He’ll strike out a provision in Senate Bill 56 that would have allowed intoxicating hemp beverages to continue to be sold by licensed liquor retailers until the federal government’s hemp ban goes into effect in November 2026, while all other intoxicating hemp products in the state would have to be moved to recreational marijuana dispensaries.
“My veto means that they cannot be sold,” DeWine told reporters Friday afternoon in the Statehouse’s ceremonial governor’s office.
He said implementing the same rules for all intoxicating hemp products would be the simplest way to move forward and limit confusion. He also disclosed that he’s unnerved by what he called a lack of scientific understanding of how hemp-infused drinks impact consumers.
“The person who is drinking it, and as well as the person who serves them, will not know nearly as much about the impact as, for example, in regard to alcohol,” he said.
DeWine has long lamented the intoxicating hemp market, which sprouted up following the federal 2018 farm bill that legalized the production of hemp plants — marijuana’s low-THC cousin. In the time since, other naturally occurring and/or artificially enhanced cannabinoids from the hemp plant, like delta-8 or THCA, have been used to create products that can make users feel high.
He offered few public sympathies to businesses that have come to rely on hemp-infused beverages and other intoxicating hemp products when he fielded a question regarding the ban’s business impact.
“There’s no one who’s in this business who didn’t understand that there was a very good chance that they would no longer, at some point, be able to do this,” the Republican governor said. “They also understood that this was a gaping hole in a law that was passed for a different purpose. They were certainly on notice and have been on notice for some time.”
The ban will go into effect in about 90 days after it’s signed.
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Avery Kreemer can be reached at 614-981-1422, on X, via email, or you can drop him a comment/tip with the survey below.
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