and its first act was a letter asking the state's congressional delegation to support federal legislation that would undo the nationwide THC cap taking effect in November.

The Louisiana Hemp Beverage Coalition is led by Joe Gerrity, chief executive of New Orleans-based Crescent Canna, according to WVUE Fox 8. The letter urges Louisiana's members of Congress to back the Lawful Hemp Protection Act, which would replace the coming prohibition with a national framework for producing and selling hemp-derived THC products.

Gerrity told the station he has already cut Crescent Canna's workforce of more than 40 employees in half because of the deadline. He is the first Southeast manufacturer to put a number on pre-deadline job losses. Crescent Canna introduced one of the first THC drinks sold in New Orleans and launched its Crescent 9 seltzer line in 2023.

Gerrity argued the federal bill would largely codify rules Louisiana producers already operate under. "It widely requires what we already do," he said. "We already don't sell to people under 21. We do test all of our products." Louisiana caps hemp beverages at 5mg of THC per serving in containers no smaller than 12 ounces, restricts sales to licensed retailers and buyers 21 and over, and requires every product to be registered with the state health department. Coverage of the launch put the Louisiana THC industry at $33 million, a figure attributed to the industry rather than to a state estimate.

Retailers are already fielding questions. About half the inventory at Cali Sober Market, a non-alcoholic bottle shop in Metairie, contains THC, and customers are asking whether products will remain on shelves by year end, associate Joni Dick told the station.

In South Carolina, where hemp THC products remain legal to buyers of any age after regulatory bills died in June, the industry is contracting from the farm side. State hemp farming permits have dropped by half since 2020, The Christian Science Monitor reported July 27. Allison Justice, a plant scientist who owns The Hemp Mine in Anderson and was among the state's first licensees, has cut her operation from more than 60 acres to under one acre and now sells primarily into pharmaceutical research. "Right now, it's a free-for-all," she said. An Opinion Diagnostics poll cited in the report found nearly 3 in 4 South Carolina respondents prefer regulated sales of edible hemp products to a ban. The South Carolina House passed strict consumable hemp rules this spring; the Senate adjourned without taking them up.

Frameworks elsewhere in the region are stable. Georgia limits hemp beverages to 10mg of total THC per 12-ounce container under Department of Agriculture Rule 40-32-5-.06, adopted with SB 494 and effective October 2024, while SB 33, which would adopt the federal 0.4mg-per-container standard, remains pending. Alabama's ABC Board has administered a 10mg-per-serving, 40mg-per-package regime since January. Florida's legislative session closed March 13 without passing any of the three filed hemp beverage bills, leaving current sales rules intact, according to a Greenspoon Marder analysis. Mississippi bars consumable hemp products outside the state's medical cannabis program under a June 2025 opinion from Attorney General Lynn Fitch, Cannabis Business Times reported; the beverage prohibition bill SB 2645 died in committee in February. Arkansas continues to enforce its ban under Act 629.

Whether Louisiana's coalition draws a response from the state's delegation, and whether other Southeast manufacturers disclose cuts comparable to Crescent Canna's, will determine if this becomes a regional story or a single company's decision.