Illinois lawmakers call for ban on intoxicating hemp products, but retailers call for regulations

Rep. La Shawn Ford has introduced an alternative bill that would allow sales of intoxicating hemp products, but require them to be tested, labeled, regulated and taxed. Just as with cannabis, he said, prohibition only creates a underground market.

“This is so strange and hypocritical,” Ford said. “Just because you ban a product doesn’t mean it’s going away. We need to tax and regulate it.”

Several lawmakers spoke in favor of the ban.

Chief sponsor Rep. Nick Smith, who represents an area from the South Side of Chicago to Kankakee County, called it “commonsense legislation” to protect children, consumers and licensed businesses.

Rep. Eva-dina Delgado, who represents the Northwest Side of Chicago and has a teenager, said kids get it from stores and call it “greening out.”

“It scares me to my core to think about young people putting that in their bodies and we just have no idea what’s in it,” she said.

Ron Miller, part of family-owned Navada Labs, which operates BLYSS Dispensary in downstate Mount Vernon, called it a “betrayal” that the state allows unregulated operators while he has to follow strict and costly regulations.

“Now (we) have to compete with an unlevel playing field,” he said.

The bill would require hemp business to be licensed and follow good manufacturing practices. Violators would be subject to fines of up to $10,000 and loss of license. The Illinois Department of Agriculture and local police could conduct enforcement.

As proposed, the measure would create a committee to recommend safety standards and require state agencies to establish a regulatory and enforcement framework for hemp-derived THC products. The bill also would authorize 50 new dispensaries and 50 new infusers.

The committee would make its recommendations by Jan. 1, with licenses to be awarded by July 2025.

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