Politics
Ohio Governor Issues Order Banning Intoxicating Hemp Product Sales For 90 Days
“Intoxicating hemp has no required regulatory testing…and sold in packages enticing to children.”
By Megan Henry, Ohio Capital Journal
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) has issued a 90-day executive order banning the sale of intoxicating hemp products starting this coming Tuesday.
Intoxicating hemp products are items that contain THC that are sold anywhere other than licensed marijuana dispensaries including gas stations, smoke shops and CBD stores, among others. This ban includes THC-infused beverages.
“I am taking action today…to get these products off the streets and to have them taken off our shelves,” DeWine said Wednesday during a press conference. “Intoxicating hemp is dangerous, and we need to better protect our children… We believe this is the right thing to do.”
The 90-day executive order ends on January 12, 2026, and then it will be up to the lawmakers to decide if they want to see further action taken on intoxicating hemp.
“I’m not going to tell them what to do, but we have to have some control of this product,” DeWine said. “We can’t have a situation where it is legal for people to sell this to underage kids.”
Those shops who violate the executive order could be subject to a $500 fine for each day intoxicating hemp products remain on their shelves.
The 2018 Farm Bill says hemp can be grown legally if it contains less than 0.3 percent THC.
“After these laws were passed, chemists began manipulating compounds in the legal, non-intoxicated hemp plant, turning these compounds into intoxicating THC, including Delta-8 and Delta-9, which are found in marijuana,” DeWine said. “It’s a totally different product.”
Marijuana is not considered an intoxicating hemp product and is legal in Ohio.
DeWine has been calling on lawmakers to regulate or ban delta-8 THC products since January 2024. He previously said he was not able to sign an executive order about hemp.
“We believe we have the authority to do this, and I’m not going to sit back and not do it,” DeWine said, explaining how he went back to his lawyers.
It was previously reported Ohio was one of about 20 states that does not have any regulations around intoxicating hemp products, according to an Ohio State University Drug Enforcement and Policy Center study from November 2024.
It was reported in January 2024 that there had been at least 257 reports of delta-8 poisoning in Ohio in recent years—including 102 in 2023 and 40 that involved children under six-years-old, according to the Ohio Poison Control Center.
“Since intoxicating hemp products, such as delta-8, became widely available, the number of accidental reasonings among children has risen sharply,” said Dr. Hannah Hays, medical director of the Central Ohio Poison Center and Chief of Toxicology at Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
Children who ingest intoxicating hemp products can experience drowsiness, hallucinations, confusion, loss of consciousness, seizures, and respiratory failure, Hays said.
“I don’t want the product sold to children,” DeWine said. “I think the danger to our children is clear, and I’m taking action today to protect Ohio’s children. These children are vulnerable to these candy knock-off products that are on sale today across the state of Ohio.”
DeWine had three intoxicating hemp products with him during Wednesday’s press conference—Stoner Patch Dummies (similar packaging to Sour Patch Kids), Nerdy Bears (similar to Nerds Gummy Clusters), and Sour Infused Gummies (similar to Gushers).
“With intoxicating hemp, this product has no restriction on where it can be sold or who can buy it,” DeWine said. “Intoxicating hemp has no required regulatory testing…and sold in packages enticing to children, many times mimicking the packaging of common candies.”
A Nerdy Bear gummy bear contains more than 100 milligrams THC, according to the packaging.
“For context, many adult produced products will contain 10 milligrams of THC per serving,” DeWine said. “Certainly, it’s easy to see how a child will confuse this product with real candy and eat a few gummy bears and ingest enough THC to require hospitalization.”
The Ohio Cannabis Coalition praised DeWine’s executive order.
“For too long, the hemp industry has recklessly exploited the Farm Bill loophole to line its pockets at the expense of Ohioans’ health,” OHCANN Executive Director David Bowling said in a statement. “Until today, unregulated synthetic hemp-derived cannabinoids were sold openly, putting consumers, especially children, at risk.”
The hemp industry, however, was quick to speak out against DeWine’s executive order.
“Governor DeWine’s executive order banning hemp is an attack on Ohio’s consumers who will lose access to safe and legal products, and a gut punch to Ohio farmers and small businesses who have invested tens of millions building legitimate businesses in good faith under existing laws,” Ohio Healthy Alternatives Association Executive Director Michael Tindall said in a statement.
He said there are more than 2,000 smoke and hemp shops, and more than 4,000 retailers throughout Ohio that sell hemp products.
DeWine’s executive order is a “misguided overreach,” said Jonathan Miller, General Counsel of the U.S. Hemp Roundtable.
“We are outraged that the Governor is attempting to bypass the Ohio legislature and misuse executive powers to deliver a crushing, job-killing blow to the state’s hemp industry,” Miller said in a statement. “Instead of prohibition, Ohio should pursue regulation—setting age limits, mandating independent third-party testing, requiring accurate labeling, and ensuring products are made with American-grown hemp.”
Dakota Sawyer of American Republic Policy agrees that intoxicating hemp products should not be in the hands of children, but disagrees with DeWine’s approach to ban all products since he said there are stores with age restrictions.
“We should be going after the bad actors, but not punishing the good actors,” he said. “This executive order will shut [the good actors] down. This will put them out of business. People won’t be able to put food on their plates for their families.”
State Rep. Tex Fischer, R-Boardman, said the executive order is an overstep.
“I believe the legislature’s job is to legislate,” he said. “I do not believe it’s the governor’s job to legislate.”
Intoxicating hemp bills
There are a handful of bills in the legislature that would regulate intoxicating hemp products in various ways.
Ohio Senate Bill 266 would ban the sale of intoxicating hemp products to people under 21, ban the sale of intoxicating hemp products that have not been tested under the same rules as marijuana and would prevent selling intoxicating hemp products that appeal to children.
Ohio Senate Bill 86 would ban intoxicating hemp products sales to anyone under 21, impose a 10 percent tax on intoxicating hemp products and regulate drinkable cannabinoid products.
The bill would require intoxicating hemp products to be sold only at adult-use marijuana dispensaries instead of allowing them to be sold at CBD stores, convenience stores, smoke shops, or gas stations. It would require intoxicating hemp products to only be sold if the products have been tested and comply with standards for packing, labeling, and advertising.
Ohio Senate Bill 56 would only allow a licensed marijuana dispensary to sell intoxicating hemp products that have been tested and complied with packaging, labeling and advertising requirements. The bill, which passed in the Senate earlier this year, would also change parts of the state’s marijuana law.
Ohio House Bill 160 mostly deals with potential changes to the state’s marijuana laws, but it also has an intoxicating hemp provision that would require every THC product to only be sold at Ohio’s regulated marijuana dispensaries.
This story was first published by Ohio Capital Journal.
