COLUMBUS, Ohio (WTVG) – The Ohio Senate on Wednesday unanimously voted to advance a bill that would restrict sales of Delta-8 and other intoxicating hemp products to licensed marijuana dispensaries.
The bill would also enact age restrictions, along with new advertising and packaging regulations.
Senate Bill 86 passed out of the chamber in a 33-0 vote.
“This will ultimately protect our kids, while ensuring that adults can still purchase hemp products from existing, tested, and regulated operators,” said State Sen. Shane Wilkin (R), Hillsboro.
Delta-8 products have been likened to marijuana’s younger cousin. They are derived from hemp and produce a similar high to marijuana, but are less potent.
Gov. Mike DeWine has been calling on lawmakers to ban or restrict Delta-8 sales since 2023 over concerns that they’re sold in places where kids can buy them, like gas stations, because they’re unregulated.
The hemp industry is generally on board with enacting what it calls common-sense regulations. Several groups opposed the Senate bill because it restricts sales to marijuana dispensaries.
Many of those same opponents to the Senate’s legislation are supporting a separate bill in the House that targets intoxicating hemp products.
House Bill 198 would enact regulatory standards supported by the industry. It doesn’t restrict sales to adult-use dispensaries like SB 86.
House lawmakers heard testimony from supporters Wednesday, hours before the Senate advanced its intoxicating hemp bill. The legislation was introduced by a pair of Republicans, including State Rep. Ty Mathews from Findlay.
Jonathan Miller, General Counsel for the U.S. Hemp Roundtable, wrote in testimony to the House that his group supports the bill because it would enact stronger enforcement against bad actors, testing, labeling, and age restrictions.
“Other proposals that would ban hemp products or place them exclusively in marijuana dispensaries (a de facto ban) would harm, and likely jeopardize, businesses whose entire brick-and-mortar operations are based on the sale of legal hemp products today,” Miller said. “Robust regulation is clearly preferable to misguided prohibition in ensuring that products are safe and kept out of the hands of minors.”
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The Ohio Senate on Wednesday unanimously voted to advance a bill that would restrict sales of Delta-8 and other intoxicating hemp products to licensed marijuana dispensaries. Read More
