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 products are known to have significant impacts on young,
developing brains, yet these products are legally marketed to kids, sold to
kids, and ingested by kids in Ohio. Today, I signed an executive order that
takes action to keep these dangerous products out of…
pic.twitter.com/uAkVT77Sj1

— Governor Mike DeWine (@GovMikeDeWine) October 8, 2025

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.*

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For 90 Days appeared first on Marijuana Moment.