By Megan Henry, Ohio Capital Journal
A Franklin County Court of Common Pleas hearing Monday on a preliminary injunction against Ohio Senate Bill 56 — which took effect March 20, banning low-level THC hemp products and restructuring state marijuana rules — drew competing arguments over business harm and regulatory necessity.
Happy Harvest and Get Wright Lounge filed the lawsuit after Ohioans for Cannabis Choice fell short of the signatures needed to place a referendum on the November ballot. Magistrate Jhay Spottswood-Harrison presided.
“This bill completely put my clients out of business. There were no ways to get rid of the inventory except to destroy it,” said Scott Pullins, the plaintiffs’ attorney.
Judge Jeffrey M. Brown issued a 14-day TRO on April 22 allowing Happy Harvest — with locations in Delaware, Marion and Wood counties — and Get Wright Lounge, which operates one Columbus location, to sell existing inventory. Last week the 10th District Court of Appeals stayed that order.
The state argued S.B. 56 aligns Ohio with federal restrictions effective November 12: Congress voted in November to ban hemp products containing 0.4 milligrams of total THC per container, and a Division of Cannabis Control license will be required to sell marijuana in Ohio after that date. Blocking the law would freeze that rule-making process, leaving no path to licensure, said Assistant Section Chief Ann Yackshaw of the Ohio Attorney General’s office.
Andrew Makoski, the Division’s chief legal counsel, said the 2018 Farm Bill’s hemp definition — legal if below 0.3 percent THC — spawned loopholes that let intoxicating products flood the market, resulting in “a large spike in accidental ingestions.”
Beyond the hemp ban, S.B. 56 caps adult-use marijuana extract THC at 70 percent (down from 90 percent), caps flower THC at 35 percent, prohibits smoking in most public places, bans possession of marijuana outside original packaging, criminalizes transporting legally purchased marijuana from other states into Ohio, and requires drivers to store marijuana in their vehicle’s trunk.
Mark Fashian, former president of Delaware, Ohio hemp wholesaler Midwest Analytical Solutions, testified the law shuttered his business and left his five employees seeking other work. Happy Harvest holds more than $200,000 in stranded inventory, he said.
A Sandusky County judge issued a separate TRO last month allowing intoxicating hemp product sales to continue in Fremont.
