Advocates of the intoxicating hemp products failed to collect enough signatures to present to the Ohio Secretary of State’s office.
This means businesses, including bars, restaurants, and gas stations, will be unable to sell intoxicating hemp beverages starting Friday, March 20.
On December 31, 2025, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed SB 56 into law, which, among other things, bans the sale of these types of drinks. At midnight on March 20, the 90-day grace period will end, banning all intoxicating hemp products within the state of Ohio.
Collectors needed more than 248,000 signatures to get on the Nov. 3 ballot. The group also needed 3% of an individual county’s gubernatorial turnout in 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties, according to the Ohio Capitol Journal. They had a March 19 deadline and nearly one month to turn the signatures over to Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s office.
According to Doug Moorman, a lobbyist working for Rhinegeist Brewery to keep its THC product Fuzzy Bones on the market, said this was a disjointed effort.
He said initially, there was an effort to hire signature collectors, but when money ran out, many of the signature collectors abandoned the project.
“So it’s largely been a volunteer effort,” he said.
Moorman added that he was not a part of the signature-collecting endeavor.
Ideally, the signature collectors would have been able to put a pause on the March 20 deadline for Senate Bill 56 to go into effect.
The pause would last up to 10 days while the Secretary of State’s office authenticated the names. If the names were authenticated, a referendum would have been placed on the ballot for Ohio voters to choose if they wanted intoxicating hemp beverages sold in the state.
The number of signatures needed for referendums is determined by a percentage of the last votes cast in the last governor’s race, said Dan Tierney, deputy director of communications in Governor DeWine’s office.
The fight to save the beverage category hasn’t been lost just yet. Another potential weapon is a lawsuit, submitted by Ashbrook Byrne Kresge Flowers LLC, a Cincinnati firm representing Fifty West, Urban Artifact, Cycling Frog and Sarene Craft Beer Distributors. The lawsuit challenges DeWine’s veto. The Ohio Supreme Court could hand down a decision later this week. This could impact the upcoming March 20 deadline.