Ohio Governor Issues Order Banning Intoxicating Hemp Product Sales For 90 Days

Ohio intoxicating hemp ban, served straight with no garnish: the governor just slapped a 90-day lid on gas-station gummies and THC-infused seltzers, a sudden freeze that starts Tuesday and runs through January 12, 2026. Gov. Mike DeWine didn’t mince words. He says candy-mimic packaging and untested concoctions have turned checkout aisles into booby traps for kids. The order bites hard where the market bloomed fast and loose—CBD shops, smoke stores, convenience counters—anything outside a licensed marijuana dispensary. Violate it and you’re looking at a $500-a-day tab for every day those intoxicating hemp products sit on your shelves. The pitch is simple: protect children, yank the bright bags and neon cans until adults in the statehouse decide what comes next. Behind the podium talk is a hard truth about cannabis taxation, child safety, and the evolving Ohio cannabis market—when the state says “enough,” it usually means, “regulators, start your engines.”

The backstory reads like a chemistry-class detour. The 2018 Farm Bill legalized hemp under 0.3 percent THC by dry weight. Then the alchemy began. Convert hemp-derived CBD into delta-8 or delta-9 THC, tuck it into a gummy, and you’ve got an intoxicating product that lives in the gray space between federal language and state oversight. Ohio, until now, was one of roughly 20 states with no rules specific to this slice of the market. Poison control data helped tip the scale: at least 257 reported delta-8 poisonings in recent years, 102 in 2023 alone, including 40 cases involving children under six. Doctors warn about drowsiness, confusion, even respiratory failure when little hands get curious. The governor held up packages at his presser—knockoffs that looked uncomfortably like lunchbox treats—then drew a bright line. Marijuana may be legal in Ohio, but this unregulated lane of intoxicating hemp? Different animal, he said.

The order split the room. The Ohio Cannabis Coalition cheered the move as overdue consumer protection. On the other end, hemp trade groups called it executive overreach and a job-killing sledgehammer. They argue the better route is regulation—age gates, third-party lab tests, accurate labels, child-resistant packaging, and real enforcement against corner-cutters. Their math isn’t small: more than 2,000 specialty shops and over 4,000 other retailers in Ohio sell hemp products. Shut them off overnight and you don’t just halt sales; you risk pushing demand underground. If this feels familiar, it’s because drug policy often wobbles between public-health alarm and political theater. At the federal level, the signals have been just as murky—see Trump’s Drug Czar Pick Dodges Senators’ Marijuana Questions As Her Nomination Advances and the frustrated mood of consumers captured in Cannabis consumers disappointed in Trump, poll shows (Newsletter: October 10, 2025). Ohio’s ban lands squarely in that crosscurrent—public pressure, political caution, and an industry learning to live under a microscope.

So what happens after the 90 days? Lawmakers have a buffet of options laid out in bills already on the table. One proposal, Senate Bill 266, would lock intoxicating hemp behind a 21+ age floor, demand marijuana-grade testing, and outlaw kid-appealing packaging. Another, Senate Bill 86, piles on a 10 percent tax and corrals drinkable cannabinoids—nudging intoxicating hemp closer to the licensed dispensary model. SB 56 and HB 160 go further, channeling all intoxicating THC into adult-use dispensaries under uniform testing, labeling, and advertising rules. That would simplify enforcement and bolster a regulated channel—but it could also kneecap independent retailers overnight. Other states are grappling with similar seams. Texas, for one, has seen stakeholders push back against sweeping proposals, a fight sketched in Texas Hemp And Alcohol Stakeholders Push Back On ‘Heavy Handed’ Proposed Rules In Meeting With Officials. And if you still think national leaders have a clear playbook, consider how even nominees sidestep the simplest cannabis questions in Trump’s Drug Czar Pick Dodges Senators’ Marijuana Questions As Her Nomination Advances. In short: Ohio’s fight is everyone’s fight, just with Buckeye decals.

Here’s the uncomfortable middle ground, the place where policymaking actually lives. Kids shouldn’t be anywhere near intoxicating hemp. That part is easy. But prohibition doesn’t sterilize demand; it just changes the venue. If Ohio wants to protect children and keep adults out of the ER, it needs a clean line: regulate hemp-derived THC like high-proof alcohol. IDs at the counter, verified lab tests, dose caps that don’t turn snack-time into a hospital run, child-resistant packaging that doesn’t cosplay as Halloween candy, and real penalties for the stores that cheat. Set it up, fund the enforcement, and the market will sort itself out—above board, taxable, trackable. A ban buys time; a framework buys safety. If you’re a consumer trying to navigate this fog, choose products with transparent COAs and clear labeling from reputable sources. And if you want compliant, lab-tested THCA you can count on, explore our shop: https://thcaorder.com/shop/.