Ohio craft beer producers are making a final plea to state legislators to override the governor’s decision now that their hemp-derived THC drinks are illegal.
The products were officially banned in the state of Ohio on March 20.
Fifty West Brewing Co. founder Bobby Slattery estimated that half of the state’s craft breweries in Ohio are now working together to collect signatures from their fans and customers to ask state representatives and senators to override Ohio Governor Mike DeWine’s veto of a line item in Senate Bill 56 that would’ve allowed them to keep producing the product.
Slattery estimates that Ohio Speaker of the House Matt Huffman and Ohio Senator Rob McColley had at least 6,000 emails in their inboxes waiting for them, Tuesday morning about saving the intoxicating hemp beverage industry. This is likely due to a new website that launched Monday afternoon.
SaveOhioBevs.com allows users to send an email to their state legislators about wanting to keep the intoxicating hemp beverages from disappearing. At the bottom of the website are estimations that more than 700 jobs are at stake and that this line-item veto could create a $130 million gap in Ohio’s economy.
“It’s still an early market,” Slattery said. “This could very well be a $1 billion market in 10 years.”
Last week, Ohio breweries failed to collect enough signatures for a referendum to force a ballot item about intoxicating beverages. The goal of SaveOhioBevs.com is a bit different.
Slattery said the difference is that the referendum would have removed all of SB 56 and push it to the ballot in November. This new effort is not trying to remove all of SB 56. The goal of the website is to show house representatives and senators that the public wants these items. This will hopefully make legislators consider a vote to override DeWine’s line-item veto.
The public outcome was a happy surprise for Slattery, who said he was just hoping to collect 1,000 signatures. The website launched shortly after the Ohio Supreme Court made its decision to deny an emergency lawsuit to stop SB 56 from coming to fruition.
“They have to have a super majority to do so … because we called all of our representatives and all of our senators,” Slattery said. “But they can’t vote on it unless the Speaker of the House and Senate President bring it to vote.”
The website’s goal is 7,300 signatures. As of this posting, it had more than 7,000 signatures, less than 24 hours after its launch.
Since October 2024, when DeWine began his crusade against the product, Slattery and other craft brewers have been working with their elected officials to figure out what they can do to continue working with this new market.
Local producers, including Fifty West, makers of Sunflower THC Seltzer, say the veto has created immediate uncertainty for employees, retail partners and customers.
Ohio Capitol Journal reported 6,000 Ohio businesses will be affected by the new law.
Slattery and Rhinegeist Brewery’s CEO Adam Bankovich worked with the house to create regulations for the hemp sodas. Bankovich said those regulations included a 5 mg cap, age-gating to 21 years-old and strict oversight of the industry.
“We’ve been working with them,” said Slattery. “We’ve talked to the politicians in the House and Senate, and a lot of them were like, well, we don’t know if anybody’s really saying anything. But we see a completely different thing out in Ohio.”
There is no guarantee this plan will work, according to Slattery.
“We could get one million votes, and the speaker and senate president don’t have to bring it to a vote,” he said.
Still Slattery remains hopeful.
“They worked hard on the bill, why wouldn’t they stand up for it?” Slattery asked.
“As a good public servant, you should be representing the voice of your people.”