ARTICLE AD BOX
Dinner and drinks might be the go-to activity for a night out with the girls, but Gen Z is removing alcohol from the equation.
Instead of ending a long day with a glass of wine, 26-year-old Bre Giglio pulls out her favorite THC drink, which contains a cannabis compound and gives her a soothing buzz. “We don’t have alcohol in our house,” she told The Independent. “Not because we’re sober or anything. Just because we prefer THC beverages.”
Research over the years how shown that young people are decreasing their alcohol intake. In a 2023 survey from Gallup 62 percent of adults, between the ages of 18 and 34, said they drank alcohol, which is a 10 percent decrease from how many people drank two decades ago. A 2024 survey by LendingTree also found that 55 percent of Gen Zers regretted spending so much money on alcohol.
As young people pour less booze in their cups, they are instead choosing other options, from non-alcoholic beers and apéritifs to healthy, prebiotic sodas like Poppi and Ollipop, and THC drinks. Although the strength depends on the brand, you can view THC-infused drinks like mild weed edibles. Just like gummies, these drinks are made with hemp-derived THC, which is THC extracted from hemp plants. And like alcohol, you have to be 21 or over to buy them.
Giglio enjoys drinking Nowadays, which is marketed as the “perfect substitute for your everyday cocktail.” Bottles of the N/A spirit, ideal for mixing with lemonade or orange juice, are sold in different strengths, with either two, five, or ten milligrams per serving.
Each of the THC drinks that Gigilo has contains five to 10 milligrams of THC, which she says is just the right amount for her. She has about five drinks a week, each at the end of the night.
Another non-alcoholic cocktail option is from Gigli, which sells cans with 10 milligrams of THC each, in flavors like blueberry lemonade and raspberry ginger.
Gigli is Tatum Ross’s, 23, go-to drink, and she enjoys them a few times a week as an alternative to alcohol. She says she still feels sharp as a tack after drinking them and that the beverages have improved her quality of sleep and stress levels.
“It opens up space for creativity and deeper thoughts, which alcohol just doesn’t do for me,” she explained. “Alcohol tends to cloud things and sometimes leads to choices I wouldn’t make sober. THC feels intentional — it enhances rather than numbs.”
Bre Giglio did not start drinking THC beverages in order to cut back her alcohol intake — that was just an added benefit. Instead, she drinks them because they help her feel relaxed and reduce her anxiety.
“ I think there's very much alcohol ingrained in our culture, and if anything, people look at you weird if you say you don't drink or sober,” she said. “Versus, there are some people who are very weird if you drink the THC drinks. But that can actually be a much better alternative. So I hope that people just realize how normalized it is.”
Ross agrees that her peers are experimenting with THC drinks and partially cutting out alcohol as a result.
“Some of us have fully swapped, others are just dabbling. But it’s definitely on people’s radar more now than it was even a year ago,” she said. “I think that my generation is really leaning into overall health and wellness, something that I am incredibly passionate about.”
Lara Gould, 32, cut back on drinking a couple of years ago, after realizing that alcohol didn’t make her a happier person. As she slowly started leaning towards cannabis, the THC-infused drinks at her local Total Wine store quickly caught her eye.
Although Gould hasn’t stopped having alcohol entirely, she brings her THC drinks to dinner parties, which wasn’t an easy task at first, because of the assumptions made about “stoners.” She specifically hits back at how people who ingest THC have been compared to stoner stereotypes like Shaggy from Scooby-Doo.
“I’m not a pothead. It’s about showing the beverages to my friends, who didn’t know about THC in the way I do,” she said. “It was weird for them at first when they were all drinking rosé and I was showing up with my own drinks. But a lot of them have been slowly open to learning.”
Gould also likes these drinks because they help her feel relaxed — even if she is quick to note she doesn’t use them as a coping tool. “I would 100 times out of 10 choose enjoying a THC-infused beverage in my favorite activities over an alcoholic beverage any day of the week,” she added.
Everyone can react to THC differently, and you shouldn’t go straight into having a drink with 10 milligrams right off the bat. It’s just like alcohol in that regard, where knowing how much wine or beer you can handle may help avoid the dreaded hangover the following day. The women interviewed here all gave themselves some grace when ingesting THC for the first time, before gradually finding their individual sweet spot.
English (US) ·