House Votes To Turn Up The Buzz On Canned Cocktails, Let Apprentices Shampoo Hair

(Source: MIRS.news, Published 03/12/2026) Michiganders may soon be able to get sloshed off a single can.

The House on Thursday passed legislation allowing ready-to-drink canned mixed cocktails to reach up to 21% alcohol by volume, a significant jump from the current limit for canned mixed spirit drinks.

HB 5343 would expand the definition of a mixed spirit drink in Michigan law to include canned cocktails containing more than 13.5% and up to 21% alcohol by volume, provided they are sold in cans between 6.7 and 24 ounces. That means a 12-ounce mixed drink with an alcohol content of 21% would roughly equate to four shots of liquor.

Supporters say the change is less about stronger drinks and more about how alcohol products move through Michigan’s distribution system.

Regulatory Reform Committee Chair Joseph Aragona (R-Clinton Township) said Michigan’s wholesalers largely specialize in either bottles or cans. Liquor distributors typically handle bottled spirits, while beer distributors have the equipment and infrastructure built around canned beverages.

The legislation is designed to give beer distributors the ability to distribute stronger canned cocktails while leaving the bottled cocktail market untouched.

Aragona said they were careful not to disrupt existing products already being sold through liquor distributors. The bill includes a carve-out for smaller canned beverages — roughly 200 milliliters and under — so companies already distributing those products can continue doing so.

“I’m not interested in taking business away from anyone,” Aragona said. “This is more about future products entering the marketplace.”

The bill passed the House 82-23 with Reps. Julie Brixie (D-Okemos), Erin Byrnes (D-Dearborn), Betsy Coffia (D-Traverse City), Emily Dievendorf (D-Lansing), Kimberly Edwards (D-Eastpointe), Alabas Farhat (D-Dearborn), Morgan Foreman (D-Ann Arbor), Joseph Fox (R-Fremont), Carol Glanville (D-Grand Rapids), Jaime Greene (R-Richmond), Matt Longjohn (D-Portage), Sharon MacDonell (D-Troy), Luke Meerman (R-Coopersville), Denise Mentzer (D-Mount Clemens), Brad Paquette (R-Niles), Bryan Posthumus (R-Rockford), Carrie Rheingans (D-Ann Arbor), Julie Rogers (D-Kalamazoo), Donni Steele (R-Lake Orion), Dylan Wegela (D-Garden City), and Regina Weiss (D-Oak Park) voting against it. The bill now heads to the Senate.

Wegela said he voted against the bill because he sees it as posing an unnecessary risk to public safety. He sees this as likely to contribute to more instances of overconsumption, including drunk driving, and views the existing options for mixed drinks as already more than sufficient.

Weiss, too, thought the alcohol content posed a health risk.

Wegela added that there doesn't seem to be a compelling demand for this change coming from Michiganders. He saw it as more of an industry-driven request than a response to a genuine public need.

“We shouldn't be pushing policies just because lobbyist groups suggest that we do,” Wegela said. “I'm trying to understand what the point of the bill was in the long run. Like, who's asking for it? Are people not getting enough with their buzz ball that they need a buzz ball triple?”

As for whether Aragona plans to celebrate with a 21% canned cocktail if it becomes law, he said he’ll stick with something else.

“I’m a little more traditional,” he said. “Give me a good bottle of bourbon or a good beer and I’m set.”

Another bill that passed on Thursday dealt with a much less intoxicating issue, though arguably more niche issue: shampooing hair.

HB 4908 would allow cosmetology apprentices to perform shampoo services on members of the public once they complete at least 350 hours of instruction in a cosmetology program. Currently, students in cosmetology schools can shampoo customers after reaching that threshold, but apprentices working in salons are not explicitly allowed to do the same.

Rigas, a licensed cosmetologist, said the bill is simply meant to bring parity between apprenticeship programs and traditional cosmetology schools.

“It's one of those things that's just common sense,” she said. The bill passed unanimously.

The House also passed HB 5249 from Rep. Dave Prestin (R-Cedar River) creating a new “adaptive care” ambulance license that would allow certain basic life support ambulance services to provide limited advanced life support under care approved medical protocols.

The measure passed 103-1, with Greene casting the lone no vote.

Greene said she opposed the bill because she worries it could reduce incentives for ambulance providers to maintain the highest level of emergency medical licensure.

“In rural areas where you’re far from a hospital, you want to have the highest level of care possible,” Greene said after the vote.