DES MOINES, Iowa — Things were going so well, Climbing Kites actually welcomed the idea of some guard rails.

“We’ve been working with regulators and legislators really for months,” said Scott Selix, co-owner, “to try to find good regulations to limit the industry but also allow good actors to operate.”

Iowa companies making THC-infused drinks read the new bill (House File 2605) and approved. It sets an age limit of 21-years-old — something they wanted.

But yesterday, things went south.

“There was an amendment proposed that would set the THC limit so low that it might as well be an outright ban on hemp-derived THC consumables in Iowa,” Selix explained.

Climbing Kites seltzer comes in three different strengths: 2.5, 5, and 10 milligrams of THC per can — all well above the limit proposed in the amendment.

“It would shut us down,” Selix shrugged. “It’s like if we continued to allow beer but set the alcohol limit at 1%. Yes, we could still make it, but 100% of our demand is above the limit that they would allow.”

He says making the beverages here only to ship them out of state to places like Minnesota, Illinois, and Missouri (where they’d join a myriad of competing beverages) would likely tank any and all profits.

Bill sponsors say Climbing Kites had found a loophole in the 2019 Hemp Act.

“I was here when that was signed,” said Denison Republican, Steven Holt. “Nobody envisioned with the legislation that we passed that there were going to be products — THC-infused from hemp — that were going to get people high.”

Holt says legalized hemp was meant to be used for things like ointments, plastics, rope, and paint.

He feels hoodwinked.

“We did not pass the hemp program as a closet recreational marijuana program,” he said.

Selix says there was no deception at all. Everyone followed the law. No one put a “spin” on the science.

“The science never changed,” he said. “It’s a pretty simple process where we extract THC and CBD from hemp flower and we infuse it into our products and it’s the same ten years ago as it was four years ago as it is today.”

What everyone in the Capitol does agree on is that anything THC was eventually going to draw fire.

“The governor herself has made statements that she really opposes just about any sort of legalization of THC,” said Democrat Austin Baeth of Des Moines, “and so I think it’s top-down in the Republican party.”

The Republicans may be divided here though, between their younger libertarians championing personal freedoms and old-school conservatives like Holt.

“In retrospect, I wish we had known these things,” Holt said, “or we would have certainly put these guard rails in from the beginning.”

Selix says he’ll spend the rest of the week talking with lawmakers and asks Iowans to do the same: call or email their legislators.

“We’re just hoping that we strike the right balance of regulation vs. freedoms vs. allowing Iowans to make the responsible choice for themselves,” he said.

Holt said he expected the amendment to be debated this week in the state house.