Nuggets Newsletter Recognizes 23rd State's Op-Ed on the Cannabis Beverage Industry's Evidence Problem

When you spend years building a brand on the conviction that cannabis beverages deserve to be held to a higher standard, there is something genuinely meaningful about watching the conversation you've been trying to start get amplified by the publication that has shaped how Minnesotans understand this market.

This week, the Minnesota Star Tribune's Nuggets newsletter — the state's most-read weekly cannabis dispatch, written by editor Matt DeLong — featured 23rd State founder Leah Kollross's recent op-ed, "The Cannabis Beverage Industry Has An Evidence Problem, With Too Few Companies Submitting Products For Independent Scrutiny."

For everyone at 23rd State, the recognition is more than a nice mention in a newsletter we already read every week. It's a signal that the argument we have been making — that this category will not earn durable shelf space, durable regulation, or durable consumer trust without independent product validation — is a conversation Minnesota is ready to have out loud.

We are grateful to the Star Tribune, to Matt DeLong, and to every Nuggets subscriber who clicked through. You can read the issue that featured the op-ed here.

What the Op-Ed Said — And Why It Hit a Nerve

The op-ed makes an argument that should not be controversial in any maturing consumer category: companies selling THC beverages should be able to demonstrate that their products perform as advertised. Not in a press release. Not in a focus group convened by their own marketing team. In real-world conditions, on real consumers, with results published in datasets that anyone — retailers, regulators, journalists, customers — can examine.

Today, very few cannabis beverage companies meet that standard. The op-ed put it directly: most operators in this category cannot prove their products do what they claim, because they have not invested in any form of independent product validation. That is not a sustainable position for a category growing toward federal reclassification deadlines and a wave of new state-level rulemaking.

The argument lands harder in a state like Minnesota, where the recreational market is just beginning to take shape under licensing rules finalized only months ago. Minnesota retailers, distributors, and policymakers are making real allocation decisions right now — about which products go on which shelves, which formulations get approved, and how this category gets taxed and labeled going forward. They deserve evidence, not assertions. They deserve operators willing to be measured.

Why Independent Scrutiny Is the Only Way Forward for THC Beverages

23rd State has been building toward this conversation since we launched in 2023, the year Minnesota became the 23rd state to legalize adult-use cannabis. From day one, our products — SHAKE infused edible glitter drops, FRESH PRESS THC + CBG pear cider, and BLUSH CRUSH Infused Bubbly — were designed around a core formulation philosophy: predictable onset, sessionable duration, and a consistent experience at scale.

The hard part is not making that claim. The hard part is proving it.

That is why we enrolled our products in the MoreBetter Real-World Infused Beverage Study — one of the largest longitudinal real-world evidence projects ever conducted on infused beverages. Across more than 5,000 participants, 20 brands, and multiple cohorts, MoreBetter has built the kind of dataset that makes meaningful product-level comparison possible for the first time. Onset windows, duration curves, taste outcomes, and consistency across repeat use can finally be evaluated with statistical rigor instead of marketing language.

The findings have been clarifying for our team and, we hope, for the broader category:

In Cohort 1, the study documented measurable reductions in daily alcohol use among participants and surfaced strong consumer preference for infused beverages as a perceived safer alternative to alcohol — particularly among adults reducing their drinking or managing chronic health conditions.

In Cohort 2, the dataset moved the conversation further, showing that 23rd State products consistently deliver effects within a 20–40 minute onset window, a stable 2–3 hour experience curve, and outcomes that tighten with repeat use. A true performance standard, not a marketing standard.

That is the kind of evidence the op-ed argues every serious cannabis beverage operator should be willing to produce. Not because it always flatters us. Because it disciplines us. And discipline — formulation discipline, dosing discipline, claims discipline — is what this category will need a great deal more of in the years ahead.

What Recognition From Nuggets Actually Means

For brands operating in Minnesota's emerging legal cannabis market, being cited in Nuggets is one of the most meaningful local signals available. The newsletter is read by regulators, dispensary owners, cultivators, attorneys, journalists, and consumers across the state. Matt DeLong has built it into the indispensable record of how Minnesota's cannabis market is evolving in real time — and his editorial judgment about which voices and which arguments are worth amplifying carries weight far beyond Minneapolis.

When Nuggets surfaces an op-ed about the evidence problem in cannabis beverages, that argument enters the bloodstream of the people actually building this market. It reaches the policymakers drafting the next round of hemp THC rules. It reaches the dispensary buyers deciding which beverages to stock through summer. It reaches the consumers — many of them sober-curious, many of them new to cannabis — who are trying to figure out which brands they can trust.

That kind of distribution is exactly what the cannabis beverage category needs more of. The path to durable regulation runs through informed audiences, and Minnesota has one of the most informed cannabis audiences in the country thanks in significant part to the work the Star Tribune has done since legalization passed in 2023.

A Minnesota Conversation With National Stakes

It is not lost on us that this recognition is happening at a particularly consequential moment for the cannabis and hemp industries. Federal reclassification timelines, the Section 781 reorganization conversations playing out around the next farm bill, and accelerating state-level rulemaking are all converging on a single question: what does evidence-based regulation of THC beverages actually look like?

The answer cannot be written by regulators alone. It has to be informed by operators willing to produce data — willing to enroll their products in third-party studies, willing to publish results that do not always make their formulations look perfect, and willing to be measured against industry-wide benchmarks rather than self-selected ones.

That is the case the op-ed makes, and it is the case 23rd State is committed to making in every venue we have access to: through our work with the National Cannabis Industry Association, through our advocacy for unification across cannabis and hemp trade organizations including the HBA, USRT, HIFA, and CABA, and through the products we put on shelves every week. Recognition from a publication like the Star Tribune is not the end of that conversation. It is a starting point that gives the argument more reach than any one brand could earn on its own.

What Comes Next for 23rd State and the Cannabis Beverage Category

For 23rd State, the work does not change. We continue investing in third-party research. We continue publishing real-world performance data through the MoreBetter study as new cohorts wrap. We continue building products — SHAKE, FRESH PRESS, BLUSH CRUSH — that we are willing to put in front of independent scrutiny on day one of every cohort, not after the marketing department has had a chance to manage the narrative.

For the broader cannabis beverage category, our hope is that this recognition adds another voice to a conversation more operators need to join. Independent validation should not be the exception. It should be the price of admission.

If you are a cannabis or hemp operator weighing whether to enroll your products in real-world studies, the answer is yes. If you are a regulator drafting THC beverage rules, ask for evidence. If you are a retailer making shelf decisions, demand data. If you are a consumer choosing between products that all promise the same things, ask which ones have actually proven it.

This is the conversation Minnesota is ready to have. It is the conversation the Star Tribune's Nuggets newsletter just helped advance. And we are grateful — genuinely grateful — to be part of it.

About 23rd State

23rd State is a woman-owned, Minnesota-based cannabis beverage brand founded in 2023, the year Minnesota became the 23rd state to legalize adult-use cannabis. The brand's portfolio includes SHAKE infused edible glitter drops in Emerald, Cosmo, and 24k Gold; FRESH PRESS THC + CBG pear cider; and BLUSH CRUSH Infused Bubbly in cans and 750mL bottles. 23rd State products are formulated for predictable onset, sessionable duration, and real-world performance — and have been independently validated through the MoreBetter Real-World Infused Beverage Study. Learn more at 23state.com.

Read the Coverage

• The op-ed: "The Cannabis Beverage Industry Has An Evidence Problem, With Too Few Companies Submitting Products For Independent Scrutiny" by Leah Kollross, founder of 23rd State, in Marijuana Moment.
• The Star Tribune Nuggets feature: April 2026 issue.
• Subscribe to Nuggets: The Star Tribune's free weekly cannabis newsletter, written by Matt DeLong, available at startribune.com/nuggets.

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23rd State is a Minnesota-based cannabis beverage brand. Our products contain THC and are intended for adults 21 and older. Please consume responsibly.