Section 4301.20 | Exemptions from liquor control law.

• Effective: March 27, 2020
• Latest Legislation: House Bill 197 - 133rd General Assembly

This chapter and Chapter 4303. of the Revised Code do not prevent the following:

(A) The storage of intoxicating liquor in bonded warehouses, established in accordance with the acts of congress and under the regulation of the United States, located in this state, or the transportation of intoxicating liquor to or from bonded warehouses of the United States wherever located;

(B) A bona fide resident of this state who is the owner of a warehouse receipt from obtaining or transporting to the resident's residence for the resident's own consumption and not for resale spirituous liquor stored in a government bonded warehouse in this state or in another state prior to December 1933, subject to such terms as are prescribed by the division of liquor control;

(C) The manufacture of cider from fruit for the purpose of making vinegar, and nonintoxicating cider and fruit juices for use and sale;

(D) A licensed physician or dentist from administering or dispensing intoxicating liquor or alcohol to a patient in good faith in the actual course of the practice of the physician's or dentist's profession;

(E) The sale of alcohol to physicians, dentists, druggists, veterinary surgeons, manufacturers, hospitals, infirmaries, or medical or educational institutions using the alcohol for medicinal, mechanical, chemical, or scientific purposes;

(F) The sale, gift, or keeping for sale by druggists and others of any of the medicinal preparations manufactured in accordance with the formulas prescribed by the United States Pharmacopoeia and National Formulary, patent or proprietary preparations, and other bona fide medicinal and technical preparations, which contain no more alcohol than is necessary to hold the medicinal agents in solution and to preserve the same, which are manufactured and sold as medicine and not as beverages, are unfit for use for beverage purposes, and the sale of which does not require the payment of a United States liquor dealer's tax;

(G) The manufacture and sale of tinctures or of toilet, medicinal, and antiseptic preparations and solutions not intended for internal human use nor to be sold as beverages, and which are unfit for beverage purposes, if upon the outside of each bottle, box, or package of which there is printed in the English language, conspicuously and legibly, the quantity by volume of alcohol in the preparation or solution;

(H) The manufacture and keeping for sale of the food products known as flavoring extracts when manufactured and sold for cooking, culinary, or flavoring purposes, and which are unfit for use for beverage purposes;

(I) The lawful sale of wood alcohol or of ethyl alcohol for external use when combined with other substances as to make it unfit for internal use;

(J) The manufacture, sale, and transport of ethanol or ethyl alcohol for use as fuel. As used in this division, "ethanol" has the same meaning as in section 122.075 of the Revised Code.

(K) The purchase and importation into this state or the purchase at wholesale from A or B permit holders in this state of beer and intoxicating liquor for use in manufacturing processes of nonbeverage food products under terms prescribed by the division, provided that the terms prescribed by the division shall not increase the cost of the beer or intoxicating liquor to any person, firm, or corporation purchasing and importing it into this state or purchasing it from an A or B permit holder for that use;

(L) Any resident of this state or any member of the armed forces of the United States, who has attained the age of twenty-one years, from bringing into this state, for personal use and not for resale, not more than one liter of spirituous liquor, four and one-half liters of wine, or two hundred eighty-eight ounces of beer in any thirty-day period, and the same is free of any tax consent fee when the resident or member of the armed forces physically possesses and accompanies the spirituous liquor, wine, or beer on returning from a foreign country, another state, or an insular possession of the United States;

(M) Persons, at least twenty-one years of age, who collect ceramic commemorative bottles containing spirituous liquor that have unbroken federal tax stamps on them from selling or trading the bottles to other collectors. The bottles shall originally have been purchased at retail from the division, legally imported under division (L) of this section, or legally imported pursuant to a supplier registration issued by the division. The sales shall be for the purpose of exchanging a ceramic commemorative bottle between private collectors and shall not be for the purpose of selling the spirituous liquor for personal consumption. The sale or exchange authorized by this division shall not occur on the premises of any permit holder, shall not be made in connection with the business of any permit holder, and shall not be made in connection with any mercantile business.

(N) The sale of beer or intoxicating liquor without a liquor permit at a private residence, not more than five times per calendar year at a residence address, at an event that has the following characteristics:

(1) The event is for a charitable, benevolent, or political purpose, but shall not include any event the proceeds of which are for the profit or gain of any individual;

(2) The event has in attendance not more than fifty people;

(3) The event shall be for a period not to exceed twelve hours;

(4) The sale of beer and intoxicating liquor at the event shall not take place between two-thirty a.m. and five-thirty a.m.;

(5) No person under twenty-one years of age shall purchase or consume beer or intoxicating liquor at the event and no beer or intoxicating liquor shall be sold to any person under twenty-one years of age at the event; and

(6) No person at the event shall sell or furnish beer or intoxicating liquor to an intoxicated person.

(O) The possession or consumption of beer or intoxicating liquor by a person who is under twenty-one years of age and who is a student at an accredited college or university, provided that both of the following apply:

(1) The person is required to taste and expectorate the beer or intoxicating liquor for a culinary, food service, or hospitality course.

(2) The person is under the direct supervision of the instructor of the culinary, food service, or hospitality course.

Available Versions of this Section

• September 24, 2012 – Senate Bill 316 - 129th General Assembly
• March 27, 2020 – Amended by House Bill 197 - 133rd General Assembly