Ohio Governor Mike DeWine holds an intoxicating cannabis product from Nerdy Bears and Nerds Gummy Clusters during a press conference on October 8, 2025, during which he issued an executive order banning intoxicating cannabis products. (Photo: Megan Henry, Ohio Capital Journal).
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said Thursday he would sign a bill to do just that ban intoxicating cannabis products and introduce various changes to the voter-passed marijuana law from 2023, including modern criminal provisions.
“It won’t be the Wild, Wild West anymore” DeWine told reporters at an event Thursday morning. “At least we’ll have some regulation of the hemp juice that’s out there. So for me this is a very critical victory.”
Republican Senate lawmakers from Ohio passed Ohio Senate Bill 56 earlier this week, sending the bill to DeWine’s desk. If DeWine signs the bill before the modern year, it could go into effect as early as March.
This comes later DeWine insisted on Ohio lawmakers to regulate or ban delta-8 THC products from January 2024
Intoxicating cannabis products are products containing THC that are sold everywhere outside of licensed marijuana dispensaries, including, but not circumscribed to, gas stations, smoke shops, and CBD shops.
“It’s been a long time coming, but it’s a great victory,” DeWine said. “(Children) won’t be able to drink juice, cannabis gummies, and you won’t be able to walk into a gas station and let an 11-year-old buy all that stuff. To me, that’s the most important part of the bill.”
Children’s safety was DeWine’s greatest concern when it came to intoxicating cannabis products.
The The Ohio Poison Control Center reported in January 2024 found that at least 257 reports of delta-8 poisoning have been reported in Ohio in recent years – including 102 in 2023 and 40 involving children under six years of age.
Earlier this year, DeWine tried to take matters into his own hands by announcing a 90-day executive order banning the sale of intoxicating cannabis products.
The executive order took effect Oct. 14, but a Franklin County Common Pleas Court judge issued a momentary injunction against DeWine’s ban that lasts until January. The next hearing in this case is scheduled for January 29.
Ohio SB 56 follows recent federal changes by prohibiting the sale of intoxicating cannabis products outside of a licensed marijuana dispensary.
Congress voted to ban products containing a total of 0.4 milligrams of THC per package, voting to reopen the government. Previously, the 2018 Farm Bill stated that hemp could be grown legally if it contained less than 0.3% THC.
The federal hemp ban comes with a one-year delay, but states can create their own regulatory framework before then.
Ohio’s bill also allows the manufacture, distribution and sale of five-milligram THC-containing beverages until December 31, 2026.
Ohio State Sen. Steve Huffman, R-Tipp City, originally introduced the bill, which also makes changes to Ohio’s marijuana law.
It would reduce THC levels in adult-use marijuana extracts from a maximum of 90% to a maximum of 70%, limit THC levels in adult-use flower to 35%, and ban smoking in most public places.
Some probable cause was removed from the bill, but some still remains.
The bill prohibits possession of marijuana outside its original packaging and criminalizes bringing legal marijuana from another state back into Ohio.
Ohio SB 56 would also provide 36% of revenue from adult-use marijuana sales to municipalities and counties that have recreational marijuana dispensaries.
Ohioans passed a citizen-initiated bill legalize recreational marijuana in 2023 with 57% of the votes. Sales started in August 2024 and exceeded $702.5 million in the first year.
When asked about the marijuana portions of the bill, DeWine said he “did not read the entire bill.”
Follow a Capital Journal reporter Megan Henry in Bluesky.
