Montana leading the charge to protect the hemp industry

From the fields to finished products, Montana is home to a wide variety of hemp producers, all of whom are facing dire consequences if legislation isn’t passed to regulate the industry and prevent new restrictions on hemp derived products passed in 2025 from taking effect. 

“Montana is now leading the charge to stop the ban with Tim Sheehy,” said Billings based Pharos Premium Infused Beverages senior vice president of business development Jason Mohr who lives in Ennis. “The ban came out of left field and it's a powerful thing. With the support of Sheehy and attorney general Austin Knudsen we couldn’t ask for better support.”

Sheehy and Minnesota democratic senator Amy Klobeshar were among the supporters of a bi-partisan government funding bill provision that is expected to delay the recriminalization of hemp derived products until Dec. 11, 2026 giving the legislature time to work on a regulatory structure for hemp derived products. Knudsen has authored a letter of support for the hemp industry to encourage the legislature to avoid reverting to prohibition of hemp related products. 

The development of regulations on the production of and restrictions on the sale of hemp based beverages can’t come soon enough for Pharos Brands International’s co-founders Mary Bernuth and Rhyno Stinchfield. The newly married couple has committed their lives to improving the lives of senior citizens and veterans with hemp derived beverages. 

“My motivation is that I’m a long time mental health professional,” said Bernuth who met Stinchfield on a dating site while he was in the process of starting Pharos. “We aren’t interested in just providing THC to get high, the motivation has always been to help seniors.”

The couple have focused their efforts on the Florida market, where there are abundant seniors and friendly regulations towards hemp derived beverages. Bernuth is watching as the products help the specific sectors of the senior population that she has strived to serve as a mental health professional. 

“The focus of my practice is working with seniors who have alcohol abuse problems and wow, this aligns with my mission,” she said, while also admitting that unlike many in the industry she did not have a relationship with hemp products prior to investing in Pharos. 

“I’m from a generation with a stigma,” she explained. “I judged my husband for using as much cannabis as he did during his end of life health issues. Now I am devoted to destigmatizing the cannabis plant for seniors.”

Bernuth and Stinchfield have ensured that Pharos is crafted with premium ingredients, including the all natural pressed hemp extractions that make it unique. While other companies have chased the soccer mom and younger markets with quick and easy buzzes, Pharos’s founders have kept their focus on high quality products they have designed to improve quality of life. 

“We felt so passionate and we believed in it,” said Bernuth. “We’ve carved a niche and we have a reputation because we are consumers of the product. We believe it is an alternative to alcohol,” she continued pointing out that seniors comprise the majority of the alcohol market and just 14% of the market for THC beverages. 

Bernuth has also helped start a group in Florida called Be Wise, Be Well, that will operate as a non-profit focused on teaching the benefits of hemp products in Florida’s 55+ communities. She looks forward to the day that the Pharos products will be readily available to help seniors in Montana as well. 

Because Montana is a recreational use cannabis state, the distribution of delta-9 THC products derived from the more industrial hemp plants is not regulated the same way as in Florida. With so many prominent figures from Montana onboard with the effort to keep hemp legal, Mohr sees changes to that in the not too distant future. 

“We’re gaining an extreme amount of support from both parties that will support a bill that will allow us to sell in places like Town Pump or the Gravel Bar in Montana,” explained Mohr who follows up by saying that Pharos is not intending to compete with existing THC beverages currently available in dispensaries, but wants to instead to provide for the type of people who would never set foot in a dispensary but can benefit from their product. 

“We made our drink to be sessionable so you can enjoy it like an alcoholic beverage while you are watching the game. These are mild, they should not cause alarm,” he said. 

“We want to make sure the senior community in Montana have the same opportunities that 28 other states already have,” adds Bernuth who along with Mohr is confident that change could be as close as the state’s next legislative session. 

With Bernuth’s belief in the product and the support of some of the major players in Montana politics in play, it is easy to see a future where Pharos and similar products will be as common as Miller Lite or Budweiser in the retail establishments. When that happens, an industry that Mohr sees as having the potential to top $30 billion nationally will have the drive and determination of Bernuth and Stinchfield to thank. 

“We bootstrapped the whole thing. We put in our retirement and we went all in,” said Bernuth. “Once you start down the road of entrepreneurship you gotta be all in.”

More information is available about Pharos Premium Infused Beverages at https://pharosbrands.com.