Dec. 11: Total Wine & More adds Impact Management Group to lobby on low-dose hemp THC drinks after $510,000 in 2026 spending

Total Wine & More expanded its federal lobbying push on hemp-derived THC beverages on Wednesday, registering a new outside firm as the Dec. 11 federal intoxicating hemp deadline approaches.

A Lobbying Disclosure Act registration posted Nov. 4 with the U.S. Senate Office of Public Records identifies Impact Management Group, a Little Rock, Arkansas, government-relations firm, as representing Total Wine & More. The client's effective date on the form is Oct. 26, 2026. The filing lists the specific lobbying issue as "Regulation of Low Dose Hemp Derived Beverages" and names Robert Coon and Richard Bearden as the lobbyists assigned to the account. Coon signed and posted the registration at 12:54 p.m. Eastern.

The Marijuana Herald reported the new registration Wednesday and placed it in the context of Total Wine's wider 2026 campaign to secure federal rules for low-dose hemp drinks rather than watch a hard ban take effect next month.

$510,000 already on the books

Total Wine's own quarterly LDA reports show the company spent $140,000 in the first quarter of 2026, $180,000 in the second quarter and $190,000 in the third quarter on federal lobbying, for a year-to-date total of $510,000 through September. Each of those self-filings lists the same sole issue: regulation of low-dose hemp-derived beverages.

The third-quarter report, posted Oct. 7, names in-house lobbyists Eric Brewer, Nathaniel McCarthy and Tyler Jesse. The company's Q1–Q3 filings, reviewed against the Senate LDA database, target the U.S. House, the U.S. Senate and, in earlier coverage of the same disclosures, the Executive Office of the President as government contacts.

Earlier 2026 registrations and reports also show Total Wine working with outside firms including Corcoran Partners, HB Strategies, Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough and Herrera Arellano LLP. The Nov. 4 Impact Management Group registration adds another firm to that list. It does not disclose how much Total Wine will pay Impact Management Group, and it does not name a specific bill. Lobbying registrations report representation and issue areas, not contract amounts.

What the company wants

According to The Marijuana Herald, Total Wine has publicly backed the Beverage Regulatory Parity Act (H.R. 10079), bipartisan legislation introduced in August that would put qualifying hemp-derived THC beverages under Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau oversight.

The introduced text of H.R. 10079 defines a "hemp-derived beverage," in part, as a nonalcoholic liquid intended for human consumption that does not contain more than 5 milligrams of total intoxicating tetrahydrocannabinol content per serving and does not contain more than 5 milligrams of non-tetrahydrocannabinol naturally occurring cannabinoids. The bill would require a three-tier distribution system in which manufacturers sell to wholesalers and wholesalers sell to retailers, similar to alcohol. It also directs TTB to set packaging, labeling and advertising rules for the category and treats compliant hemp-derived beverages as food under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act for certain purposes.

The Marijuana Herald reported that the National Beer Wholesalers Association and the National Restaurant Association have also disclosed lobbying tied to federal THC-beverage rules, including the Beverage Regulatory Parity Act. Beer wholesalers have a structural interest in any bill that routes hemp drinks through a three-tier system.

Why Dec. 11 matters for retailers

Most of the federal change to the statutory definition of hemp takes effect Dec. 11, 2026. Under that rewrite, finished hemp-derived products containing more than 0.4 milligrams of total THC and similarly intoxicating cannabinoids per container generally will no longer qualify as federally legal hemp and instead are treated as marijuana under the Controlled Substances Act.

Congress originally set a Nov. 12, 2026, effective date in the FY2026 agriculture appropriations law (P.L. 119-37), then delayed most of the definition change to Dec. 11 in a continuing resolution (P.L. 119-103). Some provisions, including the exclusion of products containing cannabinoids that cannot be naturally produced by a cannabis plant, still take effect Nov. 12.

For a national alcohol retailer that already sells hemp-derived THC drinks in states where they are allowed, the approaching deadline is a shelf deadline as well as a lobbying deadline. Products that lose hemp status would face the federal marijuana framework unless Congress passes a different regulatory path, such as H.R. 10079, or further delays the ban. Industry estimates cited in earlier national coverage have put potential retail revenue losses from a hard ban in the tens of billions of dollars; those figures are projections, not audited results.

States are not waiting in lockstep. Illinois, for example, begins enforcing its own 0.4 milligram total THC per container rule for consumable and topical hemp products on Nov. 12, moving higher-THC products into the licensed cannabis market. That state timeline overlaps the federal calendar Total Wine is lobbying around.

How the registration reads

The Senate LDA print page for filing 23ad000f-7998-4a47-81be-d006896a67ac lists the registrant as Impact Management Group at 425 W Capitol Ave., Suite 3525, Little Rock, and the client as Total Wine & More, described as an alcoholic beverage retailer based in Maryland. The general issue code is Alcohol and Drug Abuse. Both named lobbyists are marked as new for this client relationship. No foreign entities or affiliated organizations are listed on the registration.

Related, not the same story

Hemp Law Watch covered Total Wine's $510,000 year-to-date lobbying total on Oct. 17, based on The Marijuana Herald's Oct. 16 review of the Q1–Q3 disclosures. Wednesday's development is the new Impact Management Group registration, which adds another outside lobbying operation before Dec. 11. The spending figures in this article are drawn from the LDA filings themselves; The Marijuana Herald's Wednesday report matches those totals.

What happens next

The registration remains active unless terminated. Total Wine's fourth-quarter lobbying expenses, including any payments to Impact Management Group, would appear in later LDA reports. Congress still has the Dec. 11 date on the calendar, along with introduced bills that would delay, repeal or replace the new hemp definition with a regulated beverage framework.

Hemp Law Watch will update this story if Congress acts on the Dec. 11 date or if Total Wine or Impact Management Group files a new disclosure that changes the picture.

This article is news coverage, not legal advice.