Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed Bill 57, allowing for the cultivation and commercialization of hemp and hemp-derived CBD products. The Ohio Department of Agriculture is now in charge of writing the necessary regulation to begin implementing the state’s hemp programs.
The bill passed Senate vote in March and was sent back to the House, where a new version was drafted. The new version, signed Tuesday, expresses the requirement of a license to cultivate hemp, and a different license to process it into derived products. The bill also creates a Hemp Marketing Program and restricts people from obtaining both a hemp license and a medical marijuana license.
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Bill 57 came as a direct response to the signing of the 2018 Farm Bill by President Trump, which gave states the option to develop their own hemp programs. It was introduced in the State Senate in February.
Until Tuesday, CBD remained illegal in the Buckeye State. Although it’ll take some time for Ohioan fields to see their first legal hemp crops, CBD can now legally be bought and sold.
“As Ohio’s first manufacturers of hemp-based CBD wellness products, we are celebrating the passage of Bill 57. This is effectively the end of CBD prohibition in Ohio. It’s a major victory for our state, the hemp industry, and the countless farmers and small business owners like ours who have been impacted by embargoes,” said Nic Balzer, Co-Founder and CEO of Queen City Hemp.
The Ohio Department of Agriculture now has six months to draft the hemp program’s regulatory literature, which must be approved by the federal government through the U.S. Department of Agriculture. After approval, the ODA can start granting cultivation licenses to farmers. The departments’ goal is to have everything ready for farmers to be able to start production by next spring.
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