“While this case involves hemp products, it is really a win for businesses and consumers across America.”
By Phillip Smith, The American Hemp Monitor
A federal district court judge in Toledo ruled Monday that state officials are barred from enforcing the state’s ban on hemp-derived intoxicating cannabinoids in beverages, but only the 10 companies that filed a lawsuit against the rules and vendors who sell their products are protected from enforcement.
The legislature last year passed Senate Bill 56, which tightened the state’s voter-approved recreational marijuana law, but also included provisions defining most intoxicating hemp products as cannabis and barring companies outside the state from growing or selling hemp products. A handful of hemp companies filed suit against the state, challenging the constitutionality of the new law.
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Helmick had earlier approved a temporary restraining order barring the state from moving against those companies, and on Monday, finding the plaintiffs’ arguments compelling, he issued the preliminary injunction to last while the case is argued.
“What Senate Bill 56 has done is to exclude federally legal intoxicating hemp products from Ohio’s statutory definition of hemp, redefine them as illegal marijuana, and then to prohibit any company from cultivating
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