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The Ohio Senate doesn’t see eye-to-eye with its House counterpart on legislation that would revise the state’s 2023 voter-approved cannabis law and provide a legal avenue for selling intoxicating hemp products.
The Senate voted unanimously on Oct. 29 to reject the 228-page legislation, Substitute Senate Bill 56, that House members passed one week earlier in an 87-8 vote. The Senate’s non-concurrence means a conference committee, with members appointed from each chamber, could convene to resolve the bicameral differences.
That is, if there aren’t too many differences to overcome.
“There’s so much in this bill that has changed from what we passed here; a lot of it not for the better,” Sen. Bill DeMora, D-Columbus, said on Wednesday on the Senate floor. “As my colleague pointed out, they have not done anything about intoxicating hemp products for kids and children. It still can be sold at gas stations.”
DeMora’s gas station claim is incorrect. Under the House-passed substitute bill, places where children “walk freely,” like gas stations and grocery stores, would be prohibited from selling intoxicating hemp products.
DeMora was correct that the House’s proposal drastically changed from what the Senate originally passed in February. The House was on its 18th version of the substitute bill before last week’s bipartisan vote. The reason why it’s a “substitute” bill is that House members more than amended S.B. 56; they rewrote it.
The House’s version of the bill scaled back many of the changes to Ohio’s 2023 voter-approved cannabis legalization initiative compared to what the Senate approved. In addition, the House proposal would establish a tightly defined regulatory framework for manufacturing and selling intoxicating hemp products.
While the House sat on the Senate-passed bill for nearly eight months, representatives revived talks on the legislation after Gov. Mike DeWine issued an executive order earlier this month to temporarily halt intoxicating hemp product sales and direct his executive agencies to initiate emergency rulemakings. But that order is now on hold after three hemp-related businesses sued the governor.
The House’s substitute bill would grandfather in vape and smoke shops to receive “hemp dispensary” licenses, but only if 80% of their total gross receipts from the past year came from hemp or intoxicating hemp products. These hemp dispensaries would be limited to selling tested hemp products containing no more than 0.5 milligrams of delta-9 THC per serving or 2 milligrams per package, or more than 0.5 milligrams of total non-delta-9 THC per package.
Sen. Shane Wilkin, R-Hillsboro, who urged his colleagues not to concur with the substitute bill, took issue with the allowance of “non-delta-9 THC” products, meaning retailers would still be able to sell delta-8 THC products under the House proposal.
“They failed to close the loophole for synthetic THC,” Wilkin said. “Additionally, this would allow for the continued sale of untested, unregulated [hemp products], which means packages that are designed and directed toward kids. They’re not childproof.”
Refuting Wilkin’s second claim, an Ohio Legislative Service Commission (LSC) analysis of the House-passed bill states: “Establishes testing requirements for intoxicating hemp products that are sold at retail in Ohio and that are produced in and outside of Ohio that are generally consistent with the testing requirements governing marijuana.”
Licensed hemp dispensaries would also be required to verify that a person is at least 21 years of age before they’re allowed to shop at their facilities.
The LSC analysis also specifies that a licensed hemp dispensary “cannot sell an intoxicating hemp product that has not been tested and that does not comply with specified packaging, labeling and advertising requirements,” further contradicting Wilkin’s claims.
But those weren’t the only issues Wilkin took issue with.
“The bill would also allow for an enormous amount of hemp dispensaries to be placed around the state, with no restrictions on how close they could be to a marijuana dispensary – only restrictions on how close they could be to each other,” he said. “This would also not allow the local municipalities to put a ban on hemp dispensaries as they did for marijuana dispensaries.”
Under the House-passed legislation, no more than 400 hemp dispensaries could be licensed in Ohio, unless the number of grandfathered-in smoke/vape shops that qualify for a license exceeds that number.
“There would be grandfathering of those currently selling these unregulated, untested products, along with a reduced license fee, or what I would refer to as a reward for bad behavior,” Wilkin said.
He’s not wrong there: Grandfathered-in hemp dispensaries would have to pay a $35,000 biennial license renewal fee, while Ohio’s cannabis dispensaries are on the hook for $70,000.
Rep. Tex Fischer, R-Boardman, who helped craft the House’s Sub. S.B. 56, said last week that the goal wasn’t to reward “bad behavior” but rather to ensure that the people who have “poured their blood, sweat, tears, years of work, potentially millions of dollars into building a business living by the rules that we set out” don’t go out of business.
Wilkin also urged his Senate colleagues to reject the proposal because he believes the House’s proposed changes to Ohio’s cannabis laws and drinkable hemp beverages, which would be regulated differently than intoxicating hemp products, need more vetting.
Both Wilkin and DeMora said that a 300-day grace period for unregulated hemp sales that’s included in the House’s substitute bill is “unacceptable.”
“The people of Ohio want us to do something about these products,” DeMora said. “The governor tried to do something and was stopped because he didn’t do it the proper way. And it’s up to us to make sure now that we can do something to end these things, to get ’em out of the hands of kids.”
