Now that Ohio voters have chosen to legalize recreational weed, Gov. Mike DeWine has set his sights on combating a new target: delta-8, or as he calls it, "intoxicating hemp."
It can get you high, but right now, there's no law stopping kids from buying it. Delta-8 THC products aren't being sold at regulated marijuana dispensaries but in smoke shops and gas stations.
At a news conference in Columbus Wednesday, DeWine discussed delta-8 and urged lawmakers to ban or regulate the substance in Ohio. He also revealed that his team did an “undercover sting operation” with teenagers to prove that minors were getting access to the drug.
Watch the news conference below:
Since delta-8 THC is made from hemp, legal experts said it is legal under the 2018 Farm Bill.
DeWine has been urging state lawmakers to ban delta-8 because he says that it's under-regulated and can be purchased by kids.
"These look just like cereal," Department of Public Safety Director Andy Wilson said, while he and the governor held up THC products.
DeWine coming in HOT.
— Morgan Trau (@MorganTrau) January 17, 2024
He emptied out a bag with a few different THC products. His admin brought 15-year-olds to a gas station to buy them last night.
You may call this a sting, but the clerk didn’t actually do anything illegal.@WEWS @WCPO @OhioCapJournal pic.twitter.com/wBsAZZXBtQ
The governor is making another push for lawmakers to do something.
"The big concern is kids who are walking in can legally buy it," DeWine said.
Congress' 2018 farm bill allowed for hemp products to be sold by any retailer as long as they have .3% THC or less.
"So these products are absolutely being designed and marketed to kids," said Wilson. "Furthermore, this is a completely unregulated form of delta-8 THC."
Wilson said his team went undercover, sending two 15-year-olds into a gas station. Wilson's nephew and his friend went on the mission for the administration. They were both in basketball uniforms after a school game.
He played an audio recording of the teens easily purchasing delta-8 products.
“You want the cookies or this one?" the clerk asked the teens.
"We'll just get, we just do this one," one 15-year-old replied before purchasing a bag of delta-8-infused gummy candies.
The teens were able to get the products easily and legally, which DeWine said is unsafe and unacceptable.
"Scientific data clearly indicates that kids should not be consuming this because it affects their brain," DeWine said.
Ohio doesn't have an age requirement to buy delta-8.
"That's our problem. We need to change that," DeWine said.
Retailer and hemp processor Joel Fink agrees that age limitations need to be set up but worries about overreach.
"What needs to be done is either a self-regulation by just making sure that you got to be 21 or over to buy this stuff or, if the legislature did have some sort of a ruling, I'm not really crazy about getting the legislature involved with this, as you can probably tell," he said.
Fink said that DeWine may be blowing the lack of regulations out of proportion since the Department of Agriculture oversees this process.
"Yes, you can find products like what we manufacture in convenience stores and gas stations. But it's fully regulated, so it's been fully tested," he said.
The governor said he wants to address intoxicating hemp.
"I'm just asking the legislature to take action so that we can...get these products off the shelf," DeWine said.
Statehouse reporter Morgan Trau asked DeWine if it was fair to ban all delta-8 because one gas station they went to sold to minors.
"There's no standard, there's no law," he responded. "We don't rely on the goodwill of every clerk on any other product."
DeWine added that he would be fine with a total ban or a partial — moving delta-8 into dispensaries.
State Sen. Steve Huffman is leading the charge on a new bill, and says it has been in the works for over a week. He is looking at balancing the safety aspects while looking at business and consumer concerns.
