Do you want to be an amernicanity.
Here we go, it's a Scott's Low Show Monday more seven hundred w Here we go from the Big Bengals win yesterday, enjoying life.
What is not to love about this time of the year.
I got something for you because it's all not you know, happy holidays, even though that's most of the show today.
I don't know if you caught this, but seven on Friday, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine shockingly line item vetoed a provision of the state CB law which will now effectively ban the sale of something a lot of o'himands enjoy, and that would be the HEMP derived THC beverages that you can get in bars and restaurants and other similar products from general retellers in state, not necessarily carry outs and Lifebo're talking about bars, and we're talking about bars that
have spent a fortune to try and stay alive because the craft industry is fading and THC and fused beverages are the future, and they've been embraced by millions of Ohios. And with one stroke with pen, the Governor overrode that and the band means these beverages that millions and enjoy can no longer be sold in locations like convenience stores, bars, breweries, or general stores, and these restrictions will take effect in mid March. I cannot believe that it's come to this.
Ohio State Senator Steve Hopman from Just the Tipsity, joining the show this morning on seven hundred WW Steve, I wish I wish you a good morning. It doesn't feel like a good morning based on what feels like a good part of your life's work here.
I mean, you've spent so much time on Senate.
Bill fifty six being the author of it, and this is like the fifteenth time we've had this conversation about stuff getting changed.
Well, you're right now, we're done with it. There's a couple of House members that have already introduced some other things that they'd like to see change. But overall it was a good bill. But unfortunately the governor saw differently on this one subject.
Did he explain his reasoning why and please just don't tell me because it's about the children.
Yes, So whenever he line item vetos, he has a you know the reason for doing it, And basically he said that there would be confusion because you know, in the bill, you know, we got rid of gummies, different things like that, especially for children. So we got rid of that, but then we carved out the beverages until November because we're following the federal law. And he said there would be too much confusion with the beverages being
outlawed before the you know, after the other one. So we're just going to outlaw everything all at once in ninety days.
Okay, Well, if it's the federal legislation is the root cause of these problems, and giving this Congress just banned certain THT products when you know, they reopened the government, why did we need Why would the governor have to act more aggressively than federal rock requires rather than just simply mirroring federal standards.
Well, I mean in the bill we did because we in Ohio wanted to get rid of the gummies and stuff that underage kids were getting. And we were doing that in ninety days. I'm not sure that there would be confusion among the consumers, at least for the you know, over the next year. It would give people to finish their you know, whatever allotment that they currently have. But also in the bill, it would allow them to continue
to process. We were at five milligrams, so that was you know, your six percent, like a six percent beer, but would allow was going to allow Ryan Geist and fifty West to process at ten or twenty so that they could sell out a state, make money, keep people employed that has gone away in ninety days. Also, does the.
Governor realize how many millions of Ohioans not only enjoy this, but but how many thousands of people of employees? Does he understand the business dynamic here?
I you know that that would have to be a question for him. I understanding in the state of Ohio this year it is a seventy five million dollar business, mostly in the craft industries. You know, recently Cores and Anheuser Busch is starting to get into the industry. But basically it's a something that you find in the craft.
Yeah, and as I talked to purveyors of craft beer, the taste for craft beer has ebbed.
I mean, we hit a peak.
Everything has a business cyclist, you know, Steve Hoffman, and now we're starting to be like the post you know, select beer kind of thing. A lot of people still enjoy. I don't think it's going to go away. But it's pretty clear that people are switching to other beverages. Seltzers are big, and certainly THC beverages are big too. So my concern is you don't get people that option. Do they go back to drinking craft beer? Probably not, They'll
find something else. I would imagine that these breweries aren't selling. Doesn't that mean jobs and some of these breweries close?
Huh? I would think so. You know, you know, the statistics I see is that people under thirty drink more of the THHC drinks than they do than they do beer. And you know, seventy five million dollar industry in the state of Ohio, that seems to be a good number of jobs that ultimately would be lost. And do they go to beer or something else or do they just they want the THCHC effect and do they just start smoking it? Yeah?
Right and kind of cut the middle man out entirely. And you know what, I cringe every time. And you know, Mike the Wine is a Republican, and I hear about how Republicans are pro business, pro small business, pro growth, proll is and they do things like this that completely even lead me scratching my head. Is Mike the Wine, turning his back on what used to be conservative values. There has always been this way.
Well, I mean, I again, you need to talk to him about it, but I think he is more concerned about safety of people and health of people, and I believe that's in conflict of of what other people are thinking that these things do for him.
Mike the Wine is a lawyer. He's not a physician. You, Steve Hoffman, are a physician. What's your physician's take on this stuff? Are people killing themselves when they sip THHD and fuse beverages?
You know? I think, like any other intoxicating substance, it's within reason. So if you're within reason and you're not going out and driving after taking large quantities of them. No, I don't think we know the long term health effects of these things, but you know, the early science says, you know, it's not that bad. You know, maybe beer and whiskey in the long term might be even worse for you, but you know, no real big negative effects currently known.
Yeah, that we currently know.
The future is always, you know, always changes, science always improves, and we listen to that science. But at the same time, I have a definitive right by God to put whatever it is on why my body.
Plenty of people.
Abuse substances, food, whatever it might be. I mean, you name me something in the world and I'll find somebody who abuses it. You see that all the time in your practice, Steve, and have to deal with those kinds of things, for sure, And you see the effects of people not taking care of their bodies and neglecting their health and focusing on too many vices. And when we say that declined. But again, we all.
Know that today.
We know that cigarettes are carcinogen, we know that smoking is not good for you. We know about popcorn lung now with vaping and things like that. But again, you could do things in moderation, and it's fine to me. It just seems to not only be left to the adults to make a decision. Not kids, of course, but adults. And we know what we put in our bodies. I mean, it's not I don't think an exaggeration and think, okay,
should there be a I don't know the size. Remember when more liberal states we're talking about banning the size of sodas, We're going to talk about regulating the fast food industry and only being allowed to get McDonald's once a month, As I mean, how far does the government go? I hear these things, and you know, damnit, I'm a grown person. I can make an informed decision is what I want to consume and put in my own body. It should not be up to the governor with the
stroke of a pen to undermine that. Because I think, in your opinion on this, Steve, does this at some level go against the will of the voters. Let's not forget almost six and ten people supported recreational marijuana and Ohio we generated over seven hundred million in the first year. At what point does the legislative modification of a voter approved citizen and they should have crossed the line from reasonable regulation and define the clear will of what people want.
Well, I don't disagree with that a lot of that, But the beverages had nothing to do with the ballot initiative because we're talking hemp and the ballot initiative was strictly concerning marijuana. Yeah, but you should, within reason have the right to you know, in the same for however you feel about tradum. You know, his pharmacy board last week is going to outlaw that, and many people feel that is of benefit for their own health.
Yeah, let's say.
I mean I don't go the weave in that, but I think it's an excellent point. Stain Hoffman is creative. A lot of people know what that is. I mean I I personally don't use it. I don't really know anyone that does. It's been around from what's the substance what's a concern with cretum.
Creative is something kind of like a t from East Asia that that many that that people use and they feel that it helps with anxiety and sleep and a lot of things that that that the hamp people do. But in that end, there there's a substance. The intoxicating substance is known as seven O H and it is at a very very low level, so it's really not
thought to be intoxicating. But just like camp, they manufacturers will concentrate seven O H and put a large amount in there and then makes it dangerous, makes it makes it intoxicating, and and so that's uh, you know, we're you know, the pharmacy board is gonna band all of it.
So but at the same time, we live in a country where you could get you know, an intoxicating marshroom tea or so some of those lines where you know, I'm a tribal ancestors been using it for for eons, right, and seemingly I don't know if there's all effects to that or not, but for some people they feel that it's therapeutic.
I agree. I just you know, it's a scheduled Uh, it's not scheduled one. But he wants to make the scheduled one drugs so we can get rid of it. But there's no real scientific research, you know, a high state and you see and other highly academic places aren't really doing the research or haven't done the research to tell us this is good for you. This is what it's it's you know, this is why it's mad.
The cat's catch twenty two. It's a schedule one, so they can't research it. And then they people who made us schedule one say, well there's not research. Yeah, because you made a schedule one. We can't do research on something that's that's that controlled.
It's simple.
Yeah, you know, how how about the great news from Donald Trump last week on marijuana?
Really good? This is an odd game, isn't it.
I mean you mentioned okay, yeah, the sistanis at initiative and sixty percent of people wanting recreacial THC marijuana. You got, Well, that doesn't this this THHC, the CBD THHG derivative liquids and the alcohol, well not alcohols, but the beverages. It's not really what the vote. But I get that argument the same time, it's I think the spirit of it is going, hey, you know what, if I can smoke THC, what is it that far reach to think that would
include CBD derived beverages like this? And now that Trump is doing what he's doing, I think that's even more against what what Mike Dwaine thinks with this veto.
No, I don't, I don't disagree. You know, when when Trump said that, you know, I'm going to speed up the process of making the marijuana THHC a Scheduled three drug and Schedule one. It will be great for the banking industry. We can't you know, can't bank. It's all
cash business and the dispensaries and in everything. Uh. And it'll provide the ability to do scientific research and I am I'm hoping that, uh the academic institutes in the state of Ohio will jump on it and be able to go out and get federal funding to say marijuana is good for you or it's bad for you, and let's settle this for you know, what type and how and what what conditions.
Steve another, by the way, that's the Ohio State Senator Steve Huffman on the show on seven hundred W LW. I'm sure you heard Mike the line shockingly line item vetoed a provision in our state CBD law. You know, the the CBD slash THHD infused beverages that a lot of people enjoy. That's spurn an entire industr that's rapidly growing as big as a craft bret beer industry. And it was I think in a few years of clips that because so many people want this stuff, might the
wine ban that in Ohio. So all these companies that leaned in and invested the small brewers, the rhymegeis the fifty west of the world and others are no longer in ninety days going to be able to sell and produce that stuff. And so six thousand plus people and so six thousand small businesses alone, by the way, businesses, not people, but six thousand businesses are no longer going to be able to compete in the sphere despite the massive demand by millions of adult Ohioans that want this stuff.
The other element here too, we had talked about, I think last time around Steve, about protections for housing, employment, organ donation, stuff like that.
Is that been removed by the governors. That's still in there.
It's still in there. Basically, those things are things that mere previous laws. I don't believe there was anything really new in there. I mean, if you're a smoker, you can be banned from an organ transplant because of scientific studies that show that you and so that's why it was the you know, the organ band is still has been included in there.
Is there a connection medically, Steve, between organ donation and marijuana, Why would you be excluded from that?
If I remember right, the law doesn't say that you are excluded. It says if there's a scientific basis, you can be excluded if if if they feel, hey, look if if if science shows that if you smoke marijuana and you get a liver transplant plant, your likelihood of rejection as higher. If the science is there, then we should should stick by it. But we shouldn't just totally get rid of that not based on science.
Yeah, I mean, if it's science says that you have a higher rate of not being able to get the organ, so it's kind of a waste of that pressure tree.
So I kind of get that element.
One of the thing I saw too was allowing police to establish probable cause during traffic stops because someone is a known user of marijuana.
Is that still part of.
This I can't remember, but again I think that was you know, restated from previously that you know, you know, when we initially did the medical marijuana law back in twenty sixteen, most of the drug dogs in the state were it became obsolete because when they smelled marijuana, they would have hit and they you couldn't tell if it was a llegal substance or an illegal substance, or where they derived it from. So that caused a lot of
a lot of trouble. But you know, they if they still have probable cause not because you're smoking, because they feel you're impaired, they would be able to do a field sobriety test.
Yeah, a lot of contradictions here. It just leads one scratching there is there any remedy here for the manufacturers and I'll try to get somebody on maybe from Ryan Guister fifty West to talk about this later on.
Is this fight completely over? Could this thing the overturned?
Well, in the original bill a house in the Senate and had an agreement that we would you know, the Feds are going to get rid of it in a year in November twenty six if they change things, that we would look at that and see because we didn't have time to put taxes on as regulations in the whole scheme of things, so we kept the plan was to keep it till November, so we can re look at it from that, but from that aspect and see
if Governor Dwine has a different view of it. We could look at a veto override it would take two thirds of each each body. So there are some things we could reintroduce this, you know when there's a new governor.
Well that won't be long, that won't be much either year, but still wrapping down production and ramping it back up. I don't know what to tell the six thousand small businesses out that have invested in this stuff when it was illegal yesterday, now it's illegal today or ninety days.
I should say, Steve my head is scratching.
You're you're scratching your head, I'm sure, but we'll leave it at that, and you have a merry Christmas. Thanks again for a joining the show and keep us updated and what the future holds for this.
Yeah, Merry Christmas to you and your family and all your listeners. You take care of Scott. Thanks against Steve.
That's Ohio State Senator Steve Hoffman from just the Tips city just north of Dayton and Mike to wine again allegedly pro business. I don't know how this is pro business pro consumer because it goes against the face of the hottest growing beverage. I guess niche in the state right now, if not the country. For that manner, we don't want any part of it. Why it's about the children. Oh my god, stop seven hundred WLW