A lone court injunction allows one Seattle-based brand to bypass Ohio’s strict new hemp ban, outlasting competitors and defying state officials in an ongoing legal showdown.
A year ago, hundreds of businesses in the Buckeye State were making bank off the sale of intoxicating hemp products outside of the state's existing legal marijuana regulatory scheme. Now, there is only one, with several retail outlets.
That is because the legislature approved Senate Bill 56, which went into effect in March, banning the sale of intoxicating hemp products like THC drinks and even introducing new penalties for some cannabis use.
An initiative campaign to undo the changes fell short in the signature-gathering phase, but one company has successfully resorted to legal action to manage to keep selling its intoxicating hemp products. Seattle-based Cycling Frog was granted a temporary injunction in mid-May, allowing it to continue its business.
That injunction was originally limited to Sandusky County, but Judge Jeremiah Ray then extended his order to allow Cycling Frog to sell throughout the state. And late last week, Judge Ray rejected Attorney General Dave Yost's (R) effort to shut it down.
Cycling Frog had argued that Senate Bill 56 violated federal law because, under the 2018 farm bill, hemp was no longer classified as marijuana, and intoxicating hemp products were not illegal. The farm bill defined hemp as cannabis containing less than 0.3 percent THC by dry weight, but did not address the creation of intoxicating hemp products from hemp.
The same argument also worked, at least for a few weeks, for two other companies, Happy Harvest and Get Wright Lounge. In April, Franklin County Judge Jeffrey Brown granted an injunction allowing them to continue sales temporarily, but that injunction expired last month and has not been renewed. Still, the case remains alive, despite Attorney General Yost's request that the court dismiss it.
But, for now, people seeking intoxicating hemp products outside the state's legal marijuana regime can only buy Cycling Frog's gummies and beverages, and only at a handful of locations in Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Marion, and Yellow Springs.
