Don't want to be an American Idio.
This is Scott's flown show on seven hundred WLW. We're gonna jump right into this one. This it took me and I think a lot of people by surprise. So remember that new intoxicating hemp law that the state went through, and it was taking the THHC, condensing it and putting it in things like well adult beverages, and okay, that was good. And then the wine comes in ninety day ban he shuts it down to protect the children, and
then it's back on again following a court injunction. Then a finally new legislation comes down from the Ohio General Assembly.
It fixes the issue.
And then news broke literally just the other day, a day or two ago, that it's now in jeopardy becoming illegal because of Congress and Ohio's new intoxicating hemp laws and jeopardy after the Senate block ran Paul's amendment. And you heard some of that audio there and news helping makes sense of it.
This morning.
Is the architect of Ohio's law in this and that would be State Senator Steve Hoffman from Tip City.
Welcome, good morning, good morning.
I hope you're doing well.
I'd be doing better if we had an answer to this. Were you caught off guard by this as well?
Yeah, I mean we were, you know, the House after the injunction and you know, the House acted on the Lady six. We didn't agree on some things. So we were preparing for conference committee and you know, named the chairman of the Conference Committee, and we're setting you know, some times to get together and all of a sudden this came down that caught us by surprise, and we've got to deal with it now.
Yeah, and THHU THC in fused beverages are the fastest growing segment when it comes to adult drinks. I mean the craft beer movement. I just saw the Business Curves headline the other day about it's over for craft beer and now it's all THC product. People go, adults going to bars and buying this stuff. And then we had Dwine's ban and that was in jeopardy. The court steps in and fortunately you led legislation to fix this thing to allow that to be sold and it seems to
be working pretty well and there's no hiccup there. And now the United States government's getting often they want to go back to the way it was before and completely banning this stuff. And it's all behind Mitch McConnell, who is leading the restrictions on this one.
What why now, you know?
I think going back to twenty eighteen to the Farm bill that legalized camp and then with my bill in Ohio, we followed very quickly on hamp and we were all looking at industrial hemp on what you could do with it with clothing and straws in industrial use. We weren't looking at this. We knew it was a very small part, but didn't know that it would take off like this.
And I think, you know, miss McConnell, who you know, it's a big industry in Kentucky, was pushing for it, and he realizes that there's some bad actors and we should have done things differently in twenty eighteen. I'm not going to say we shouldn't have outlawed it. We should have put some regulations in to start with. We didn't. And now I think it's kind of going to the extreme at this point.
Yeah, because the hemp industry is saying that this basically would eliminate ninety five percent of what is now almost a thirty billion dollar industry. And some three hundred thousand jobs, and that twenty eight billion is just a tip of the iceberg. That's going to increase tenfold in the next number of years because people are liking the thh in fuse drinks more than just traditional alcohol with you know,
it has the same effect. And I'm not sure what's driving Mitch McConnell on this one, because he's worried about the children. But we're back to that argument again that Governor DeWine used in order to put leverage on the General Assembly, which I understood the politics of that. I hate when politicians use it to protect the children. But Mitch McConnell's doing that again. Is this headed the same way.
Eventually we'll come up with a compromise here and this will not be as bad as we are guessing it is right now.
You know, I can't tell you for sure now. I mean, in the state of Ohio, we looked at it. The industry said, hey, look, we know that there's bad actors, we know that bad stuff go on, but we're the good guys people that were doing it, you know, keep it twenty one and over and things like that said, highly regulate us, you know, and It's not very often an industry comes to government says we want more regulations
on us. And that was the path that we were going down in Ohio, trying to get into some a good position, and all of a sudden this came up. So I think, if there's a path to good regulations that the industry is asking for, it can still be a viable business.
The legislation, would you know, Ohio's leg the one you propose is five milligrams TCH beverage and Barsarusio five milligrams. A new federal strictum of Kama wants is point four and so that would eliminate the entire sector before it even launches. And at this point, you know, what do you tell I don't know, manufacturers, what do you tell consumers?
You're right? I mean it would devastate the industry. I mean, so you know, if you have derive your THHD from hemp, it would get rid of that. You know. Will the industry instead turn to legal marijuana processors and get their THD to infuse their beverages with THHD for marijuana. And that then makes a whole bunch of other regulations because now it's marijuana which legally and this is we've talked before. This is stupid. You can't take that across state lines
because it's an illegal scheduled one drug. But it's okay that the Feds just turn a blind high to it in every state. Right, So, I mean that's the possibility for the industry.
Should the President just get in and fix this?
I know he at times, I mean it's hard to tell what Trump is thinking or what he's actually going to do, because he's pretty good at talking on of both sides of his mouth a lot of times where he stands with this, couldn't he just say, hey, this is dumb, knock it off.
I guess through the FDA he could do something. You know he's talked about, yes, you know marijuana, you know, moving it from scheduled one, and that would do a lot, not for but for the marijuana industry. It would give us the ability to do research and different things like that. So you're right, it's hard to tell what he's thinking and what direction he's going to go in, but I think probably with the FDA he could do something.
You see, there's all these new businesses going in right from distribution, and that would be you know, THG shops and things like that, and distributors, and of course the beverage industry itself is blown up, and all of these micro brewers are starting to put efforts into THCHC and fuse drinks. Is that's what the public wants. They like it, and they want more of it, and you give the people what they want and you regulate it. And that's how it works in America, at least it should anyway.
But at this point, because we're still relatively new at this whole process, Steve Hoffman, why would any business invest in the whole process of licensing and compliance and testing and inventory when federal law could make ninety five percent of the stuff illegal. It's just going to kill business, isn't it.
It seems that way. You know that my understanding. You know, if the House and the Senate finally passed this that you know, at the end of the day though, which looks like it, it gives a one year ramp, it won't be illegal for one year, So you know, basically you need to sell whatever product you have so that you can kind of cut your losses. But yeah, you're not going to keep making more and more knowing that at some point soon you're you're not going to.
Be able to Yeah, it seems like Mitch McConnell and maybe other leadership in the GOP seem to talk again both sides of your mouth is they want states rights and should leave it up to the states, except for something like this, why not just say, hey, plenty of states have an acted regulation Ohio included to regulate this stuff.
Why don't we just defer to them.
You know, that's certainly a possibility. I mean, we've done that. You know with marijuana, there's a you know a lot of states with medical, there's there's many of them with recreational, like Ohio, and there's still some like Utah that hey, we just don't want this at all. So yeah, you could leave it up to the state. But if you you know, you look at the Rand Paul Amendment the other the other night. You know, he was trying to save the industry in Kentucky in particular, that was noted
down about seventy five twenty five. So there's a large group in the US Senate. You know, maybe maybe the US House doesn't concur or at least has to say so in this and you know, there's still some.
Hope that it doesn't he's Ohio Senator Steve Hoppman out of justice Tip City.
It's it's we're back to this again.
So we have our new intoxicating HEMP law, and that's the beverages that we enjoy edibles and cheers and smoke and.
Stuff like that.
Ape but largely this is about the THHD and fused drinks that are sweeping the state, if not the country right now. There's a huge demand for these products and there were legal to sell them. It became briefly legal.
We had a ninety day moratorium, the court stepped in, and finally the Legislature General suddenly ender Steve's guidance fixed this, and so you can enjoy those beverages now in salom and it's great for industry, it's great for consumers and everyone, and we're keeping out of the hands of kids as well.
It should be.
But now the federal government stepped in under the auspices of Mitch McConnell Kentucky, who said that using the the wine argument, this is hurting children because the Farm Bill screwed this up, and we're selling intoxicating products and it may undermine all the stuff we've done in Ohio and at the same time, you know, I think it was Senate Bill fifty six we're talking about here that you implemented.
So should you delay implementing this stuff or should we just put this on hold till the FED sorted out?
Or we just continue forward?
Well, I think here in Ohio, knowing the governor, of the President and the Speaker, they want something done about the bad stuff. They wanted it done, you know, before summer break. Now it's for Thanksgiving. So I think we're gonna more than likely act in the next few weeks against the bad things that we know they're out there in the gas stations and selling the kids. How far we go I think is still to be determined.
Yeah.
Do you also think that this is maybe some I don't know, some sort of power struggle here, because well, the opposing forces here are both Kentucky senators. You've got McConnell versus Paul, and we know their positions on this thing. Is the rest of the country in Ohio just getting caught up in this? Do you think there's something like behind the scenes going on here or is it just coincidental they're both from Kentucky.
I think it's probably quincident. All. I think it's also part that Miss mcconnald lamed up on his way out, and you know, maybe this is, you know, one of his legacy things he's trying to get fixed before he leaves. I think they're a lot of stuff like that in there, but probably coincidental that the two are from the same state.
Yeah, I'll be honest with you.
I mean, you know, we question, and rightly so, the power of Biden's auto pen and how many of these edicts, decisions, executive ours and like he made were done without his knowledge. I probably could say the same thing about Mitch McConnell. We've seen people behind the scenes, aids and assistants that dictate policy. We've seen this with Diane Feinstein and others. I would think it works with Mitch McConnell's even know what the hell this is at this point.
Well, I'm certainly not in the position the past judgment on that, but he's had a very very honorable career in the aid of Kentucky and what he's done in the US Senate.
So let's talk a little bit about the propersonality of this too. Is you know, the wine was concerned about child poisonings in the executive order, And I wonder how much Mitch McConnell really believes in this. Did did the federal approach and eliminating the industry does that actually does all this match the scale the ban? And does it match the scale of the child safety problem? Because I just I don't see that. Certainly there's a danger. You're
a physician, you tell me. You see overdoses and kids present to emergency rooms, emergency departments, poison control centers because they ingested an edible or maybe drank something they shouldn't. We've seen that with alcohol and prescription drugs for that matter. But is the remedy here worse than the illness?
Well, that's always the question, right Scott. You know, what's the balance, the balance of protecting people balance for people's liberties. And now it appears that you know to me, and I thank you, the federal government is making it unbalanced to those liberties that people should have, rather than than going overboard on the safety.
So yeah, and the whole industry hangs in the balance here, It really does. And I guess we're just going to continue on when they sort this thing out. And do you have hope that I'm really rooting for ran Poly quite honestly, because I think he made a great impassion plea as a libertarian, which I thoroughly love. I know why this stuff should be continuing on the path. It
is of legality, and you know, regulate it like anything else. Absolutely, it's an intoxicating product, can't fall in the wrong hands. But to simply shut the whole sector down because of the twenty eighteen Farm Bill and we're protecting children is a mindless exercise. Do we have hope that this thing is going to simply get squashed?
I think the hope is the one year that is given to fix this in a different way, so the band wouldn't happen for a year on a federal level. Maybe they come back and you know, give the states the ability to do it. Maybe they legalized drinks, so I think that was what the thought process there was, or.
Maybe looked like states like Ohio and Go well, they seem to be doing it right. That is the petri dish of experimentation. Is it not that we have fifty states, and of course in each state multiple counties and jurisdictions, and somebody eventually is going to come up with a good idea that we can copy and use as a
national model. But the posturing here is rather confusion, especially at the time when we just had this protracted, the longest government shutdown in history, and now the news that's coming out as they're messing with your THHD in few drinks, just when you need the most, Steve, with the holidays coming up and the headache we have with government shutdowns.
You know, sometimes you just scratch your head, don't you really?
Do you really do other stuff to worry about? All right, I know you're optimistic about this thing, that the cooler heads will prevail, someone will get the mcconalm go.
This's a bad idea. Just look at Ohio.
Hopefully that is going to happen because people enjoy this stuff. It's a legal product, and people argue it's better for you and feel better than drinking traditional all call. So you know, I pick your poison, as it were. But this is a silly, silly exercise in what government does it and worst, and that is picking winners and losers.
All the best, Steve, Thanks for joining you. Take care, have a good day you too, Take Care State Center or Steve Huffman on the Scoonslan Show this morning on seven hundred wh Theyn'm not all worked up about this.
Because it's just stupid. You know, I've tried the THT beverages.
I like him better than like an energy drink, for example, which, by the way, I just saw a story of study about energy drinks and long term heart issues and brain issues and stuff like that. I don't know if it's true or not. I've tried energy drinks before. I just don't like the taste of them. I have to find one I really like. But plenty of people enjoy energy drinks, you know, the same thing should. Young kids are getting caffeine.
They're going on the Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts McDonald's. Kids enjoy coffee. When you're a little kid, you always hated coffee, right you try? How could you drink that? It's terrible? And then your taste buds changes you get already love coffee. Now, young people, largely because it's loaded with sugar, will drink caffeinated drinks, and a lot of them for that matter, too, and that causes problems. Why aren't we cracking down on that stuff?
And we should? Is what I'm saying is.
You know there are harmful effects, and no matter what you know what, sugar is going to be bad for you as a result of that. In this case, if you're an adult and you want a legal beverage that should be legal for that matter, you get the same effect as alcohol. You're not picking winners and losers, and you're of course you're parsing over whether or not it's
bad for kid. Well, it's all bad for kids everything we put in our bodies, generally, outside of maybe water, and if you live in Flint maybe not so much either. Then water's bad for you, right, You can actually die from drinking too much water.
So I don't know.
If it's poison, it's one thing, But if it's something that's intoxicating, God knows. We need it today more than ever because the nonsense the government continues to pull. I need more alcohol, I need more intoxicating things, not less, as a grown asked man Scott Sloan, seven hundred WW