A majority of the Chicago City Council is calling on Illinois legislators to pass rules on the sale of hemp products, calling into doubt Mayor Brandon Johnson’s efforts to regulate it at the city level.
The letter, signed by 28 aldermen and sent to Illinois General Assembly members Monday, expressed “deep concern” over the ongoing lack of laws governing the often intoxicating products.
The high number of signees, including six members of the aldermanic Progressive Caucus that often sides with the progressive mayor, raises question about whether Johnson has the support to get aldermen to adopt his own guidelines.
State legislators must quickly determine how hemp is restricted and taxed, the aldermen’s letter said.
“The City of Chicago and local municipalities lack the capacity to regulate these products effectively on their own,” the letter said.
A city-state feud over hemp regulations erupted in early January when Johnson successfully lobbied to block a House vote on strict regulations that had passed the state Senate, citing revenue concerns for the city. Ald. William Hall, a close Johnson ally tapped by the mayor to chair a Revenue Subcommittee, had for weeks before floated tax revenue from hemp as a critical solution to the city’s budget woes.
Gov. JB Pritzker described hemp regulation as a public health priority.
And he ripped Johnson after the state legislation failed to come up for a vote. “It seems like [Johnson and his team] don’t have good relationships in Springfield, in part because they don’t do the outreach that’s necessary,” Pritzker said.
Despite the governor’s gripes, Johnson pushed ahead on efforts to build city regulations on hemp, used in products such as delta-8 and delta-10 THC that get users high. Top mayoral staffers began to lay out what city regulations might look like at a late-January hearing organized by Hall, who called Pritzker’s opposition “political bullying.”
But little has moved forward since. Hall has yet to introduce the regulatory ordinance he promised, even as several aldermen successfully passed hemp bans in their own wards.
Mayoral allies have meanwhile stalled standalone regulations proposed by aldermen, including other ward-level bans, an effort to ban sales to minors and an ordinance preventing hemp stores from using marijuana leaf signs or calling themselves “dispensaries.”
Hall said he is drafting an ordinance to cap the number of hemp stores, require “strict third-party testing” on products and add ID scans for customers. The ordinance plan would give aldermen broad control over what businesses get licenses to sell hemp products in their ward, limiting the total amount to somewhere under 20 stores, he said.
“Time and time again,” the state has blocked businesses who want to be “safe partners,” Hall said.
“I want my colleagues to have all the aldermanic prerogative, as well as a fair share of revenue to pay for infrastructure needs,” Hall said. “This is an all inclusive regulatory approach to something that is federally legal.”
Licensed marijuana businesses and hemp sellers alike have loudly lobbied City Hall and the state as the pressure to add rules builds.
The regulations on the products, often packaged like candy, is a matter of safety for children, said Ald. Bennett Lawson, who organized the letter. But it’s also a matter of fairness while businesses selling legalized marijuana face steep fees and restrictions, he added.
“You have an industry that’s selling a cannabis product competing with an industry that’s totally unregulated,” he said.
While Lawson said Johnson wants to raise more money for the city by establishing local rules, he argued “standing up a regulatory framework is not something that’s in our wheelhouse.”
The aldermen’s letter, first reported in Politico, said they support the bill stalled in January sponsored by Sen. Kimberly Lightford, a Democrat from Westchester.
Lawson, however, said he is open to compromise legislation.
“There’s been no real movement,” he said. “Every day we wait, we have another day where this product is unregulated, unlicensed and available.”
In addition to Lightford’s legislation, Rep. La Shawn Ford, a Democrat from Chicago, introduced a separate bill this legislative session that would put some regulations on hemp, including an age limit, but wouldn’t impose as many restrictions as Lightford’s legislation.
Ford questioned whether the members of City Council who support Lightford’s legislation “know exactly how far the bill goes,” as he said it could cause the city of Chicago to lose out on a potential source of revenue.
Lightford didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
In the short term, Ford said he’d at least like to see the state or city bring the minimum age of purchase to 21.
Still, he said, the camps in Springfield haven’t changed since January. At that time, the hemp industry largely opposed Lightford’s stiffer regulations while Pritzker supported her bill.
“We’re spinning our wheels right now,” Ford said Tuesday, days ahead of a deadline in Springfield to move bills out of committees.
A spokesperson for Pritzker, Alex Gough, said the governor “still supports” legislation focused on closing loopholes and regulating marketing of intoxicating hemp — parameters that echo Lightford’s bill.
“Too many children have been hospitalized because of unregulated intoxicating products and predatory sales tactics, so we are glad to see city council members take the health and the wellbeing of children seriously,” Gough said in a statement, calling for “all elected officials” to “support this bipartisan, commonsense, and decisive action.”
