New Ohio Senate Bill Would Ban Sale Of Intoxicating Hemp Products To People Under 21

Ohio state Sen. Bill DeMora (D) recently introduced a bill that would ban the sale of intoxicating hemp products to people under 21. Unlike some others that have been introduced, this bill would focus solely on hemp and not on changing voter-passed marijuana law.

Ohio Senate Bill 266 would also 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 are “considered attractive to children,” according to the bill’s language.

This bill would prohibit selling an intoxicating hemp product “that bears the likeness or contains the characteristics of a realistic or fictional human, animal, or fruit, including artistic, caricature, or cartoon renderings,” according to the bill’s language.

“I put this bill in to get rid of the stuff that everybody agrees is bad,” Columbus Democratic state Sen. DeMora said. “Everybody agrees [intoxicating hemp products are] targeted to children to look like Skittles and Oreo cookies and that it’s unregulated… We need to act because this stuff is poisoning kids [and] making kids sick.”

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) has previously asked lawmakers to regulate or ban delta-8 THC products.

“It’s a huge problem,” DeWine said talking to reporters on Monday. “There’s really no regulation at all. We need regulation. We need the legislature to take action on this. We’re also looking, frankly, at some things that I might be able to do without legislative action.”

DeMora thinks marijuana and hemp products should be dealt with separately.

“Hopefully this bill will, if nothing else, we can all agree on one thing—to get the bad stuff out of the hands of kids and stop the marketing toward kids,” he said.

The 2018 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.

This is one of a handful of bills in the Ohio legislature that are trying to regulate intoxicating hemp products.

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