Ohio Officials Face Friday Deadline To Respond To Hemp THC Drink Lawsuit

“In addition to potential criminal penalties, the veto will force them, collectively, to lay off dozens of employees and will cost them millions of dollars in investments and lost sales.”

By David Beasley, The Center Square

The state of Ohio has until Friday to respond to a lawsuit by breweries challenging Gov. Mike DeWine’s (R) veto of portions of a bill that would have allowed beer companies to continue selling hemp beverages until the end of the year.

Last Friday, a group of brewers sued the state, challenging DeWine’s “line item” veto of portions of Senate Bill 56 that would have given companies until December 31 to transition out of the hemp beverage business and sell their inventories in response to new federal legislation on hemp products.

Even though Ohio voters in 2023 approved a measure legalizing the recreational use of marijuana, SB56, passed late last year, placed new restrictions on the use and sale of hemp products.

SB56 is set to take effect March 20, according to the emergency motion filed before the state Supreme Court on Friday.

Beer companies face “potential criminal enforcement actions against them for possessing millions of dollars’ worth of inventory that they purchased in good faith before the governor’s veto,” the lawsuit states. “In addition to potential criminal penalties, the veto will force them, collectively, to lay off dozens of employees and will cost them millions of dollars in investments and lost sales.”

On Monday, the state Supreme Court gave the state until 3 p.m. this Friday to respond to the emergency motion.

“No requests or stipulations for extension of time shall be filed,” the court said.

According to the beer companies’ emergency motion, DeWine overstepped his line-item veto authority by deleting an entire section of SB56.

The motion quotes one of the delegates to Ohio’s Constitutional Convention of 1912 when arguing for for the current language limiting the governor to vetoing only items not sections, ‘“You can take the life out of any bill by cutting a section out of it.’”

In making the line item veto, DeWine “thought he knew better than the people of Ohio,” the brewers said.

DeWine spokesman Dan Tierney disagrees.

“No Ohio voter ever approved THC beverages to be sold at restaurants or breweries,” he told The Center Square.

This story was first published by The Center Square.