COLUMBUS, Ohio – Gov. Mike DeWine wants gummies, candies, vape cartridges and other low-level THC products that he says are marketed to children off the shelves of Ohio’s gas stations and corner stores and into regulated marijuana dispensaries.
The products — which are legal but unregulated — are packaged in bright colors with design elements and fonts that could appeal to children, DeWine said last week. Some of the products conjure other candy or sugary cereals that many children have tried.
“These products are absolutely being designed and marketed to kids,” DeWine said at a Wednesday press conference, when he again called on the legislature to pass a ban.
DeWine held up a package of a product he said a 15-year-old was able to buy recently in Springfield, with bright colors and cartoon sneakers on the outside. A tour of Ohio gas stations and corner stores would show a variety of similar products, including some that borrow images from mainstream candymakers.
They contain what’s known as delta-8-THC, and some members of the Ohio General Assembly already have started the work to heed the governor’s call.
House Bill 86, a proposal that would enact changes to the recreational marijuana law voters passed at the polls in November, includes provisions moving most of delta-8 and delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol products out of settings where teenagers could potentially buy them to the state’s licensed marijuana dispensaries, where they would only be available to people…
