A pair of Ohio Republican state senators want intoxicating hemp products to be sold only at adult-use dispensaries—not convenience stores, smoke shops or gas stations.
Ohio state Sens. Steve Huffman (R-Tipp City) and Shane Wilkin (R-Hillsboro) introduced Senate Bill 86, which would also impose a 15 percent tax on intoxicating hemp products sold at dispensaries and ban the sale of intoxicating hemp products to anyone under 21.
"Currently, intoxicating hemp products are untested, unregulated psychoactive products that can be just as intoxicating, if not more intoxicating, than marijuana," Wilkin said in his sponsor testimony to the Senate General Government Committee on Tuesday.
The 2018 U.S. Farm Bill says hemp can be grown legally if it contains less than 0.3 percent THC. Ohio is 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. Fifteen states ban these products. Seven states, including Michigan, regulate it like cannabis, while seven other states regulate it like consumer goods, according to the study.
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