Why Swizzle Started Carrying THC and CBD Products

When customers started asking if we carried THC products, my answer was immediate and firm: no.

No pause. No "let me think about it." Just no.

I had my reasons, and they felt solid at the time. But when I sat with it a little longer, I had to ask myself an honest question: was that "no" based on what's right for our customers, or was it coming from my own complicated history with substances?

As a business owner, I owed it to our community to find out.

The Accidental Experiment

I started where I always start: with research. I ordered CBD samples from several vendors, determined to try everything before it hit our shelves. And somehow — I'm still not entirely sure how — I accidentally ordered THC drinks too.

Here's where it gets interesting. I tried the 10mg THC drink before doing my homework on dosage. My husband and I went for a walk around the neighborhood. At first, it was easy. Familiar, even. And then my brain decided to host a full production meeting — every idea I'd ever had for the store, plus some new ones about the garden, the house, dinner, and about seventeen other things arrived at once and refused to leave.

That was enough for me. I don't do well with that kind of mental noise, and I don't do moderation with THC particularly well either. This product category wasn't going to be part of my personal rotation.

But here's the thing: my experience with one drink at one dose doesn't determine what's right for our customers. And that distinction matters.

What's Actually Legal in Indiana

Before anything else, let's cover the legal landscape, because it comes up constantly.

Thanks to the 2018 Farm Bill, hemp-derived products are federally legal as long as they contain 0.3% or less THC by dry weight. Indiana aligns with that federal framework. That covers CBD products and certain hemp-derived THC drinks — specifically those derived from hemp, not marijuana.

Marijuana-derived products are still illegal in Indiana. What we carry at Swizzle falls entirely within the hemp-derived category, and everything on our shelves is third-party tested to confirm it.

Separating My Story From Our Shelves

This decision took time. As someone who has navigated my own relationship with substances, I had to do real work to separate my personal experience from what our community deserves access to.

What I kept coming back to: Swizzle exists to give people more options, not fewer. Some of our customers are fully sober and want nothing to do with THC — that's completely valid, and we'll always have products for them. Some are reducing alcohol and looking for something that takes the edge off without the downsides they're trying to avoid. Some are simply curious. All of those people deserve honest information and well-sourced products.

That's the role we're here to play.

We're not here to tell you what to choose. We're here to make sure the options are good, the information is clear, and the shelves are stocked with things we'd actually stand behind.

What We Carry and Why

We've been thoughtful about what we bring in. Our focus is on low-dose, hemp-derived options: primarily CBD products and THC drinks at 5mg or under, along with balanced CBD/THC combinations. We're not carrying high-dose products, and we're not trying to be a dispensary.

What we are: a bottle shop that takes this category as seriously as we take everything else on our shelves. Every product is third-party tested. Every label tells you exactly what's in it.

If you want to understand what these products actually do and how to choose between them, we wrote a guide for that. Start there before you start shopping.

Read: CBD and THC Drinks — A Plain-Language Guide to What's on Our Shelves →

Have questions? Ask us in-store or reach out directly. We'd rather answer your questions than have you guess.