Great Lakes Brewing has joined 13 other beverage manufacturers and sellers in suing the state under the belief that its weed laws unconstitutionally bar them from sourcing and selling THC drinks.
When Senate Bill 56 went into effect on March 20, it created a new ecosystem for any business interested in selling anything tied to marijuana or hemp. Although lawmakers intended to put the kibosh on shady smoke shops selling Delta-8 and Delta-9, those offering THC drinks argued that the state’s hyper-vigilance has uprooted what is already heavily self-regulated.
In other words, as the federal suit filed in late July argues, beverage sellers like Great Lakes could be reprimanded—that is, receive a felony-level hemp trafficking charge—if they’re caught and prosecuted for importing out-of-state hemp or marijuana products to brew their intoxicating seltzers.
“In effect, the State of Ohio, through the enactment of Senate Bill 56, has banned from market-participation all companies that produce federally legal hemp products,” the July 30 complaint reads, “yet do not have a complete physical presence (from cultivation through sale) in Ohio.”
Along with Great Lakes, the plaintiffs suing the state include Fifty West Brewing, Athens Beverage, Seventh Son Brewing, Rhinegeist, Wellness of Willoughby, Delta Beverages, Crescent Canna, Cheech and Chong’s Beverages, Torch Drinks, Uncle Arnie’s, Mile High Cure, Hometown Hero and Lifted Liquids.
All of these beverage makers and sellers stopped selling their THC drinks five months ago under the fear they could be criminally prosecuted. Senate Bill 56 formalized a wave of trepidation, amplified by Gov. Mike DeWine, around the fear that children had potentially unfettered access to intoxicating hemp products designed to look like candy—as, last October’s press conference showed, Nerds, Gushers or Sour Patch Kids.
Great Lakes immediately pulled its Float Shoppe THC seltzer off the shelfs and taps. Great Lakes CEO Christopher Brown went as far as joining Save Ohio Bevs, a grassroots campaign to convince the state it was doing more harm to small businesses than preventing bad.
And, in Great Lakes’ case, throwing them a much-needed financial gain during a trying time for the alcohol industry in general.
“Everything THC was like whipped cream on a sundae,” Brown told Scene in April. “It was all to profit.”
The lawsuit, Brown told Crain’s Cleveland, is a last-ditch effort stemming from that campaign.
“We have six-figure-digits of inventory sitting in another state we are sitting on because of this line-item veto,” Brown told Crain’s, referring to S.B. 56. “All we ever wanted was the opportunity to go through regulation and make this the same as anything else in the alcohol category.”
Under current Ohio law, only licensed dispensaries, distributers and growers can manufacture or sell intoxicating hemp or weed products—joints, gummies, tinctures, seltzers, and so on. All beverage makers listed in the July complaint deal with some sort of out-of-state entity, which they argue is necessary for keeping costs reasonable and turning a profit.
What the beverage sellers want is mostly to ensure the state won’t prosecute them at the felony level for doing what they did before March 20.
In court filings, the state argued against the timing of the suit, stating the beverage makers waiting four months to file didn’t constitute an “emergency.” The state also argued it would be more fitting to hear the results of a suit filed last October, Titan Logistics Group LLC v. Tischler, before a decision is made on this one.
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