Federal Judge Approves Continued Hemp Beverage Sales In Ohio

A federal judge on Monday ruled in favor of 10 hemp beverage manufacturers, allowing them to sell their intoxicating hemp products for 14 days, WCMH reports. The order from U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey Helmick, which sided with the businesses’ argument that the state’s hemp ban likely violates federal law, could be extended. 

Under the ruling, 420 Beverage, Your Highness, Hopportunity, Saucy Seltzer, Appalachian Girls, Modern Distribution, Niche Beverage, The Hemp Collect, Slightly Elevated, Mellow Fellow, and Muffins will be allowed to keep selling their products in the state for two weeks. 

This is the third judge to rule against the state’s hemp-derived THC ban. In April, Judge Jeremiah S. Ray called the ban “inherently discriminatory” in his ruling in favor of Seattle, Washington-based THC beverage manufacturer North Fork, maker of Cycling Frog. That same month, Franklin County Court of Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Brown sided with Happy Harvest and Get Wright Lounge, who claimed the ban violated federal law by classifying hemp-derived THC products as cannabis, not hemp, and regulating them under the state’s adult-use cannabis program. 

While the ruling by Helmick may be extended, on November 12, new federal rules take effect that will ban hemp-derived THC products. The law recriminalizes hemp-derived THC and redefines hemp as “grown for the use of the whole grain, oil, cake, nut, hull, or any other non cannabinoid compound, derivative, mixture, preparation, or manufacture of the seeds,” and “grown for purposes of producing microgreens or other edible hemp leaf products intended for human consumption that are derived from an immature hemp plant that is grown from seeds that do not exceed” 0.3% THC.