🚨 Hemp Ban in 2026 Jeanne Sullivan Explains 🌿

This week 📢I talk🎙️with Jeanne M. Sullivan and we discuss the THC/CBD potential ban in 2026! 👏🍷 🎇 🎉 ✨ 👏 🥂 😁

👀📹 Watch here: 👉👉 [https://youtu.be/1MSPWwJeCwA]🚀✨🍹

What’s really going on with the hemp beverage ban? 💥 Investor Jeanne Sullivan breaks it all down—laws, money, loopholes, and the path forward. 🚫🌿  @ThirstyThursdaysat3PMEST 

🧠 Summary and Takeaways:

What started with a loophole in the 2018 Farm Bill could end with a billion-dollar industry being banned in 2026. Jeanne Sullivan, veteran investor and cannabis industry expert, walks us through:

🌿 The origin of legal hemp beverages
🧃 The explosion of CBD/THC drinks in retail
🚫 The proposed 2026 ban slipped into HR 4121
💰 The economic impact on Total Wine, BevMo, and beyond
🧠 Why regulators don’t understand the category
📉 The alcohol industry’s evolving stance
🇪🇺 Why Europe is welcoming cannabis while the U.S. restricts it
💥 The consumer backlash that could turn the tide

🎯 CTA: Watch, share, and speak out. Contact your representative and help save the hemp beverage category before it disappears.

I downloaded H.R. 4141 and had Chat GPT summarize it and here's the output told me: 

"This bill does not explicitly ban CBD or THC drinks — but it gives FDA the power to effectively eliminate hemp-derived THC beverages unless strict limits, age gates, and retail controls are adopted." 

Well, who's in charge of that? How do we make that happen? We need to be very vocal about this bill!!

NOW ON YOUTUBE!!! Thank you for Listening! Join us on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter!

Host Jessie Ott's Profile on LinkedIn

Transcript

Jeanne Sullivan (00:00)
There's so much in the way of health benefits. So I love, especially coming from a tech world, the science and the technology around the product. Really cool stuff, great stuff. But because of the US view around it, no research has been able to be done and a lot of prohibition and too many rules. So that brings me up to something really exciting to tell you. And that is...

Jessie Ott (00:22)
All right.

Jeanne Sullivan (00:25)
Mitch McConnell, that old guy sitting in Kentucky, really cared about the hemp people. And in 2018, he was the force that passed the Farm Bill. Now that's the genesis of how all this started. Here's what happened. He wanted to take care of the hemp farmers and there's so much you can do with hemp.

Jessie Ott (00:42)
Okay.

Jeanne Sullivan (00:49)
2018, Mitch McConnell passes the hemp bill. Guess what happened? It made hemp federally legal.

So all those hemp products, CBD, that's why you can mail those all around. Got it? Well, here's what happened. Smart founders, and I'm thankful for them, because if you and your listeners haven't tried these products, you're missing a trick, and you gotta hurry up for a reason I'm about to tell you. They found the loophole and started making delicious, I mean fabulous,

Jessie Ott (01:03)
Mm-hmm. You

Jeanne Sullivan (01:25)
hemp-derived drinks.

Well, guess what happened. They started to be sold in gas stations and in convenience stores. Not the beautiful brands you would see in Total Wine, but

I'm talking about all kinds of products. Gummies made from hemp, drinks, even flour to smoke. No age gate. Boy, that got the regulators and legislators really ramped up.

Jessie Ott (01:53)
the

Jeanne Sullivan (01:54)
And they run to old Mitch, and old Mitch really, really got wrapped around the axle on that. And that, you add that

with the prohibitionists for cannabis, they bore down on him. And he thought, ⁓ I made a mistake. So guess what happened when the government was shut down? Well, the Congress slipped.

It's called HR 4121. They slipped all the hemp products into that, reopened the government and put a ban on these hemp products. Yeah, guess what? In November of this year, 2026, in theory, they are completely banned and not allowed to be sold in these stores. Go figure.

Jessie Ott (02:28)
What?

This is ridiculous.

Hello everybody and welcome to Thursday Thursday. My name is Jessie Ott and I have Jeanne Sullivan here, investor, speaker and advisor. And she found her way to the cannabis industry via $400 million tech fund out of New York City. Jeanne, welcome to Thursday Thursdays.

Jeanne Sullivan (03:27)
Thank you.

Thank you, Jessie. So pleased to be here.

Jessie Ott (03:31)
I'm excited. I'm excited to unfold all the fun things. First, let's start off with where you calling from.

Jeanne Sullivan (03:36)
New York City, which is where I've lived for many, years, love being here. I pretend I am, ⁓ luckily I get to put Chicago down for birthplace, but I did come here more than 40 years ago and I love being here. ⁓

Jessie Ott (03:41)
Are you from there?

Yeah.

Yeah,

that seems like you're pretty much permanent resident. Yeah, I lived there for about three years.

Jeanne Sullivan (03:57)
Yeah, I'll take it.

I think everyone should live here once in their life.

Jessie Ott (04:04)
Yeah, it's definitely an experience. I miss the cultural aspects to it, of course. You know, I would have so much fun when sitting on a random bar somewhere, you know, and you meet all kinds of people from everywhere. It was fun to try to guess the accent and the language and where they're from. It's great.

Jeanne Sullivan (04:24)
⁓ So eclectic and then I love the museums and the Broadway shows and the concerts. I'm 300 feet from the Metropolitan Opera House, so I've really become an opera lover over time.

Jessie Ott (04:34)
Nice.

wow, okay, that's awesome.

Jeanne Sullivan (04:38)
Never mind our 35,000 fabulous restaurants and bars and places to hang out.

Jessie Ott (04:44)
Yeah. I mean, even as a, you know, I started my career there, you can get a really good meal for a good price. You know, there's so much competition.

Jeanne Sullivan (04:52)
Yeah, it's great. Come

here and I'll take you to a little neighborhood joint that you will love.

Jessie Ott (04:57)
Okay. Sounds good to me. I'm in. That's awesome. So, Jeanne, tell us how you kind of started out and, and, and where you went to school and kind of just give us a little background on your history.

Jeanne Sullivan (05:09)
So I came into the food and beverage industry through the back door. And that is because, as you shared already, what happened actually was in 2014, I decided it was time to leave my fund. I thought that was a pretty good track record after 18 years. Don't you think that's pretty good to survive your partners that long? We had a good time and it was a great journey. It really was.

Jessie Ott (05:26)
That's pretty good.

Jeanne Sullivan (05:33)
In my investing life as an institutional investor, I counted, I've invested in 160 companies. So I've seen the smartest of the smart and the stupid of the stupidest, and sometimes they're in the same company.

Jessie Ott (05:41)
Wow.

you

Jeanne Sullivan (05:48)
No doubt. I've seen great CEOs and teams in action and the opposite. So in 2014, here's what happened. New York passed the Compassionate Care Act, which opened the door for medical cannabis in New York state. And my husband said, I'm doing this. And I said, I know nothing about it. Look, I'm from the just say no era. I didn't think you were supposed to.

Jessie Ott (05:49)
I can identify.

Jeanne Sullivan (06:15)
do all that. I toked a little bit, of course, in college, but I didn't really smoke or use cannabis, but he did. And I said, I better learn this. I I started the journey then, went to the great big conferences and the biggest name called Arcview put a net over me and said, we need you. And they said, I want classically trained investors. We need help with investors.

and good companies to invest in. Well, that was my life. Back to your ⁓ educational pedigree, I grew up in Illinois, went to the University of Illinois, have a marketing and journalism and advertising background. So that was a good foundation. But you know what? Along the way in my later 20s, I felt I needed more and I went to law school. And that's kind of my secret weapon because I...

Jessie Ott (06:42)
Yeah.

wow.

Jeanne Sullivan (07:06)
The thought of practicing sounded pretty boring. And let me tell you, Jessie, every lawyer friend I have begged me to get them out of the practice and into a company. it's been confirmed. It's a pretty interesting role. But I knew it wasn't quite for me. But I've used that to leverage. in the investing world, you have a lot of contracts and hefty stuff. So that helps me be not afraid of all that to be

handed with you. So that's been interesting. So here's what happened. So this Arcview experience was fabulous. They were the game in town, funded by two people that really didn't know that much about finance, but they certainly cared about the social justice issues. Why are people going to prison and jail just for, you know, a plant? And unfortunately, that's still the case. It's a little better, but it's still the case.

Jessie Ott (07:53)
Right.

It's ridiculous.

Jeanne Sullivan (08:00)
and ⁓ thousands of people. And this gentleman by the name of Steve D'Angelo was the founder of Arcview along with another guy named Troy Dayton. Two great guys. Well, what happened was we put on five or six big events a year and it became the natural breeding ground for investors and entrepreneurs to meet each other, kind of serendipitously. And that group

Jessie Ott (08:16)
⁓ yeah.

Jeanne Sullivan (08:26)
of investors invested more than $350 million in every company, cannabis company and hemp company you can name. So a lot. So that's how I learned the ropes. Every year, five or six big events, speaking or going to the

Jessie Ott (08:30)
Ooh. That's a lot.

Jeanne Sullivan (08:43)
big conferences beside Arcview, learning the ropes, going into dispensaries, going into cultivation shops, going into processors, meeting all these operators.

a great experience. Now, I don't want to build it up so much because here's what happened. It was great for a long while. Then guess what happened? People lost a lot of money. They invested in a lot of those companies. And then, know, compression of flower happened. People, well, here's what really happened.

Jessie Ott (09:14)
Yeah, we lost a lot of money in Constellations deal.

Jeanne Sullivan (09:17)
Yes,

Constellation, a great company that invested a lot of money into Canopy in British Columbia, led by a smart guy then who really felt like he could take that entity further. Well, guess what happened? Now, Justin Trudeau had the right idea. He built opportunity, revenue, wealth, ⁓

Jessie Ott (09:20)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Okay.

Jeanne Sullivan (09:44)
for a lot of people in Canada. And the US companies went public in Canada. So there was a lot of wealth traded, and certainly from about 2014 through about 2019. But then in the US, no legalization, no real banking, no interstate commerce. You know, if you built the Jessie product in California, you're not allowed to ship it to New York.

Jessie Ott (10:03)
Yep.

Jeanne Sullivan (10:10)
What's with that? But see, in Canada, you could. He saw that making it federally legal was critical. Now, let me

Jessie Ott (10:18)
Yeah.

Jeanne Sullivan (10:19)
tell you, one of my best speaking engagements was when I was asked, and then I used this as the moderator to say, what do you wish you knew 10 years ago when you got in this business? And certainly the things I just told you, those are included. But you know what else? We never understood.

the huge power of the prohibitionists for cannabis, anti-cannabis, coming up with all kinds of reasons. Now, is there harm? Sure. Do people OD? You can't really die from an overdose because it affects different parts of your brain and body than liquor, but you certainly could be out for a week or a month if you overdose. However,

Jessie Ott (10:41)
Yep.

Jeanne Sullivan (11:02)
There's so much in the way of health benefits. So I love, especially coming from a tech world, the science and the technology around the product. Really cool stuff, great stuff. But because of the US view around it, no research has been able to be done and a lot of prohibition and too many rules. So that brings me up to something really exciting to tell you. And that is...

Jessie Ott (11:24)
All right.

Jeanne Sullivan (11:27)
Mitch McConnell, that old guy sitting in Kentucky, really cared about the hemp people. And in 2018, he was the force that passed the Farm Bill. Now that's the genesis of how all this started. Here's what happened. He wanted to take care of the hemp farmers and there's so much you can do with hemp.

Jessie Ott (11:44)
Okay.

Jeanne Sullivan (11:51)
You know, way back in the old days, just used hemp for, mean, hemp was used for the sails, for ships. And it's, yeah, in fact, yeah, and in fact, a big ordeal happened on prohibition back in the 30s because Hearst prohibited hemp from being used as paper because he had a lot of investments in the timber industry.

Jessie Ott (11:59)
⁓ I didn't know that. You

Jeanne Sullivan (12:19)
Go figure.

Follow the money,

Jessie Ott (12:20)
All

of the money, the trail is there.

Jeanne Sullivan (12:23)
So that's the prohibition. Yeah. Yeah. And guess what? We're going to run out of paper unless something's done to bring hemp. And I'm dealing with companies that are doing that. But it's tricky. So these prohibitions started way back, like 1906. have an investment in a company called that because some of the first Narcotics Tax Act.

Jessie Ott (12:24)
That would make more sense to have hemp paper.

that's too bad.

Jeanne Sullivan (12:47)
happened back then. So this has been going on a long time. And then Richard Nixon put the nail in the coffin and definitely passed the real prohibition against cannabis. So that's kind of the generous. But back to 2018, Mitch McConnell passes the hemp bill. Guess what happened? It made hemp federally legal.

So all those hemp products, CBD, that's why you can mail those all around. Got it? Well, here's what happened. Smart founders, and I'm thankful for them, because if you and your listeners haven't tried these products, you're missing a trick, and you gotta hurry up for a reason I'm about to tell you. They found the loophole and started making delicious, I mean fabulous,

Jessie Ott (13:15)
Mm-hmm. You

Jeanne Sullivan (13:37)
hemp-derived drinks.

Now believe me, they weren't always great tasting. In fact, I dealt with several founders who tried to de-alkalize beer and add cannabis. Forget it. These things tasted terrible. And millions were spent on those companies trying to de-alkalize wine, de-alkalize beer, a disaster.

Jessie Ott (13:52)
Wow. ⁓

Jeanne Sullivan (14:03)
Finally,

Smart founders got together and figured out how to formulate a hemp-derived drink with delicious terpenes and flavors and low sugar, low-dose sugar, not all of them, but the ones I like are under five grams of sugar and only five milligrams or 10 milligrams of THC. So that's low dose. In keeping with the low,

Jessie Ott (14:18)
Yeah.

Jeanne Sullivan (14:29)
you know, trend in alcohol. So all that's in sync and it just in the last, I'd say three years, have these drinks just come in abundance. And guess what? Smart retailers like Total Wine, Bevmo, ABC have these drinks in abundance. I mean, it is shocking.

Jessie Ott (14:30)
Blowing out. Yep. Yeah.

Jeanne Sullivan (14:55)
Do you follow Total Wine, an amazing retailer, privately held, and billions of dollars in revenue? Well, if you walked into a Total Wine and they're in 11 states and one's in New Jersey, so I go to that, you would see a shelf 50 feet wide filled with these products. So I just buy the ones I've never tried and wanna try and let me tell you, delicious. Sounds good, right?

Jessie Ott (14:58)
Mm-hmm

you you

Jeanne Sullivan (15:24)
Well, guess what happened. They started to be sold in gas stations and in convenience stores. Not the beautiful brands I just you would see in Total Wine, but

I'm talking about all kinds of products. Gummies made from hemp, drinks, even flour to smoke. No age gate. Boy, that got the regulators and legislators really ramped up.

Jessie Ott (15:50)
the

Jeanne Sullivan (15:51)
And they run to old Mitch, and old Mitch really, really got wrapped around the axle on that. And that, you add that

with the prohibitionists for cannabis, they bore down on him. And he thought, ⁓ I made a mistake. So guess what happened when the government was shut down? Well, the Congress slipped.

It's called HR 4121. They slipped all the hemp products into that, reopened the government and put a ban on these hemp products. Yeah, guess what? In November of this year, 2026, in theory, they are completely banned and not allowed to be sold in these stores. Go figure.

Jessie Ott (16:25)
What?

This is ridiculous.

Jeanne Sullivan (16:38)
Crazy.

Jessie Ott (16:39)
How do you just slip a bill in there? Was it part of something else?

Jeanne Sullivan (16:41)
Yeah, no conversation.

Part of the government reopen package. We're sick about this. Because guess what? A lot of people who realize that they're drinking too much and maybe want alternatives, like just what's happened in some of the beverage industry, liquor industry, found their way to these alternatives.

Jessie Ott (16:48)
my gosh.

Jeanne Sullivan (17:04)
And isn't that a good thing, maybe in part? Now, believe me, I love my beautiful wines or gorgeous, you know, single malts. But I'm sorry to tell you that as you get older, you start reading these articles. How good is it for you? And you kind of start paying attention. I'm sorry to tell you that because I got some years on you. And that's what happened to my husband.

Jessie Ott (17:04)
Okay.

You

Jeanne Sullivan (17:29)
and he loves, he's an Irish guy, American, Irish guy, loves his scotch and his single malts. He's really turned to these. They satisfy him. And a curious thing, he doesn't want more than one. It's good enough, five or eight or 10 milligrams, and that's still low dose. What do you think of all that?

Jessie Ott (17:38)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, I mean, I would like to know what the recourse is. I mean, slipping something that big in a reopen package is shameful, first of all, whoever did that.

Jeanne Sullivan (18:01)
I

agree.

Jessie Ott (18:03)
And I doubt, I don't know what this reopen package was, but I doubt anybody really realized it was there. And I don't know who submitted it or how it got to be. But they're going to have to figure out how to fix it. And it needs to be, Congress needs to vote on it. Because I would imagine that these states where these beverages are legal,

their representatives are going to support them because of the money that they're bringing in.

Jeanne Sullivan (18:28)
Think of what Total Wine must be saying. It has produced billions for them, too.

Jessie Ott (18:34)
Right. I'm just, what are you seeing or what are, have you talked or reached out to Total Wine or the Total Wines of the world and just see what kind of legislation they're proposing or trying to work with people on the Hill?

Jeanne Sullivan (18:48)
Right now, everybody's clutching their pearls, including the guys at Total Wine. It's really in chaotic state. And yes, there are two really great associations who are fighting and all that, but the liquor industry is definitely split. The retailers that I've mentioned, they want this.

Jessie Ott (19:07)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Jeanne Sullivan (19:08)
the liquor industry, including in Mitch McConnell's constituency of the bourbon industry, they're fighting it. So it's two minds. But make no mistake, they are the future acquirers of these beautiful products, if hopefully they don't get banned. So it's in a state of chaos, it's worthy of watching, and that'd be fun to come back in six months and see if there's been some progress.

Jessie Ott (19:22)
Yeah.

Yeah, I know, agreed.

Jeanne Sullivan (19:34)
There's a big fly

in, yeah, there's a big fly in to DC coming up. Two wonderful associations led by smart people. One's called the Hemp Beverage Alliance, HBA. They call on beverage brands and the general ecosystem, very active and together. The other is the Coalition for Adult Beverage Alternatives, CABA, led by a

Jessie Ott (19:47)
Okay. Okay.

Jeanne Sullivan (19:59)
dynamic woman, you'd probably enjoy having her on, and they really focus on the retailers and the distributors. And so it's all up in the air. think about it, Congress, the Senate, and the President have all signed off on this. So it's not necessarily going to be easy to unravel, but they're trying. One thing that's being thought through is can they create a two-year extension?

to let people figure it out.

Jessie Ott (20:24)
Right, exactly.

That's what I was thinking. But, know, Trump, why does he, I mean, he should just legalize it.

Jeanne Sullivan (20:27)
Cause look.

I know, we don't even want, you know, your-

Jessie Ott (20:32)
He has no morals

at all and he doesn't listen to anybody. Just legalize it and this is all over.

Jeanne Sullivan (20:38)
Correct, wouldn't that be great? And so you're probably aware that they did rescheduling to what's called S3, schedule three. Cannabis up till just recently was schedule one, sitting alongside LSD and heroin. And due to a lot of pressure, after years of effort, it just got moved to S3. So that'll help. But now with this ban, guess what?

Jessie Ott (20:39)
Yes.

Jeanne Sullivan (21:03)
Hemp gets back to S1 again. So go figure. So you're right, we begged and want descheduling, not rescheduling, which we just got. But he has had to throw it over to the ⁓ DOJ to figure it all out. So what's also in chaos is how quickly might that happen, sooner or later? So that's one of the big issues there.

I'm hopeful that there are changes. One of the hopes is to accept out the hemp beverages. Now look, here's where some smart states have done some work. Tennessee does not have a full program, but they have a lot of hemp and hemp stores. And they have an age gate as demanded by the state. I'm for that. So when you go into a hemp store, you have to prove you're 21.

Jessie Ott (21:49)
Yeah, for sure.

Jeanne Sullivan (21:53)
not go to a gas station if you're 12 and buy a 30 milligram gummy or drink. See, that's what happened. It is, but that's what happened that screwed it up.

Jessie Ott (21:59)
It's just ridiculous anyway though.

That should just be the case anyway.

Jeanne Sullivan (22:07)
and we're hopeful that that plus maybe what they're thinking about is putting a limit on the milligram because in California and other states you could have 100 milligram, even cannabis today in some of the dispensaries. That's kind of state, that's a lot, that's state by state regulated. So I'd be very happy if it was limited to five or 10 milligrams on these drinks.

Jessie Ott (22:23)
That's enough. That's a lot. Yeah.

Jeanne Sullivan (22:33)
so that would work and then an age gate and let them still be sold in the liquor stores where there is an age gate. Pretty wild story wouldn't you say?

Jessie Ott (22:42)
Do you know how many millions of products were sold in 2025?

Jeanne Sullivan (22:46)
Yes,

I do. Just the beverages were a billion dollars in 2025, whereas all the hemp products and all are 30 to 32 billion dollar industry, just like cannabis derived products, which are also 32 billion this past year. So it's huge.

Jessie Ott (23:05)
Do you think Trump is

gonna support that? I just don't see him supporting that because he's a money guy.

Jeanne Sullivan (23:11)
He is. So I think it comes down to just legislators and people not understanding what's hemp, what's cannabis, it's all complete. I know, I know it's all, I think ⁓ needs to be demystified with smart people. But then don't forget there's this whole prohibitionist group that layers into, you know, our kids are gonna get this. That's the outcry.

Jessie Ott (23:18)
Who gets rid of a category that size?

Yeah, well, I mean, they get access to guns too. So, you know, what? can't... ⁓

Jeanne Sullivan (23:40)
So let me...

No.

So here's one of my joys. So it has been hard to be in this zany business with all these regulations. And back to my question, what do I wish I knew 10, 12 years ago? I thought surely legalization was going to happen. At least,

Jessie Ott (24:01)
It's all

we all do. We never thought it would ever be this big of a deal.

Jeanne Sullivan (24:03)
Guess what?

hasn't happened yet except for hemp and now they're reversing that. So it's been hard the last four years at least. COVID didn't help and then the last few years where people have lost a lot of money and then all these silly regulations. So what's happened is for me, someone has opened the door to Europe for me. Guess what? Germany has declared

Jessie Ott (24:14)
Yeah. Yeah.

Jeanne Sullivan (24:30)
medical cannabis, federally legal. So has Slovenia and just last week the Czech Republic, the UK has a broad set of products. They haven't made the declaration, but they allow these products. And the Netherlands, probably think that Amsterdam's fully legal. It's not. It was just a gray market. Don't ask, don't tell. But they now have a new pilot program where they've issued 10 licenses.

Jessie Ott (24:32)
Really? Thank

Jeanne Sullivan (24:57)
to some great operators. I had one on stage in London in November, and they're allowed to sell to 80 of the coffee shops. So it's happening in Europe. In a, yeah, there you go, yeah.

Jessie Ott (25:05)
Cool. Okay. That's good to know with my export business. We've got a ⁓

hemp and CBD product.

Jeanne Sullivan (25:15)
Well, they love it in France, they love that in Germany, they love that in the UK. So go for it. And if I can open doors for you, I'd be happy to. Yeah, because they have that in, they embrace that in Europe.

Jessie Ott (25:22)
Okay.

yeah, let's talk, cuz

That'd be great.

Jeanne Sullivan (25:32)
Yeah, it's exciting. And you know what? If hemp's gonna be banned, your exporting needs to happen now. Now I'm hopeful with you that's gonna be lifted or changed. However, now's your time to get exporting going.

Jessie Ott (25:39)
Yeah, it needs to happen now.

Yeah, you're right. Yep. Well, Willie Nelson. I got in touch with them somehow right away because I think they launched like this last spring.

Jeanne Sullivan (25:56)
Are you ready? And made $80 million of revenue. It's a beautiful drink. I have it in my refrigerator. It's a whole 750-milliliter bottle, beautiful, of just THC. And it tells you how much you need for so many milligrams. So we have a little measuring cup and pour off maybe.

Jessie Ott (26:01)
THAT IS SO INSANE!

Jeanne Sullivan (26:20)
one or one and a half ounces, then put like black cherry or I like just plain Pellegrino. And or John, my husband puts pineapple flavoring in or the black cherry one night. And so he's just bartending himself and very, I'm glad you're laughing because I'm laughing too. When I told him, okay, band might stick, he said, I'm going back to Scotch.

Jessie Ott (26:34)
You

That's fun!

Jeanne Sullivan (26:46)
Then I'm pearl clutching.

Jessie Ott (26:48)
Yeah

Jeanne Sullivan (26:52)
He says

to me, Jeanne, I haven't given it up totally. He said, but the next day I do not feel as well as I do with drinking these. I feel no hangover. It's no, no issue. It's a whole different feeling.

Jessie Ott (27:02)
Yeah, agreed.

Yeah,

you just want to kind of relax and that's what it does. It just helps you kind of relax a little bit. And yeah, the older you get, the less you can drink. you know, my wife and I are in our 50s. I'm turning 50 next month and every time it just gets harder and harder, you know. It's definitely good to see that we now do have all these alternatives at our age.

Jeanne Sullivan (27:09)
See ya.

Can you buy

that Willys? You know, he sells it online too, but can you buy it at a liquor store in Atlanta?

Jessie Ott (27:36)
Orlando? I don't know.

Jeanne Sullivan (27:38)
Yes, you've got ABC there. Go to ABC and take a look at what's there and you're going to be pleasantly shocked. Yes, ABC is a great, great retailer.

Jessie Ott (27:40)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, we've got a good one here in Lake Mary too. It's pretty big.

Jeanne Sullivan (27:52)
Yeah,

yeah, yeah. So that's exciting. So I have renewed enthusiasm because of International. They don't quite have the drink ship, but I hope that they will. I have renewed enthusiasm about, know, hopefully staying the course. And then one thing that's also interesting to talk about, as you well know, being in the business, is what's happened with the fall off of revenue in the alcohol and wine.

business. My daughter works for a great wine distributor here in New York. So we want to see that prosper. But as you know, I think the latest thing I read was a use by adults has fallen to 54 percent in 2025 of usage, especially by young people and women. So I find that interesting. Now, why did this happen? I looked that up. A combination of people using GLP-1

Jessie Ott (28:38)
⁓

Yep.

Jeanne Sullivan (28:47)
⁓ to lose

weight was an issue. COVID was an issue because people, know, and of course some people drink more and cannabis use. So the combination of those three has made a change. Plus what I told you, as people get older, you read these articles, you know, is it so great for you and all that. So that combined with no and low offerings by wine or beverage industry, the better for you thought.

And then these beautiful retailers having these array of products. I mean, every kind of formulations, lemonades, teas, we like the more black cherry kind of taste.

How can this band survive? Tell me.

Jessie Ott (29:34)
I can tell you this. People don't know about it.

and people that drink it don't know about it. And they're gonna be mad. And consumers are gonna be, I think it's gonna be a fight.

Jeanne Sullivan (29:42)
Yeah.

go to the street, protests, big protests.

Jessie Ott (29:49)
There's just too much money being made in it. Like, why would you ever do that?

Jeanne Sullivan (29:52)
There is.

couldn't agree more. That's for sure.

Jessie Ott (29:57)
Do you think that someone from Mitch McConnell's office or him himself did that?

Jeanne Sullivan (30:00)
They helped do that, sure. Yes. yeah. yeah. They were, they fought to have this reversed and it's because of that age gate issue and kids, you know, stories on that.

Jessie Ott (30:02)
I mean, did they slip that little thing in the open? Yeah.

Well, you know, the biometric ID system is becoming more more aware. There's a lot more awareness on it all over the world, actually, especially airports. mean, you go to an airport today and you don't even need your license. They just take your picture. Well, you need their license. I didn't need my boarding pass. They just, they use your face. And, you know,

Jeanne Sullivan (30:36)
Right.

right.

Jessie Ott (30:39)
I one time was going to sell technology to sell the convenience stores. And when I started talking to the staff, they were like, this would be great because you can connect your credit cards to it, your age, they verify your license immediately. so, you know, the states are really behind this because they don't want underage use of anything, whether that be, you know, tobacco or alcohol or anything else.

Jeanne Sullivan (30:59)
Sure. Sure.

Jessie Ott (31:04)
And I know in the state of Texas now, I don't know if there's any updates from it, but last year they passed. There was a kid that got, I can't remember if he overdosed or what happened. He was 14. He didn't get carded or whatever, died. And she's been pushing for this biometric ID system in the state of Texas. And I think by the end of the year or the next two years, everybody's going to have to go to that biometric ID system.

You know, if that is something that we can get behind and get in convenience stores, because that seems to be where the problems are.

We could solve that. That could be a great solve.

Jeanne Sullivan (31:41)
I'm for it.

Yes, I like that. I think that's right. That's one solution here.

Jessie Ott (31:48)
Yeah.

Jeanne Sullivan (31:48)
I'm hopeful, but it is a big ordeal.

Jessie Ott (31:51)
I mean, why not go, okay, let's ban the sale in convenience stores.

Jeanne Sullivan (31:57)
Right, and gas stations.

Jessie Ott (31:59)
And gas stations. Okay. I mean, we can we can manage that. I don't know what percentage of the sales it is. I'm sure it's not more than Total.

Jeanne Sullivan (32:03)
Yes.

Yeah.

No, I would say no. But that got people revved up. And he then absolutely felt he made a mistake by this loophole occurring of being able to take the product and turn it into, you know, psychoactive products. Because they are. There's abuse. And also some of these products can be very high level of milligrams. But

Jessie Ott (32:09)
So, you

Yeah.

Jeanne Sullivan (32:32)
You know, I'm for people having education, knowledge, and that I am for this age gate. So some of these hemp stores that I'm well familiar with do sell products at very big milligrams. you I'm for freedom, personal freedoms, but certainly for this age gate, which would manage it so the kids don't get a hold of

Jessie Ott (32:47)
Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, how is it different than alcohol? I mean, we still sell alcohol in convenience stores.

Jeanne Sullivan (32:58)
I know.

I know.

Jessie Ott (33:04)
So why pick on this one?

Jeanne Sullivan (33:07)
I know.

I'm sure there was abuse on the age gate problem and that's how kids would get a hold of them and then that got, you know, really got people going.

Jessie Ott (33:17)
Yeah, I guess what we can do on behalf of, know, Thursday, Thursdays is get the message out to as many people as we can to reach out to their Congress, you know, the Senate, the Senate's and their Congress people and start having these conversations because if people don't have that awareness, nothing's going to get done about it.

Jeanne Sullivan (33:27)
Yes.

Jessie Ott (33:37)
And I know there's lobbyists that are gonna work on it. You've got your organization, the HIPAA organizations are gonna do what they can, but I think ultimately it's gonna be left to the consumer and the consumers are gonna be pissed. And I don't see this ban staying. I don't see it being successful.

Jeanne Sullivan (33:50)
There's no doubt.

I'm hopeful you're right. I'm really hopeful you're right.

Jessie Ott (33:57)
And if they do,

it'll be, if this happens under Trump's administration, he will not get reelected. And that's what it's going to come down to.

Do you want your party to get reelected or not? Because this is a big enough issue that it can change that.

Jeanne Sullivan (34:08)
Yeah, think it would create, right, think it would,

sure, I think it would create favor for him. But you're right, people don't know, they don't understand this. It just got slipped in even with no discussion. Look at you, you're smart, you read, you know, and just for me to tell you this story, you know?

Jessie Ott (34:14)
Go.

Yeah.

It's ridiculous.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, so I'm gonna post, I'm gonna, I don't know, there a link to it that we can share it out with people and have them...

Jeanne Sullivan (34:31)
Good.

I'll send you a link. Sure. I'll send you a link. Sure. That's a good idea.

Jessie Ott (34:39)
to the evidence of what it is and

let's just start having conversations about it and telling people about it and ⁓ having them share it out to the communities because they need to connect with their elected officials.

Jeanne Sullivan (34:45)
Yeah.

Great.

Sure.

You know, all along for the 12 years I've been in this whole crazy industry, that's been part of the problem. There's a lack of understanding, so people don't really understand the business. And second of all, it's certainly low priority. You know, they have many other things on their agenda. And so that has always been part of the problem. I've had the fun of going to lobby days where we go to the Hill and talk to various

Jessie Ott (35:05)
Yeah.

Jeanne Sullivan (35:22)
Senate and congressional offices. It's a fascinating experience, but it's shocking to me they don't understand. We were fighting for banking, like real banks, and ⁓ really they didn't know that. So it's interesting that there is a lack of knowledge all around. And the.

Jessie Ott (35:26)
Yeah. Yeah,

is there banks that can support?

Jeanne Sullivan (35:42)
So local community and credit unions do, but the big banks don't. Go figure.

Jessie Ott (35:42)
them now? Okay. Yeah. Well, I'll tell

you this. My business partner, Bob, when we started specialty brands up this past year, he went to Wells Fargo and tried to open up a bank account and we had our hemp product on our website and he mentioned it or they found it or something and they're like, no, you can't bank with us.

Jeanne Sullivan (36:04)
Yeah. Yeah,

go figure. And that was federal illegal product.

Jessie Ott (36:10)
And we're like, yeah, peace out. I don't want anything to do with you anyway. Yep.

Jeanne Sullivan (36:13)
See this, the stigma lives

and that's a shame.

Jessie Ott (36:20)
Well, remember the 80s? Remember how bad the Reagans were about it?

Jeanne Sullivan (36:23)
Yes, just say no. And so we in the business do a lot of laughs and parodies about that.

Jessie Ott (36:25)
Yeah, I mean, it was pretty bad.

Yeah, well, how does that, how are you doing in terms of an investor? it kind of everybody's on hold at the moment?

Jeanne Sullivan (36:40)
You know, it's the right question. So I still run a quarterly investor meeting for the fund I run for Arcview, which is a cannabis and hemp fund. And ⁓ this quarter, somebody brilliant is going to be our guest speaker, a guy named Bo Whitney. This will be one of the links I'll send you. And he is a longtime analyst. Whitney Economics is the name of his business.

and he's going to speak and he's done a lot of writing even on his website at no charge are some of his white papers. And then at the very same meeting, we're going to have one of our companies called 1906, which I mentioned earlier, a beautiful set of cannabis products, but also some hemp products. And we said that to Peter, the CEO, magnificent Peter Barsoom. Brilliant guy.

Peter, what's gonna happen? So he's kind of on hold, but yet he said, I'm going full steam ahead right now. And he's done something clever, a little packet that has THC in it from him, so you can order it by mail, called Off Duty, what a cute name. And you can just add that to a drink. That reminds me, I have to tell you my best story. I was in Newport, Rhode Island.

Jessie Ott (37:48)
Yeah.

Jeanne Sullivan (37:56)
this past summer where John, my husband's from. And we were having dinner with some close relatives. And I brought a couple of cans with me in a bag just to pour into a glass because John wasn't drinking beer or scotch. And so I poured them into the glass and the manager came up to me and he said, did you bring in outside drinks? And I looked him right in the eye and I said, yes, I did. He said, well, we don't allow that.

And I said, it's medicine.

Jessie Ott (38:26)
Yeah

Jeanne Sullivan (38:27)
He said, I'm sorry.

And he walked away. It was a fine moment. And those of us in the business do believe these products are medicine. You know, they have medicinal support.

Jessie Ott (38:30)
Hahaha

that's great.

Yeah, they do.

There's scientific evidence that how it works within your body and your, forget what circuit systems it is, but yeah, there's not that anybody believes in science anymore. But, man, ⁓ that's a lot of ⁓ information to digest and think about because

What we say was $32 billion last year. Who would do that in their right mind?

Jeanne Sullivan (39:02)
Yes,

I know. Plus, I believe in wealth creation for people and these entrepreneurs and founders, for the beautiful retailers, for the formulators, for the distributors. We want that.

Jessie Ott (39:17)
Yep, sure do. We want options for consumers.

Jeanne Sullivan (39:21)
Yes, and we want to be able to build wealth and opportunity and job creation.

Jessie Ott (39:26)
Yeah, yeah, for sure. Wow, that's, we got to get the word out, Jeanne

Jeanne Sullivan (39:34)
Thank you for your understanding and your embracing this issue. And it is allied to your community. And I certainly want to see the wine and beverage industry prosper, but I believe you will be the eventual acquirers of these products. And it'll just be additive to the footprint.

Jessie Ott (39:40)
yeah.

Yeah, for sure.

Yep. I remember listening to a podcast a year ago. And I don't remember the gentleman's name. the it's he's in charge of some publication in New York City. Anyway, he's like, I take a trip out to a different part of the country every fall and just see what's happening. And he went through the Midwest last fall and he said he couldn't believe the shelves

of the THC and CBD products. And people wouldn't buy just a four pack or whatever it was, they'd have eight four packs. Right? So, you know, when consumers are buying it at the levels that they're buying it now, it's going to cause a problem.

Jeanne Sullivan (40:26)
Yeah.

All right.

I think it's to the streets we go with big signs. Yes.

Jessie Ott (40:38)
To the streets we go. Heck

yeah. Because it's silliness. I'm not a big person that consumes it or I haven't experienced drinking it. I need to try it. I need to just take the next couple of weeks and just try a couple. I did have a company on the podcast where we did try some and I ended up being like...

full on till like 1 a.m. in the morning. In fact, I did a little video for Thomas after the podcast because I tried the three in the morning one and the three in the afternoon one. And you know, get all mixed up. I'm like, he had a ginger flavored one. They don't make them anymore. They had a ginger flavored one. And I was like, have you tried this with bourbon? And he's like,

Jeanne Sullivan (41:14)
Did you get them mixed up?

Jessie Ott (41:26)
No, no, we don't drink. just drink these. And I'm like, OK, well, I'm going to make a video and I'm going to send it to you and I'm going to try with bourbon. And I did. And it was silly, ⁓ but it was fun.

Jeanne Sullivan (41:35)
Love it.

Well, I commend to your thinking, let's check in again in six months and see where we are, because it will unfold one way or the other.

Jessie Ott (41:45)
Yeah. And whatever I can do to help, you know, spread the word with that single page document or whatever that was, we need to get that out there.

Jeanne Sullivan (41:55)
Thank you.

And I want you to go to ABC this weekend with your wife and pick and choose a variety and try them. I'll send you a few suggestions because one's better than the next. And yet it kind of turns on your taste profile.

Jessie Ott (42:09)
Yeah, do that.

Yeah.

Yeah, no, I would like to do that actually. And especially the low sugar ones. And you know, I'm wondering, as we talk about this, my mother-in-law has stage four lung cancer. And so she just doesn't feel good all the time. And there was a time before we knew that she's got some health issues, but she was taking the patch and it took her from a 10 to a five.

Jeanne Sullivan (42:19)
Yeah, definitely.

All right, this would help.

Wow.

Jessie Ott (42:39)
but after a couple of years it wears off. And so she stopped doing it. But I'm wondering if even these drinks, it would just relieve some of the pain and, know, yeah. And she needs help sleeping, so.

Jeanne Sullivan (42:45)
Yes, especially a low dose. It will. Five milligrams is all.

John doesn't even need sleep gummies after he has just one of these. And he used to have the sleep gummies.

Jessie Ott (42:59)
Yeah.

Okay. Yeah. mean, yeah. Makes me want to go out and get them now. Cause we're going over to see them today. Right now. I gotta go.

Jeanne Sullivan (43:03)
I encourage you.

Yes, you should. You go over there right now.

Thank you for this conversation and for your enthusiastic support of the issue.

Jessie Ott (43:17)
Of course.

Yeah, no, 100%. I think we need to get the word out and tell everybody. Maybe I'll work on trying to get some memes or some kind of something, videos for TikTok. I'll do whatever I can. Yeah.

Jeanne Sullivan (43:26)
Yes.

Love it. Yes.

That's great.

Jessie Ott (43:33)
Yeah,

because this is really, really important.

Jeanne Sullivan (43:36)
And I would say to your audience, if anyone wants my ideas or support, I'm happy to do email with anybody or texting to help lead them. Let's say they want to start a product. I know how to do that. And ⁓ I'm happy to give back to these founders and wonderful entrepreneurs that I'm meeting every day.

Jessie Ott (43:48)
Yeah. Great.

How do they get in touch with you?

Jeanne Sullivan (43:58)
My email is best and that's,

jeanne.sullivan at gmail.com. I'm happy to follow up. And if I don't respond, means I didn't see it. So I'm just delighted to help. And I thank you for this. What I hope your audience thinks is a really interesting and unique discussion, something they may or may not have known about.

Jessie Ott (44:21)
I do.

Yeah, I guess I missed the notice if it was in Mark Brown or whatever the case may be. yeah, we definitely need to have this on the forefront of conversation for our industry. It's really important. 100%. Thank you so much, Jeanne. Thanks for coming on the show and spending some time with me.

Jeanne Sullivan (44:38)
Thank you, Jessie.

Thank you so much. This was fun.

Jessie Ott (44:43)
Yeah, it was fun. Alrighty. Well, I will let you get back to it. Okay. Bye.