Ohio hemp businesses say that the enforcement of the state’s adult-use cannabis rules unfairly targets their industry and favors “Big Marijuana” companies, which are allowed to operate under different rules despite dealing with the same plant, Statehouse News Bureau reports. Wesley Bryant, owner of a craft beverages distribution and hemp manufacturing company, told Statehouse News that an investigation by Ohio hemp businesses found the state is using rules created in legalization law to target their businesses, but that cannabis dispensaries are allowed to sell products with higher THC concentrations, as permitted by the law.
“Ohio has created two different standards – one standard for big marijuana and the other standard for Ohio’s hemp industry and its consumers. I don’t accept the idea that one group of businesses gets the full weight of the government brought down on them, while the other group gets a different standard. I don’t accept that, and neither should any small business owner in Ohio.” — Bryant to Statehouse News
In a statement to Statehouse News, a spokesperson for the state Department of Commerce, which oversees the Division of Cannabis Control (DCC), said that the voter-approved cannabis legalization law didn’t legalize intoxicating hemp and that the DCC “is simply enacting the initiated statute that was approved by voters in 2023, which included a very strict regulatory system for marijuana in Ohio.”
“The initiated statute did not include any provisions governing hemp and therefore the Division’s role is confined to marijuana regulation,” the statement said. “Some parties claim Ohio voters approved all THC including intoxicating hemp when the initiated statue was passed, but that is simply not true.”
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