CINCINNATI — Ohio businesses are looking to capitalize on borrowed time, less than 24 hours after Ohio Gov. Mike Dewine's executive order banning the sale of intoxicating hemp products was temporarily blocked by a judge.
The back-and-forth circumstances have been dizzying for some manufacturers and sellers of the products, which contain psychoactive cannabinoids like delta-8, delta-9 and THCA.
"It's been exhausting, for sure," Benjamin Capodagli, the owner of Cappy's locations in Loveland and Norwood, said. "I've been here at least 10, 12, 14 hours every day since (the ban) was announced."
WATCH: Here is how local businesses are dealing with the intoxicating hemp ban's legal limbo
The ban briefly took effect on Tuesday before a Franklin County judge issued a ruling pausing it for 14 days that same afternoon.
"The closest thing I can describe it to is similar to COVID," Bobby Slattery, founder of Fifty West Brewing Company, said of the fluidity of the situation. "Our team's done a great job rolling with it. We've done this before, and here we are again."
It's been a whirlwind 24 hours for Slattery, whose brewery produces the top-selling Sunflower THC Seltzers. On Tuesday morning, he said, an Ohio Department of Agriculture representative arrived at the business to issue an embargo on the seltzer products.
"That's my first time ever having something embargoed. It was an interesting process," Slattery said. "We either needed to move it to a state where it was legal, or we needed to destroy the product."
Slattery sent truckloads of product to Kentucky, where it's legal. By Wednesday morning, he and his team were unloading that same supply of product, which had been returned from the bluegrass state, to sell to distributors, clamoring for more inventory.
"Now, it's getting into the trucks, (getting) it back out to the retailers, because there's people out there searching for this stuff," Slattery said.
Fifty West was also manufacturing more cans by Wednesday, hoping to make the most of what time they have left in an uncertain path forward for the product.
Slattery said the announcement of the ban led to a surge in customers last week.
"We sold probably about a month and a half, two months' worth of product in four days," he said. "Retailers were calling us everywhere. I think it really just showed the customer base that's out there for these products."
Capodagli, who sells Sunflower Seltzers along with other THC-infused beverages, saw similar trends at his shops.
"We're trying to maximize our window of selling this product," Capodagli said. "We sold in seven days what we sell in 45 days. So what is that? That's almost a 700% increase over that period of time."
If or when the 90-day ban takes effect in the future, it would net Cappy's a $100,000 loss in sales, Capodagli said.
"That's a very conservative but realistic expectation," Capodagli said.
On Tuesday, his Loveland store removed the THC beverages from shelves, only to restock a much smaller section of coolers and shelves on Wednesday.
"We're going to continue to work our way, hopefully, towards getting responsible legislation that will be, really, what people who live in the state want," Capodagli said.
Slattery, who is also a proponent of regulation, said he met with lawmakers in Columbus on the day the now-paused executive order went into effect.
"We're a big fan of legislation for this. We think that there's a good opportunity there and that it should be regulated," Slattery said.
Both Slattery and Capodagli proposed regulations that include making the products available only for those 21 years and older, creating a milligram capacity limit and instituting reasonable taxes on sales.
In response to the judge's ruling on Tuesday, Gov. DeWine posted the following on X, formerly known as Twitter: “While we continue to fight in court, today’s developments underscore our continued desire to work with the General Assembly to pass permanent legislation regarding intoxicating hemp."
