MoreBetter Study, the Evidence Problem, and the Case for Cannabis Industry Advocacy

There are recognitions that arrive as standalone features, and there are recognitions that arrive as context — placement next to the right voices, in front of the right audiences, at the right moment in an industry's conversation. The second kind is often the more meaningful one.

This week, Cultivated Daily — the must-read morning briefing for cannabis business and policy professionals — included our founder Leah Kollross's op-ed "The Cannabis Beverage Industry Has an Evidence Problem, With Too Few Companies Submitting Products for Independent Scrutiny" in its daily curation of essential industry reading.

The placement was meaningful for two reasons. First, the op-ed is anchored in the MoreBetter Real-World Infused Beverage Study — the largest national study ever conducted on THC and functional beverages — and Cultivated's curators chose to surface that argument to their audience of cannabis operators, investors, and policymakers. Second, the issue that surfaced it was led by an op-ed from Adam Rosenberg, Chairman of the National Cannabis Industry Association, on the case for sustained cannabis industry advocacy.

Being placed in that company, in that issue, on that morning is exactly the kind of contextual recognition that moves an argument forward.

Thank you to the Cultivated team for the curation, and to every reader who clicked through to engage with the case for evidence-based cannabis beverage regulation.

Read the Coverage

• The Cultivated Daily issue: The case for cannabis industry advocacy (April 29, 2026)
• The op-ed Cultivated curated: The Cannabis Beverage Industry Has an Evidence Problem by Leah Kollross, in Marijuana Moment
• Subscribe to Cultivated Daily: cultivated.news

Why Cultivated Daily Placement Matters for the Cannabis Beverage Category

For cannabis business and policy professionals, Cultivated Daily occupies a specific and increasingly influential niche in the industry's information diet. It is read by operators making distribution decisions, attorneys tracking regulatory developments, executives evaluating market entries, capital allocators sizing up the category, and policy professionals working on the next round of state and federal rulemaking.

When Cultivated includes a piece in its "What we're reading" section, it is signaling to that entire audience that the argument is worth their time. That is a different — and in some ways more valuable — kind of recognition than a feature article. Curation is editorial endorsement, distilled.

For the cannabis beverage category specifically, getting the evidence-problem argument in front of Cultivated's audience matters because those readers are the ones who will determine how this category gets capitalized, distributed, and regulated. If the people making those decisions internalize the case that cannabis beverage operators should be able to demonstrate independent product validation, the standard for the entire category rises.

The MoreBetter Study: The Foundation the Op-Ed Was Built On

The argument Leah made in the op-ed — and the argument Cultivated chose to amplify — is grounded in the MoreBetter Real-World Infused Beverage Study, which has become the most rigorous longitudinal data investigation ever conducted on THC and functional beverages.

The study is designed around real-world evidence collection. Participants self-report daily on alcohol use, infused beverage consumption, mood, and sleep over multi-week study periods. The dataset captures how products actually perform in everyday consumer life — not under controlled lab conditions, not in marketing-friendly focus groups, but in the actual contexts where these beverages compete for share of occasion against alcohol, against other functional drinks, and against established consumer rituals.

Cohort 1, completed in 2025, enrolled more than 3,000 participants nationwide. The findings were significant enough to fundamentally shift how operators, retailers, and regulators should think about this category:

A substantial share of participants reported that the study marked their first experience with a THC- or CBD-infused beverage, demonstrating how rapidly the category is reaching new consumers across demographic profiles.

Roughly seven in ten participants agreed they drank less alcohol while using infused beverages during the study period — a measurable behavioral shift, captured at scale.

Nearly nine in ten participants said infused beverages felt safer or much safer than alcohol for their personal health, a perception with significant implications for how this category is positioned in the broader alcohol-alternative market.

The probability of daily alcohol use dropped meaningfully between the baseline period and the product-use phase of the study — the kind of statistically significant change that regulators and public-health audiences pay attention to.

Cohort 2 has now expanded the dataset substantially, adding ten more brands, fifteen-plus new SKUs, and over two thousand new participants. The expansion moves the research from proof-of-concept into population-level insight, surfacing product-level performance differences across formulations, dosing strategies, and demographic profiles.

23rd State's products — SHAKE infused edible glitter drops, and FRESH PRESS THC + CBG pear cider — have been part of this work across cohorts. We enrolled because we believe operators should be willing to be measured. We continue to enroll because the discipline of independent validation is what separates brands that will define this category long-term from brands that won't.

The Evidence Problem Cultivated Helped Surface

The op-ed Cultivated curated makes an argument that should not be controversial in any maturing consumer category: cannabis beverage companies should be able to demonstrate that their products perform as advertised. Most cannot. Most have not invested in any form of independent product validation, and the gap between marketing claims and verifiable outcomes has become structurally unsustainable for an industry approaching federal reclassification deadlines and accelerating state-level rulemaking.

This matters more than most operators recognize. Retailers making shelf allocation decisions don't have evidence to differentiate between products. Legislators drafting hemp THC regulations don't have data to calibrate between well-formulated and poorly-made products. Consumers — particularly those new to the category, those reducing alcohol consumption, or those managing chronic conditions — are making real decisions based on claims that no one has independently verified.

The regulatory risk this creates is direct. An industry that cannot produce evidence of its own performance invites blunt regulation built on the absence of data rather than the presence of it. The brands that will earn durable shelf space, durable regulation, and durable consumer trust are the ones that can demonstrate consistent, measurable, independently verified performance. Everything else is marketing copy waiting to be tested by reality.

That is the case the MoreBetter dataset is making possible to argue. That is the case the op-ed laid out in detail. And that is the case Cultivated chose to put in front of an audience uniquely positioned to act on it.

Why the Adam Rosenberg Pairing Matters

The Cultivated Daily issue that surfaced the op-ed was led by an op-ed from Adam Rosenberg, Chairman of the National Cannabis Industry Association, on the importance of sustained advocacy from cannabis operators. His argument: progress in this industry is rarely permanent, opposition groups remain organized and well-resourced, and every regulatory win requires continued engagement from the people building this market to protect and extend it.

For 23rd State, that pairing carries particular weight. Our founder Leah Kollross serves on NCIA's HR Committee, and 23rd State is represented on the Board for the 2026–2028 term, joining the same organization Adam leads as Chairman. The work of advocacy and the work of evidence are not separate efforts. They are two sides of the same case. Advocacy without data is voluntarism. Data without advocacy is research that never reaches the rooms where decisions get made.

Seeing both pieces — Adam's case for advocacy and Leah's case for evidence — featured in the same Cultivated issue is a reminder that cannabis industry maturity will require both. The brands that win will be the ones that show up in policy conversations and show up with data to back the positions they're advocating for.

What This Recognition Means for the Path Forward

Cultivated Daily's curation is not an endpoint. It's a marker on a longer path the cannabis beverage category is walking toward credibility — with regulators, with retailers, with capital allocators, and with consumers who deserve evidence rather than claims.

For 23rd State, the work continues. We will keep contributing to longitudinal research through MoreBetter as new cohorts complete. We will keep advocating through our work with NCIA, the Hemp Beverage Alliance, the U.S. Roundtable for Hemp, and other trade organizations working toward unified cannabis and hemp policy. We will keep building products designed to be measured rather than spun.

For the broader category, our hope is that Cultivated's curation moves more operators toward the same conviction. Independent product validation should not be a competitive advantage. It should be the price of admission. The cannabis beverage industry will be judged — by regulators, by retailers, by consumers — on whether it can produce evidence of its own performance. The brands that invest in that work now will define what this category looks like five and ten years from now.

A Thank You and a Forward Look

To Cultivated Daily, JR, and the entire editorial team: thank you for the curation, for the platform, and for the consistent work of surfacing the conversations the cannabis industry actually needs to be having. Recognition from a publication read this carefully by this audience is genuinely meaningful.

To Adam Rosenberg and the leadership at NCIA: thank you for the advocacy work that makes evidence-based arguments like the op-ed's possible to make at all. Sharing an issue with that work was a privilege.

To MoreBetter: thank you for building the research infrastructure that turns conviction into data. None of these conversations are possible without the dataset you have built.

To every reader who clicked through Cultivated's curation to engage with the op-ed: thank you. The cannabis beverage category gets stronger every time another reader, operator, or regulator internalizes the case for evidence over assertion.

The work continues. We're grateful for the company we're walking alongside.

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 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 across multiple cohorts. Founder Leah Kollross serves on the National Cannabis Industry Association Board of Directors for the 2026–2028 term. Learn more at 23state.com.

You can read the full Cultivated Daily issue here.

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