Senate President Nicholas Scutari's bill would tie the state's cutoff to Congress's Dec. 11 date, and committees in both houses heard it Thursday with no floor action as of Thursday night.
New Jersey liquor stores, beer and liquor wholesalers and bars that sell packaged goods to go must stop selling hemp-derived THC drinks beginning Saturday, Nov. 14, under orders from the state's alcohol regulator, unless lawmakers move the date first.
A bill from Senate President Nicholas Scutari, D-Union, would keep those sales legal until at least Dec. 11, the date Congress chose in September for most of its new federal limits on hemp.
The bill, S4635, would stretch the state's cutoff further if Washington pushes its own date back again, according to the bill and its sponsor's statement.
The New Jersey Senate Judiciary Committee heard S4635 on Thursday morning, the bill's first hearing, and the Legislature's records showed no floor action as of Thursday night. An identical Assembly bill, A5604, went before the New Jersey Assembly State and Local Government Committee that afternoon with the same result.
After Thursday, the Legislature's calendar lists one voting session in each house before the cutoff: Oct. 22 in the Senate and Oct. 29 in the Assembly. The next voting sessions for both houses fall on Dec. 17. The calendar, from the New Jersey Office of Legislative Services, the Legislature's staff agency, still lists each October session's bills as to be announced and warns that its dates are subject to change.
Once the cutoff passes, the only legal place to buy the drinks in New Jersey will be a licensed cannabis dispensary, and a licensed cannabis manufacturer will have to make them. From Nov. 14 on, a hemp drink with more than 0.4 milligrams of total THC per container counts as cannabis, according to the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission, the state agency that regulates legal cannabis.
The bill would follow Congress's new date
The cutoff traces to Washington. Congress rewrote the federal definition of hemp in a law the president signed Nov. 12, 2025. The new definition leaves out finished products with more than 0.4 milligrams of THC and similar compounds per container, starting 365 days after enactment, the law says.
New Jersey's hemp law names Nov. 13, 2026, as the effective date of that federal change and allows liquor stores and wholesalers to sell the drinks until then.
Congress changed the schedule in September. Under a stopgap spending bill that became law Sept. 2, only the part of the new definition that covers products containing cannabinoids the hemp plant cannot produce on its own applies before Dec. 11. Dec. 11 is also the day that law's federal funding runs out.
The stopgap law leaves out the per-container limit that covers ordinary hemp THC drinks, so that limit waits until Dec. 11.
The Congressional Research Service, which analyzes legislation for members of Congress, dates the start of the rule on products with certain synthetic cannabinoids to Nov. 12.
Under Scutari's bill, its statement says, state law would "comport with the changes in federal law, whenever they become effective." The bill leaves the drinks' container and potency limits alone and would take effect immediately.
The bill's legislative record says the Office of Legislative Services has certified it for a fiscal note, an analysis of its effect on state finances. The Legislature's website showed no such note as of Oct. 15.
Lawmakers changed the law twice and kept Nov. 13
Then-Gov. Phil Murphy signed the original law Jan. 12. It set up a state framework, in line with the federal change, for selling hemp-derived THC products. It also repealed a 2024 law under which liquor stores and wholesalers could seek the cannabis commission's approval to sell the drinks.
Scutari, one of its prime sponsors, described the timetable in a statement when the bill went to the governor in December: "Phasing these standards in over the next few months will ensure New Jersey is sufficiently prepared once the new federal rules take effect, keeping consumers safe and businesses in compliance."
"Ahead of the federal ban, this legislation provides a predictable transition for businesses and establishes clear, enforceable sales standards, so consumers know exactly what they are ingesting," Senate Majority Leader M. Teresa Ruiz, D-Essex, the law's other Senate prime sponsor, said in a statement when Murphy signed it.
By March, lawmakers were back. Gov. Mikie Sherrill signed a second law March 30 that pushed back the start dates for the potency and lab-testing rules.
Sherrill signed another change May 29. It let bars that sell packaged alcohol to go, outside hotels, restaurants, entertainment venues and bowling alleys, sell the drinks in their original containers.
The same law allowed cans with up to 10 milligrams of THC. It also allowed resealable 750-milliliter bottles holding up to 200 milligrams.
Both times, the committees that advanced the bills wrote in their official statements that the Nov. 13 cutoff for sales by alcohol licensees "remains in place."
Scutari's bill would be the third change since January, after the March and May laws, and the first to move that date.
Assemblyman Robert Karabinchak, D-Middlesex, a prime sponsor of the January, March and May laws, introduced the Assembly version, A5604, on Oct. 5. Apart from its number and sponsor, its text matches Scutari's bill word for word.
The Assembly State and Local Government Committee, which Karabinchak chairs, took up A5604 on Thursday afternoon, with no floor action posted as of Thursday night.
The attorney general's department set the Nov. 14 stop
The New Jersey Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control set the Nov. 14 stop in a March order and restated it in August after lawmakers added bars. The division is part of the state Department of Law and Public Safety, which Attorney General Jennifer Davenport heads.
The March order spelled out the default: "After November 13th, unless the Hemp Legislation is amended or extended, the privilege to sell or distribute intoxicating hemp beverages shall expire by operation of law."
The order advises sellers to "adjust their ordering and selling decisions" with Nov. 14 in mind.
The division may also confiscate drinks a seller offers in violation of the law, and licensees could face criminal liability, according to the order.
The order gives no instruction on what to do with drinks still in stock when the cutoff arrives. The division's later orders and notices have not addressed leftover inventory either.
The same order looked ahead to a possible extension. It lets wholesalers move the drinks through wholly owned subsidiaries, but the division said those companies could need full licenses if Congress or the Legislature moves the Nov. 13 date.
Davenport was also one of 35 state and territorial attorneys general who signed an Aug. 4 letter to congressional leaders on the hemp redefinition. The letter asked Congress to reject "any effort to delay, repeal, suspend, or weaken the November 2025 redefinition of 'hemp'" and to let it take effect on schedule.
The letter listed New Jersey among states where lawmakers had worked to bring their own definitions of hemp in line with the federal one.
Sellers have made the case for the drinks before. In June, before Scutari introduced his bill, Pearl Amin of Liquor Saver in Somerville said customers were traveling from all over New Jersey for the store's THC drink selection.
"For many retailers, intoxicating hemp beverages have become an important emerging product category that helps drive consumer traffic and offset declining sales in traditional alcohol products," Mahi Patel of the Garden State Liquor Retailers Association told lawmakers in May.
Critics pushed back at the same May hearing. Susanna Puntel of the American Trade Association for Cannabis and Hemp objected to the 200-milligram bottle on health and youth-access grounds.
"Public safety should not be secondary to rapid commercialization," said Andrew Caggiano, then president of the New Jersey State Association of Chiefs of Police.
The drinks' only tax return is due Dec. 21
The January law also put an excise tax of $3.75 a gallon on wholesale sales of the drinks, with the money going to the state's main budget account, the General Fund.
When that bill passed in December, the Office of Legislative Services said it could not determine how much revenue the tax would raise. In the office's example, the tax would bring in approximately $350,000 to $1 million a year if residents bought 1 million to 3 million 12-ounce cans. The office called those figures "illustrative only" and "not predictive of actual market behavior."
Wholesalers pay the tax on a one-time return that covers sales through Nov. 13.
That return is due Dec. 21, according to the New Jersey Division of Taxation.
Scutari's bill would extend sales but would leave the tax section of the law unchanged.
Unless the law changes first, the Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control's orders end sales of the drinks by liquor stores, wholesalers and bars Saturday, Nov. 14.
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Sources
Attorneys general of 35 states and territories, including New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport, letter to congressional leaders on the redefinition of hemp (Aug. 4, 2026)
Congressional Research Service, "Changes to the Statutory Definition of Hemp and Implications for Agricultural Policy," In Focus IF13136 (Sept. 28, 2026)
New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission, "Intoxicating Hemp-Derived Products" FAQ (accessed Oct. 13, 2026)
New Jersey Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control, Administrative Order AO-2026-02 on intoxicating hemp beverage sales (March 20, 2026)
New Jersey Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control, Administrative Order AO-2026-03, first amended order on intoxicating hemp beverage sales (May 13, 2026)
New Jersey Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control, Administrative Order AO-2026-05, second amended order on intoxicating hemp beverage sales (Aug. 12, 2026)
New Jersey Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control, advisories, notices, orders and special rulings index (accessed Oct. 13, 2026)
New Jersey Division of Taxation, Form IHB-1, Intoxicating Hemp Beverage Wholesaler Tax Return and instructions (April 2026)
New Jersey Division of Taxation, "Intoxicating Hemp Beverage" page (accessed Oct. 13, 2026)
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New Jersey Governor's Office, "Governor Sherrill Signs Legislation" (March 30, 2026)
New Jersey Governor's Office, "Governor Sherrill Signs Legislation" (May 29, 2026)
New Jersey Legislature, bill histories, sponsors and fiscal-note status for S4635, A5604, S4509, S3945 and A5051 (accessed Oct. 5 and Oct. 13, 2026)
New Jersey Legislature, Bill No. S4635, "Aligns State restrictions on sale of hemp products and intoxicating hemp beverages with federal law," with sponsor's statement (Oct. 1, 2026); companion Bill No. A5604 (Oct. 5, 2026)
New Jersey Legislature, committee statements on A5051 (May 14 and May 21, 2026)
New Jersey Legislature, committee statements on S3945 and A4791 (March 19, 2026)
New Jersey Legislature, P.L.2024, c.73, intoxicating hemp products law (Sept. 12, 2024)
New Jersey Legislature, P.L.2025, c.215, hemp regulation law (Jan. 12, 2026)
New Jersey Legislature, P.L.2026, c.13, hemp beverage law amendments (May 29, 2026)
New Jersey Legislature, P.L.2026, c.7, hemp law amendments (March 30, 2026)
New Jersey Legislature, Senate Judiciary Committee and Assembly State and Local Government Committee agendas for Oct. 15, 2026 (accessed Oct. 13, 2026)
New Jersey Office of Legislative Services, Legislative Calendar, Vol. L No. 57 (Oct. 9, 2026)
New Jersey Office of Legislative Services, Legislative Fiscal Estimate for the Senate Committee Substitute for S4509 (Dec. 22, 2025)
New Jersey Senate Democrats, "Bill Protecting New Jersey Families by Removing Intoxicating Hemp Products From Shelves Sent to Gov" (Dec. 22, 2025)
New Jersey Senate Democrats, "Ruiz, Scutari Bill Protecting Families by Removing Intoxicating Hemp Products From Shelves Now Law" (Jan. 12, 2026)
Nieto-Munoz, Sophie, New Jersey Monitor, "Bill advances that would allow potent THC drinks in liquor stores until November" (May 22, 2026)
Tarrazi, Alexis, Patch, "Family-Run Liquor Store Expands THC Beverage Selection As Demand Grows In Somerset County" (June 30, 2026)
Ulloa, Dan, HeadyNJ, "Several Intoxicating Hemp Smoke Shops and Convenience Stores Raided in Morris County" (July 13, 2026)
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U.S. Congress, Public Law 119-37, section 781, federal hemp definition (Nov. 12, 2025)
Photo: Kenneth C. Zirkel / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.