“Sunflower is back in Ohio,” Fifty West Brewing CEO Bobby Slattery declared in a conversation with CityBeat Sunday afternoon.
Sunflower, Fifty West’s popular brand of hemp-derived THC beverages, is set to hit retailers’ shelves in Ohio once again after a federal judge in northwest Ohio granted it a legal lifeline.
Fifty West was among 10 brewers granted a two-week restraining order by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey J. Helmick, allowing them to resume sales of their THC-infused beverages in Ohio retail outlets. The sale of THC-infused drinks, gummies and more became heavily restricted in the Buckeye State after Gov. Mike DeWine signed Senate Bill 56 into law last December.
Ohio’s ban, which went into effect on March 20, cost Fifty West approximately $2-3 million in lost revenue for 2026, Slattery confirmed.
In May, a consortium of 14 Ohio-based brewers filed a class-action lawsuit against the State of Ohio, claiming the law violated the U.S. Constitution because of its discriminatory effect on interstate commerce.
Helmick’s restraining order will allow 10 companies across Ohio to immediately resume selling THC-infused beverages and other hemp-derived products in retail stores. Rhinegeist, Cincinnati’s largest craft brewer, was also awarded a two-week restraining order by the judge.
Although Fifty West plans to restart selling Sunflower in Ohio, Rhinegeist did not provide any update on the immediate future sale of Fuzzy Bones, the brewer’s THC-infused beverage line, when asked by CityBeat.
Slattery described Helmick’s decision as an initial step while the court system decides whether to grant brewers a permanent injunction.
However, he noted that Ohio filed an appeal to Helmick’s July decision just one day after his ruling, seeking to keep the injunction while the state appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Helmick ultimately rejected the appeal, concluding that the state had not sufficiently shown it was likely to succeed in either of its two arguments.
In the meantime, Slattery has shifted his focus to the retail front, saying Helmick’s decision prompted an immediate wave of intrigue among sellers.
“I mean as soon as they found out they can have Sunflower back, they (retailers) placed a pretty massive order,” he said. “We reached out to our top 70 retailers off the bat, and then we’ll continue to roll it out from there. Retailers are excited about it.”
When the ban took effect on March 20, Fifty West and other Cincinnati manufacturers transported their inventory south across the Ohio River into Kentucky, where regulations on THC-infused beverages are more permissive. Kentucky offered manufacturers a local outlet to keep selling their THC products.
While Kentucky’s market couldn’t compensate for the decline in sales in Ohio following the ban, THC beverage sales in the Bluegrass State remained strong during this period. Slattery highlighted Party Source in Bellevue as one of Sunflower’s top retailers after the ban. Rhinegeist also confirmed it would continue selling Fuzzy Bones in Kentucky.
Slattery said Fifty West has moved about 60% of the relevant inventory back to Ohio, leaving roughly 40% in Kentucky. If the legal situation in Ohio changes, Fifty West could be forced to move additional inventory back to Kentucky.
“This is a step for us to at least go back to selling our product,” Slattery said. “This is one small step in a larger journey to get us to good regulation in Ohio.”
Helmick’s recent decision follows his July 13 ruling, in which he granted 10 companies a temporary injunction blocking Ohio’s ban on THC-infused beverages during the lawsuit. The injunction allowed Cincinnati-based Urban Artifact, to resume sales of its Coastalo THC drinks in Ohio. This lawsuit involved a different group of plaintiffs.
