Iowa
From sparkling water to edibles, here is where you can find hemp-derived THC products
Tucked between the wine room and cash register at John’s Grocery in the north side neighborhood, shoppers congregate at a lone cooler, peering inside, but what they are looking at isn’t top-shelf whiskey or beer; they are in search of THC-infused drinks, from sparkling waters to cocktail-inspired flavors.
These unusual beverages have become top sellers for John’s Grocery, one of the city’s oldest businesses.
More: High on hemp? Why Iowa’s medical marijuana laws may increase edible THC use
Is it legal to get high?
The Agricultural Improvement Act of 2018, commonly known as the 2018 Farm Bill, is a piece of legislation that addresses various aspects of agriculture, including hemp production. For Iowans across the state, the Farm Bill has made hemp-derived THC readily available in the form of delta-8 and delta-9 THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, the primary psychoactive ingredient that gives people a high. Recreational pot remains illegal and medical marijuana is strictly regulated.
Delta-8 and delta-9 THC have similar psychoactive properties that give individuals a high associated with cannabis use. Delta-8 is typically less potent than delta-9, however.
The loosened restriction on THC levels has led to a boom for retailers across the state. John’s Grocery, a leading alcohol retailer in Iowa City, has been selling THC drinks for years but witnessed a shift during the last quarter of 2023, according to general manager Chris Moore.
“We saw just this weird swing and people’s habits during the pandemic, and since then, we’ve seen people’s habits switch 180 degrees a few times,” Moore said. “People seem to be somewhat focused on being health conscious, which is weird working at a store where pretty much always sells alcohol is where to see people come in and try to find ways to, I don’t know, take the edge off but not ruin their bodies.”
Iowa law says THC levels in products for sale must be 0.3% or less to be legal, which allows stores to sell gummies, drinks, tablets, lotions, tinctures, and other products with psychoactive properties but bans products that can be inhaled such as vape or smokable flower.
More: Is ReUnion Brewery’s THC-infused seltzer the start of a new trend in Johnson County?
John’s Grocery sells items from Climbing Kites out of Des Moines to WLDWTR and Green Canvas, three of the most top-selling THC waters on the market, all three entirely legal and producing a psychoactive effect.
“These are actually marketed to be something you can drink a whole can of and get like a small buzz,” Moore said. “Think of a 10-milligram drink as two to four beers.”
He believes the market is just warming up to THC products and expects the boom to explode in the next year or so, producing a variety of options as well.
“I think over the next 12 months, we’ll see every iteration of what these products could be,” said Moore.
More: Family-owned John’s Grocery toasts to 75 years in Iowa City and looks to the future
Vendors set age limits
Vague language within federal and state law has allowed stores to gain a foothold and set their own age requirements for purchasing hemp-derived THC products. People must be 21 or older at John’s, but the 2018 Farm Bill did not set a minimum age limit, allowing establishments to decide whether to enforce one.
The Senate voted to pass a House bill in November to extend the 2018 Farm Bill through September, continuing sales in Iowa. The extension may arrive with a few amendments, but those have yet to be announced.
“We, as John’s Grocery, require that people are 21, but they didn’t put an age restriction with law, so there’s no age restriction currently in Iowa,” Moore said. “I think that they will 100% revisit the bill this year and make the tweaks that they need to make the law make sense to everyone.”
Until the bill is revised, John’s Grocery plans to continue to sell the products in what has become a lucrative interest. The store generates more than $1,000 a day in THC sales, an unprecedented success that arrived seemingly overnight.
“We haven’t done anything to try to grow it. It’s happened all organically. People just come in and try it, or they try it in other places that are told to come to check it out here,” Moore said.
More: Field Day brews beer with North Liberty to aide Centennial Park funding
Where to buy hemp-derived THC drinks and edibles
John’s Grocery is just one of the many places in the Iowa City area where people can find hemp-derived THC drinks and edibles. There are several other liquor stores and smoke shops that sell the products.
Moore encourages customers to make their own informed decisions and ask employees questions before purchasing hemp-derived THC products.
Editor’s Note: Legal THC products produce varying intoxicating effects and should not be ingested without prior knowledge and consideration.
The Press-Citizen has compiled a list of where one can dabble in the world of hemp and cannabis:
ReUnion Brewery, Coralville and Iowa City
ReUnion is releasing Johnson County’s first locally made THC seltzer on Friday, Jan. 26. It’s called Jungle Vibez and offers 10mg of hemp-derived THC infused with flavors of orange, pineapple, and banana.
Johncy’s Liquor Store,Suite E, 585 Hwy 965 South, North Liberty
Iowa Smoke Time & Vapor Shop, 220 E Washington St., Iowa City
Smokin’ Joe’s, 465 Hwy 965 G, North Liberty
Bootleggin’ Barzini’s, 412 1st Ave., Coralville
Up in Smoke, 208 N Linn St., Iowa City
The Konnexion, 106 S Linn St., Iowa City
Jessica Rish is an entertainment, dining and business reporter for the Iowa City Press-Citizen. She can be reached at JRish@press-citizen.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @rishjessica_
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Repeat offenders convicted of multiple serious crimes would receive a mandatory 20-year prison sentence under a bill passed by House lawmakers.
House lawmakers debated for more than an hour about high costs, lack of prison space and the bill’s impact on Black Iowans before voting 68-23 to pass House File 2542, sending it to the Iowa Senate.
Seven Democrats, including Minority Leader Brian Meyer, D-Des Moines, joined Republicans in voting in favor of the bill.
“It will put public safety first,” said the bill’s floor manager, Rep. Steven Holt, R-Denison. “It will ensure that the debt to victims and society is paid. It will prioritize victims and public safety over criminals. It will establish real and effective deterrence that is nonexistent in our current system. It will reduce chaos and violence in our society.”
Here’s what to know about the bill.
What would the House Republican three strikes bill do?
Iowans who accumulate three strikes would face a mandatory 20-year prison sentence, with no parole, under the bill.
That would replace Iowa’s current law that says habitual offenders must serve a minimum three-year prison sentence before they are eligible for parole.
All felonies, as well as aggravated misdemeanors involving sexual abuse, domestic abuse, assault and organized retail theft would be considered level-one offenses that are worth one full strike.
Other aggravated misdemeanors, as well as serious misdemeanors involving assault, domestic abuse and criminal mischief would be considered level-two offenses worth half a strike each.
Lawmakers amended the bill to remove theft, harassment and possession of a controlled substance from the crimes that would count toward a person’s strikes.
And the amendment specifies that the bill would only apply to convictions that occur beginning July 1, 2026.
If someone is arrested and convicted of multiple offenses, only the most serious charge would count towards the defendant’s strikes.
Convictions would not count toward someone’s total if more than 20 years passes between a prior conviction and their current conviction.
Rep. Ross Wilburn, D-Ames, tried unsuccessfully to amend the bill to say that only a violent crime would qualify as someone’s third strike, but Republicans rejected the amendment.
“The bill still scores murder, felony embezzlement and felony theft the same, even though they are very different crimes,” Wilburn said. “One point is one point and three gets you 20 years with no ability for parole or judicial discretion.”
Holt said the legislation leaves room for judicial and prosecutorial discretion.
“There are deferred sentences, there are plea bargains,” he said. “There is plenty of opportunity for grace and judicial discretion in the legislation that we are proposing.”
Bill could cost millions, require Iowa to build a new prison, agency says
A fiscal analysis of the bill by the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency said it could cost Iowa nearly $165 million more per year by 2031 based on the cost of housing inmates for longer prison stays.
- FY 2027: $33 million
- FY 2028: $66 million
- FY 2029: $99 million
- FY 2030: $132 million
- FY 2031: $164.9 million
The agency said if the bill had been in effect between fiscal year 2020 and fiscal year 2025, there would have been 5,373 people who qualified for the 20-year mandatory minimum sentence.
“An increase in the prison population due to increased (length of stay) will require the DOC to build additional prison(s),” the agency states. “The size, security and other features that a future prison may require cannot be determined, but costs would be significant.”
The analysis noted that South Dakota appropriated $650 million last fall to build a 1,500-bed prison.
As of March 1, the Iowa Department of Corrections’ website describes the state’s prison system as being overcrowded by 25%, with 8,705 inmates compared to a capacity of 6,990.
The Office of the State Public Defender could see a projected cost increase of $1.6 million due to an increased number of trials resulting from the legislation.
But the agency’s estimates come with a caveat — the Department of Corrections did not respond to its requests for data.
“The LSA has not received a response to multiple requests for information from the DOC,” the note states. “Without additional information, the LSA cannot estimate the total fiscal impact of the bill.”
Holt called the fiscal note “an embarrassment to the Department of Corrections” and “an agenda masquerading as math.”
“It is clear, in my judgment, that because they did not like the legislation they went all out and extreme to create a fiscal note that cannot be taken seriously in its assumptions,” he said. “It assumes that nothing will change, that there will be no deterrent factor and that the numbers will continue as usual.”
Black Iowans would be disproportionately impacted by the law
The Legislative Services Agency analysis says the bill “may disproportionately impact Black individuals if trends remain constant.”
Of the 29,438 people convicted in fiscal year 2025 of felonies and aggravated misdemeanors that constitute a level one offense under the bill, the agency said about 70% were White, 22% were Black and 9% were other races.
Iowa’s overall population is 83% White, 4% Black and 13% other races, the agency said.
It’s not clear how the bill’s impact would change to account for the House amendment removing some crimes from counting towards the three strikes.
“Expanding three-strike laws will intensify disparities — and that’s what this statement shows — by mandating longer sentences, limiting judicial discretion,” Wilburn said. “We already have a habitual offender statute. We already have one in place. We have a 10-year low in recidivism in our correctional system.”
Rep. Angel Ramirez, D-Cedar Rapids, said California’s three strikes law, passed in the 1990s, worsened racial disparities, and “Iowa is about to repeat the same mistake.”
“I urge every member here, do not pass legislation that our own minority impact statement tells us will deepen inequality in our state,” Ramirez said.
Holt said minority communities in Iowa are impacted by crime and that the legislation “will make citizens of all colors safer.”
And he said the minority impact statement “tells only one side of the story, doesn’t it? It tells the criminal’s story. What about the victim’s story?”
“What about the mother who will continue to tuck her kids in at night and read them Bible stories because she never became the next victim of a violent career criminal?” he said. “Where is that data point in the minority impact statement?”
House lawmakers also approved separate legislation that would increase Iowa’s statewide bond schedule, Senate File 2399.
That bill passed on a vote of 74-19.
Iowans could see more information on judges’ rulings
Iowans would have access to more information about judges’ rulings ahead of the state’s judicial retention elections under a separate measure, House File 2719, which passed on a 73-19 vote.
The Iowa secretary of state’s office would be required to publish information including:
- The percentage of cases in which the judge set a bond amount lower than the state’s bond schedule
- The frequency that the judge releases someone on their own recognizance for a violent offense compared to a nonviolent offense
- The frequency that the judge’s final sentence is lower than statutory recommendations or a prosecutor’s recommendations
- The number of times the judge issues a deferred judgement, deferred sentence or suspended sentence
- The number of times the judge’s rulings are reversed on appeal due to abuse of discretion or error of law
- The average time it takes the judge to rule on a motion or case
- The number of cases the judge has resolved compared to the number of cases on the judge’s docket
The data would have to be displayed with a five-year trend line beginning five years after the bill takes effect.
The Secretary of State’s Office would also be required to maintain a searchable database of all judicial opinions and orders for the judge’s current term and the preceding six years. The decisions would be redacted when appropriate.
And judges would have the opportunity to write a 2,000-word personal statement on their judicial philosophy or data trends present in their rulings.
Stephen Gruber-Miller covers the Iowa Statehouse and politics for the Register. He can be reached by email at sgrubermil@registermedia.com or by phone at 515-284-8169. Follow him on X at @sgrubermiller.
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – Luke Truesdell’s attorney has filed as of Sunday to appeal his sentence to the Iowa Supreme Court.
Truesdell was sentenced last week to three consecutive life sentences plus 50 years for the deaths of four people killed in rural Linn County.
A jury convicted Luke Truesdell, 36, in November on the first-degree murder of Brent Brown, 34; his girlfriend, Keonna Ryan, 26, of Cedar Rapids; and Amanda Parker, 33, of Vinton. They also found him guilty of second-degree murder in the death of Romondus Cooper, 44, of Cedar Rapids.
His attorneys previously argued multiple reasons for a retrial that could potentially be brought up again.
They said that one juror was overheard talking about news on the case.
They also said the prosecutors inflamed the jury, rather than focusing on the facts.
His lawyers said there is no direct evidence that Truesdell committed the murders.
Truesdell’s defense also pointed to Truesdell’s father, Larry Tuesdell, who was found covered in blood at the scene but never fully investigated. Authorities have not been able to locate Larry.
The state disagreed, citing overwhelming evidence including DNA on the murder weapon, eyewitness testimony and video of Truesdell entering the garage where the four people were found dead.
Copyright 2026 KCRG. All rights reserved.
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