Ohio House passes bill regulating intoxicating hemp products, changes state's marijuana laws
The Ohio House passed a bill Wednesday that will make changes to the state’s marijuana laws and add regulations to intoxicating hemp products.
Ohio Senate Bill 56, which is in its 18th version, passed with a vote of 87-8. The bill heads back to the Senate for concurrence.
Five Republicans — state Reps. Tim Barhorst, Levi Dean, Jennifer Gross, D.J. Swearingen, and Michelle Teska — voted against the bill. Three Democrats also voted against the bill — state Reps. Christine Cockley, Ismail Mohamed, and Desiree Tims.
The Senate passed the bill in February, but the House has made significant changes, most notably by adding intoxicating hemp regulations. State Sen. Steve Huffman, R-Tipp City, introduced the bill in January.
“I’ve heard throughout this process now for a very long time from folks in the hemp industry, ‘regulate us like marijuana, regulate us like marijuana.’ And that was the theme of this bill,” said state Rep. Brian Stewart, R-Ashville.
The 2018 Farm Bill says hemp can be grown legally if it contains less than 0.3% THC.
“I think we all had agreement that that was not the intent of the hemp legislation at the federal level or here in Ohio, but we did need to do something to protect kids from these products,” said State Rep. Tex Fischer, R-Boardman. “This legislation closes those loopholes to ensure that only 21-plus individuals are able to access these products and purchase them.”
Ohio Reps. Jamie Callender, R-Concord, left, and Tex Fischer, R-Boardman, right, look at each other while doing an interview about protecting access to marijuana. (Photo by Morgan Trau, WEWS.)
Only a licensed hemp dispensary would be able to sell intoxicating hemp products to adults 21 and older. The dispensaries would be required to meet standards for testing, advertising and packaging. A 10% tax would be added to intoxicating hemp sales.
“This bill creates a legal pathway for the sale of regulated, licensed, tested, safely grown, intoxicating hemp products and a limited number of hemp dispensaries,” Stewart said.
The bill would limit the number of active hemp dispensaries to 400. The bill would allow certain hemp dispensaries to be grandfathered in if they sold intoxicating hemp products on or before Aug. 30 and hemp products sales surpassed 80% of their total sales for 2024 or the 12 months before the bill takes effect.
However, if more than 400 dispensaries are licensed due to the grandfather provision, the Division of Marijuana Control would not be able to issue any more licensees until the number of grandfathered dispensaries dropped below 400.
Gross, who voted against the bill, said the measure is at odds with federal law. She also said she heard from five businesses in her district that this bill “effectively kills large swaths of Ohio’s hemp industry.”
“It is right to remove packaging which dangerously attracts children, to enforce age restrictions as well as set limits on advertising to the younger generations,” Gross said. “But this bill is not ready. … This bill takes a hatchet to these small businesses.”
The bill defines an intoxicating hemp product as containing more than 0.5 milligrams of delta-9 THC per serving, 2 milligrams of delta-9 THC per package or 0.5 milligrams of total non-delta-9 THC per package.
THC-infused beverages are also included in the bill. A bar or restaurant would be able to sell 5 milligram THC-infused beverages for patrons to drink on site, while a store would be able to sell 10 milligram THC-infused beverages for carry-out.
“I think this strikes the appropriate tone of a reasonable, fair and pro-business regulatory regime, while still maintaining that these products and consumers should be safe and should only be accessible to 21-plus adults,” Fischer said.
Under this bill, the Division of Marijuana Control in the Ohio Department of Commerce would be responsible for regulating intoxicating hemp products and the Division of Liquor Control in the Department of Commerce would be in charge of regulating THC-infused drinks.
Jim Higdon, co-founder of Cornbread Hemp in Kentucky, which sells its products in more than 300 Ohio retail stores, called this bill “by far the strangest … in all the states that have passed hemp legislation this year.”
“This bill appears to ban the sale of hemp edibles with more than 2mg THC per package in all groceries and convenience stores while also legalizing 10mg THC beverages in those same stores,” Higdon said in a statement. “It’s difficult to understand how that makes sense, when all these products should be simply age-gated and taxed appropriately.”
The bill “is substantially different” from when it came over from the Senate earlier this year, House Speaker Matt Huffman, R-Lima said.
“My number one priority is getting this issue resolved,” he said. “My priorities within the bill are, certainly public safety, limiting access certainly to minors, and making sure that there’s some regulating process.”
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine recently announced a 90-day executive order that bans the sale of intoxicating hemp products that started on Oct.14. Franklin County Court of Common Pleas Judge Carl Aveni granted a 14-day temporary restraining order on DeWine’s executive order. The next hearing in this case is scheduled for Oct. 28.
Marijuana changes
S.B. 56 would reduce the THC levels in adult-use marijuana extracts from a maximum of 90% down to a maximum of 70%, cap THC levels in adult-use flower to 35%, limit the number of active marijuana dispensaries and prohibit smoking in most public places.
It would keep Ohio’s home grow the same at a limit of six plants per person and 12 plants per residence.
Ohioans passed a citizen-initiated law to legalize recreational marijuana in 2023 with 57% of the vote, and sales started in August 2024. Ohio recreational marijuana sales topped $702.5 million in the first year. Ohio lawmakers can change the law since it passed as a citizen initiative not a constitutional amendment.
“Virtually everything that Ohioans can do today under the initiated statute will be just as legal after the passage of this bill,” Stewart said.
One change, however, is the banning of smoking in most public places.
“Our constituents … have also made clear that we don’t want every downtown in Ohio to smell like a Grateful Dead concert,” Stewart said.
The bill would give 36% of adult-use marijuana sale revenue to municipalities and townships that have recreational marijuana dispensaries, which was originally included in the citizen-initiated law voters passed in 2023.
People would also be able to apply for expungement of low-level marijuana convictions instead of getting rid of them automatically.
“If you smoked a joint when you were 18 in 2002, in your 40s you should not have barriers to housing or employment or public services because you got in trouble when you were 18 for doing something that is now completely legal,” said Ohio House Minority Leader Dani Isaacsohn, D-Cincinnati.