Ohio is home to nearly 400 craft breweries, many of which aggressively sought to hop on the booming THC trend recently with hemp-infused non-alcoholic beverages. Before recent state and federal bans on hemp beverages began rolling out earlier this year, alcohol industry execs were discovering a disturbing trend: consumers are choosing cannabis over alcohol. A lot.
Liquor Sales Dropping
Ohio liquor sales dropped for the fourth consecutive year in 2025, with residents purchasing 15.7 million gallons—down from 16.4 million gallons in 2024. The state’s decline mirrors a broader national trend where self-reported drinking rates have hit historic lows, driven largely by younger generations embracing wellness-focused alternatives.
As the afternoon sun dips below the horizon at Ohio outdoor concert hotspots like Thornville’s Legend Valley and Garrentsville’s Nelson Ledges Quarry Park, the air fills with amplified sound, stage lights, and the subtle aroma of people using their legally regulated cannabis that you can buy in any Ohio dispensary.
But what’s changed in recent years is how festival promoters and venues handle the selling of alcohol. Concert promoters are increasingly expanding non-alcoholic options, driven by a sharp rise in consumer demand and younger generations drinking less. While some are not fully banning alcohol because it drives traditional revenue, many promoters have adopted a BYOB policy instead of offering sales onsite. And the data shows that it’s having an impact: non-alcoholic drink sales at live events and festivals have more than doubled.
This evolving mindset is known as the “California Sober” (or Cali-Sober) movement—a lifestyle where individuals swap alcohol, opioids, and other harmful substances for cannabis and, in some cases, mindful psychedelic exploration.
The Paradigm Shift: Harm Reduction in the Heartland
At the core of the Cali-Sober philosophy is harm reduction—a pragmatic, human-centered public health strategy supported by advocates like the National Harm Reduction Coalition. Rather than demanding total abstinence under threat of shame or criminalization, harm reduction prioritizes individual safety, mental wellness, and personal agency. “California sober” is a lifestyle and harm-reduction approach where a person avoids alcohol and hard drugs, but continues to use cannabis and sometimes psychedelics. The name links the concept to California’s long-standing cannabis culture and progressive wellness trends.
Historically, mainstream recovery programs treated sobriety as a strict binary: consuming any mind-altering substance was labeled a relapse or complete failure. However, in states like Ohio that have been heavily impacted by the national opioid crisis, public health experts recognize that many citizens benefit from harm reduction. By replacing high-mortality, socially destructive substances with lower-risk options like cannabis, individuals can stabilize their lives, maintain employment, and improve overall mental health without abandoning community support.
Cultural Touchpoints: Bluegrass, Country, and ‘California Sober’
The term “California sober” (or “Cali sober”) traces its earliest digital footprint to an Urban Dictionary definition in 2016, but it entered mainstream cultural consciousness through a widely read 2019 Vice article by journalist Michelle Lhooq. Pop star Demi Lovato further popularized the term in a 2021 documentary.
The movement’s migration into Midwestern consciousness is playing out across live music venues right now. A hit song called “California Sober” by bluegrass virtuoso Billy Strings and country icon Willie Nelson was released on April 28, 2023, ahead of Nelson’s 90th birthday.
Nelson stopped drinking alcohol years ago after health and personal realizations, though he famously still opens his live sets with “Whiskey River”. He remains one of the world’s most famous cannabis advocates. While he smoked for decades, breathing issues later in life shifted his consumption preferences toward edibles. Willie Nelson’s primary cannabis brand is Willie’s Reserve, launched in 2015 to offer premium flower, pre-rolls, and vapes in legal recreational states. He also operates Willie’s Remedy, which features hemp-derived CBD products, and Willie’s Remedy+, a popular line of hemp-derived THC-infused drinks and social tonics.
“Well I’m California sober as they say, Lately I can find no other way
I can’t stay out and party like I did back in the day, So I’m California sober as they say“-Willie Nelson & Billy Strings, “California SOber”, 2023
Billy Strings grew up surrounded by poverty and severe family addiction in Ohio’s opioid-ravaged neighbor to the North, Michigan. Both his biological father and mother struggled with substance abuse. His father previously survived a heroin overdose while his mother died last summer from an accidental methamphetamine overdose. Billy achieved long-term sobriety from alcohol and stepped away from harder substances following the birth of his son, breaking generational cycles of addiction.
For Ohioans raised in the same Midwest culture where socializing, tailgating, and live entertainment heavily revolved around alcohol, the song “California Sober” resonates with Strings’ fans. The song frames stepping away from heavy drinking not as a somber sacrifice, but as a liberated, conscious choice.
Expanding Horizons: Ohio’s Psychedelic Policy & Wellness Landscape
At both the state and federal levels, researchers and lawmakers are taking a serious look at powerful psychedelic compounds to address severe opioid addiction and PTSD. A prime example is the bipartisan focus on ibogaine—a naturally occurring alkaloid derived from the West African Tabernanthe iboga plant.
Championed by State Representative Justin Pizzulli, Ohio established the official Ibogaine Treatment Study Committee to evaluate ibogaine’s therapeutic potential for individuals with severe substance use disorders and veterans suffering from traumatic brain injuries. Concurrently, academic medical teams at institutions like Ohio State University are gathering observational data from patients undergoing therapy to lay the groundwork for formal clinical trials. To track these ongoing policy shifts and medical breakthroughs, read MedicateOH’s story on Ibogaine research and policy developments.
Building Community: Peer Networks and Local Ohio Support
Navigating a non-traditional recovery path can feel isolating when traditional 12-step programs demand absolute abstinence from all substances, including prescribed therapeutics or legal cannabis. Where AA has helped thousands of people to eliminate alcohol, the organization’s founder, Bill W. noted publicly that he used LSD to support his sobriety. For those working the AA steps who feel alienated or misaligned, there’s myriad resources to explore in the Cali-Sober realm. Both national peer communities and Ohio-specific harm reduction organizations provide non-judgmental support networks.
Peer-Led Networks
On a national level, recovery advocate Quinn Lapeyre—who overcame an 18-year battle with addiction—founded a grassroots movement and the popular CaliSober Recovery Facebook Group. The group offers a compassionate, judgment-free space where thousands of members openly discuss cannabis-assisted recovery, trauma integration, and mental wellness.
Grassroots Ohio Support Organizations
Within the state, several organizations provide vital on-the-ground resources:
- Harm Reduction Ohio (HRO): A statewide human rights nonprofit delivering free naloxone (Narcan), drug testing kits, and anti-stigma educational materials directly to residents.
- The SOAR Initiative: Founded by Ohio State University students, SOAR utilizes mobile tech to run the statewide Deadly Batch Alert system while mailing free harm reduction supplies to homes.
- Project DAWN (Deaths Avoided With Naloxone): Coordinated by the Ohio Department of Health, managing distribution centers for free overdose reversal tools across all 88 Ohio counties.
- Thrive for Change: A Northeast Ohio peer-led organization supplying fentanyl test kits, safer-use supplies, and direct community connections.
- Coalition for Community Safety (CCS) in Cincinnati focuses on harm reduction, providing street outreach, supplies, and care for people experiencing homelessness and substance use disorders.
Festival Culture, ‘Set & Setting,’ and Critical Safety Precautions
During peak summer festival season, some Cali-Sober concert-goers choose to incorporate micro-dosing or natural psychedelics into their personal healing journeys.
Organizations like the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) stress that any psychedelic experience relies heavily on Set and Setting:
- Set (Mindset): Your internal psychological state, expectations, and emotional history. Approaching plant medicine while experiencing unaddressed distress or intense anxiety can trigger difficult experiences.
- Setting (Environment): Your immediate physical and social surroundings. While festival grounds offer vibrant art and music, large crowds can cause sensory overload. Having trusted friends, hydration, and access to quiet retreat zones is essential.
Finding a trusted sober friend or trip sitter to help care for you while under the influence of psychedelics can be useful. While Western medicine warns that psychedelics should only be done under a doctor’s care, it is inaccessible for many. Others might find much more profound change because they used it at a festival instead of a psychiatry office.
Essential Protection: Test Strips in Unregulated Spaces
While Ohio’s dispensaries regulated by the Ohio Division of Cannabis Control (DCC) guarantee lab-tested safety for legal marijuana, unregulated substances purchased outside dispensaries carry risks.
Public health agencies across Ohio continually warn that the illicit drug supply remains heavily contaminated with high-potency synthetic opioids like fentanyl. Anyone choosing to experiment with non-dispensary substances should always test their products using rapid fentanyl test strips from organizations like DanceSafe. Testing kits can be ordered discreetly and free of charge through SOAR Initiative or Harm Reduction Ohio, and carrying free Narcan from Project DAWN can save a life in an emergency.
By pairing modern harm reduction tools with compassionate peer communities, Ohioans are demonstrating that recovery can be an empowered, safety-first journey toward long-term health.
Stay in the Loop
As plant medicine becomes normalized, Ohio is fast becoming a hub for pioneering psychedelic policy and wellness discussions. Independent journalism outlets like MedicateOH continue to lead coverage at the intersection of plant medicine, legislative reforms, and holistic health as alternative therapies gain national attention.
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