3 Ohio Businesses Sue Governor Over Hemp Product Ban | Where to order Skittles Moonrock online

press conference announcing his executive order that youth access was a major concern driving his decision to declare a state of emergency.

“For intoxicating hemp, this product has no restrictions on where it can be sold or who can buy it,” DeWine said. “Intoxicating hemp has no required regulatory testing at all and is sold in packages enticing to children, many times mimicking the packaging of common candies. … Intoxicating hemp is dangerous, and we need better to protect our children. And, because of that fact, I’ve signed, a few moments ago, several different orders.”

The governor pointed to data from the Ohio Poison Control Center that exposure to delta-8 and delta-9 THC among those 19 years and younger increased from 419 recorded exposures in 2021 to 994 exposures in 2024, including 555 cases involving children younger than 6 last year. “Those are only the ones we know,” DeWine said.

This week’s lawsuit argues that DeWine lacks a basis to issue an executive order because “there is no evidence hemp products pose an imminent threat to public health.”

The lawsuit also points out that in January 2024, DeWine urged state lawmakers to pass legislation to regulate hemp-derived cannabinoid products because his hands were tied on executive action.

The plaintiffs argue that DeWine violated the separation of powers doctrine this week when he took executive action on what they believe should be a legislative matter.

“Despite acknowledging that regulating hemp was a matter for the Legislature, and even though the House and Senate have legislation pending regulating hemp products, Governor DeWine declared a public health state of emergency,” the lawsuit states.

When a reporter asked DeWine during the press conference what had changed from his early 2024 position of lacking the authority to take executive action, the governor said he asked his lawyers to go back and reevaluate the matter after the prolonged period of no legislative solutions arriving at his desk.

“They’ve come to the conclusion that we certainly have the power,” he said of his legal experts. “This crisis is continuing to get worse and worse, and I’m not going to sit by and let this continue.”

Later, DeWine said he doesn’t blame the Legislature. However, the governor’s public health emergency can only last for up to 90 days, at which point it’ll be up to the Legislature on what happens next.

For the plaintiffs and other Ohio hemp-related businesses, 90 days represent a make-or-break timeframe of irreparable harm, including loss of sales, customers, licenses and their entire operations.

Condemning DeWine’s executive order, the U.S. Hemp Roundtable (USHR), a national industry advocacy group, believes the governor was not only “wrong-headed” but acted illegally.

“Governor DeWine’s executive order is a misguided overreach that threatens to shutter hundreds of Ohio small businesses and wipe out millions in legitimate economic activity,” USHR General Counsel Jonathan Miller said. “We are outraged that the governor is attempting to bypass the Ohio Legislature and misuse executive powers to deliver a crushing, job-killing blow to the state’s hemp industry. Hemp products are legal under both Ohio and federal law – this order simply isn’t supported by statute or precedent.”

While the USHR shares DeWine’s goal of ensuring consumer safety and preventing youth access to intoxicating hemp products, Miller said regulation, not prohibition, is the right path forward and that the governor is unfairly targeting companies that follow the law and operate transparently.