Good morning.
In this one, Zack gets his hands on a complaint filed by hemp shop operators against Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, and explains how it differs from other hemp challenges.
Let’s get to it.
-JB, JR, ZH, NM
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💡What’s the big deal?
HEMP
Ohio hemp shop owners sue over Gov. DeWine’s ban 🌿
Ohio is the latest state to both launch a cannabis market and attempt to restrict access to intoxicating hemp-derived THC.
What happened: A collection of hemp shop operators filed a lawsuit against the state, challenging the legitimacy of the emergency ban from Gov. Mike DeWine.
DeWine banned hemp products via an October 8 executive order. The ban, which was set to take effect on Tuesday, specifically cited concerns that minors would be able to obtain hemp products.
An Ohio judge on Tuesday afternoon imposed a temporary restraining order on DeWine’s ban, allowing hemp companies to continue selling for two weeks. A full hearing will be held on October 28.
What they’re saying: "Governor DeWine lacks a basis to use an executive order to regulate all hemp products because there is no evidence hemp products pose an imminent threat to public health," said the 16-page complaint which was filed on October 8 in Ohio's Franklin County Court of Common Pleas.
And also: "When voters chose to legalize marijuana, they voted for a highly regulated market that only allows sales at licensed dispensaries to those 21 and older. Intoxicating hemp completely bypasses these laws, and we must do more to keep these products away from kids," said DeWine in an October 8 press release announcing his ban.
An impatient governor: The ban comes when Ohio’s legislature is still in the middle of working through a proposed bill that would regulate intoxicating hemp more similarly to the state’s legal cannabis market.
Other hemp ban challenges: Ohio the latest state to attempt to rein in intoxicating hemp products that were technically federally legalized via the 2018 Farm Bill.
Earlier this year, Texas’ legislature repeatedly attempted to outright ban hemp, followed by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issuing more modest hemp regulations this summer.
Recently, Cornbread Hemp, a Kentucky-based operator sued the state of Tennessee over its impending hemp regulations that will bar direct-to-customer sales in 2026.
Recently, state-wide hemp bans have been challenged from the legal argument that they upend federal approval. In the case of Ohio, the plaintiffs specifically challenged the process that was used to enact their own ban.
Our take: The plaintiffs are by no measure the first to challenge a state-wide hemp ban.
Their lawsuit attempts to poke holes in the actual process used by Gov. DeWine. That means if they’re successful, it’s tough to imagine that their efforts will do much more than delay the inevitable.
-ZH
📣 Quotable
“They take vaguely racist or one-off crime statistics and conflate that with an uptick in crime,” our very own Editor-in-Chief Jeremy Berke told High Times for a story on the surreptitious tactics of the anti-cannabis advocacy group Smart Approaches to Marijuana.
“Meanwhile, these are not really statistical correlations that have any bearing on reality. And so, I think they should not have a place at all in this debate or in the public sphere.”
📺 In case you missed it
Azuca co-founder and CEO Kim Sanchez Rael joined Jay on Tuesday’s Cultivated Live. They chatted about founding Azuca and what the future has in store.
Watch it here:
🚀 Deals, launches, partnerships
Ayr Wellness launches Florida cultivation 🌱
Ayr Wellness announced a new Florida-based facility with about 50,000 square feet of grow canopy. The indoor cultivation site is the first for the company in Florida, which is a medical-only state though there is a renewed push to legalize for recreational consumption after a bid failed to clear the needed 60% threshold last year.
Curaleaf borrows $100 million from Needham Bank 💸
Connecticut-based Curaleaf $CURLF ( ▲ 5.97% ) announced a new deal to upsize its revolving debt with Needham Bank from $40 million to $100 million. The move provides Curaleaf with more capital and a longer runway for repayment while also increasing the stake in the company for a bank that has been actively growing its cannabis lending business.
🧳 People moves
Frontier Risk, an insurance company focused on the cannabis market, has formed an advisory board that includes industry figures like Live Nation’s Peter Showalter to help guide its next phase of growth. More here.