The Ohio Senate has voted unanimously to legalize hemp and related products, including cannabidiol oil. Statehouse correspondent Karen Kasler reports.
Sen. Brian Hill, a sponsor of Senate Bill 57, says hemp is used in some 25,000 commercial products including clothing, biofuels and plastic. The bill, if signed into law, would allow hemp, CBD oil and other products to be sold legally in Ohio, and it creates an industrial hemp program with cultivators and processors licensed by the Ohio Department of Agriculture.
Hill said the proposed program was designed, “… after going through background checks and determining GPS coordinates for plots of land designated to grow hemp. This is to ensure that nobody tries to use the hemp program as a cover to grow marijuana."
The bill moves on to the House for consideration.
Several states have launched pilot programs after the federal Farm Bill passed in December of 2018, which removed hemp from a list of banned substances.
