The law was confusing enough — and troubling enough — that some bars and restaurants decided it was safer to keep hemp-derived beverages off the menu.
At issue was a provision in the state’s recreational marijuana law signed last May that would have prohibited bar servers from selling a patron alcohol and THC beverages in the same five-hour period.
The first confusion was over when bars would start enforcing the “five-hour rule.” Some thought immediately after the bill’s passage, but the myriad effectiveness dates contained in the 300-page bill said it wasn’t to become law until spring 2025. Regardless, the larger issue was this: While a server might know that a patron who they’d served a beer to couldn’t then be served a THC-seltzer, they would have no way of knowing if other patrons had one or the other at another bar.
It would probably blow their minds if they found out that people already drink and do drugs at home before they go to any bar. I get that this is probably more about assigning liability than anything else, but it must be embarrassing for legislators to have to pretend that this matters for public safety or whatever.