Hemp-derived products such as delta-8 can make people feel high just like cannabis does. Now, Illinois lawmakers are trying to figure out if they can regulate and tax them like cannabis, too.
That might be the only hope of salvaging the once-burgeoning hemp product industry that was largely outlawed late Wednesday by a provision tacked onto the federal spending plan approved by Congress and President Donald Trump to reopen the government.
The ban on intoxicating hemp products takes effect in a year, giving business owners in Illinois’ billion-dollar industry limited time to find a path to legitimacy.
It also gives state lawmakers some time to figure out if a regulatory framework like the one Illinois has instituted since legalizing recreational cannabis in 2020 could extend to the hemp products that have soared in popularity without any regulation since 2018.
A law passed that year inadvertently opened the door for compounds that are extracted from hemp and concentrated in vapes, edibles and oils to affect people just like cannabis does.
With the loophole closing, Gov. JB Pritzker welcomed federal restrictions on psychoactive products that have sometimes been geared toward children. But like most observers and participants in the sprawling industry — which also produces many non-intoxicating wellness products — he was still sorting through the specifics of the abrupt ban hours after its passage.
“It makes it harder for the worst parts of intoxicating hemp to be just sold to anybody, so we’re going to have to look at how we might regulate it now that we see that the federal government is limiting it,” Pritzker said after an unrelated press conference Thursday.
He admitted it’s unclear “what the federal bill actually allows us to do” at the state level, “but the goal here is to keep our children safe.”
“That really is my No. 1 goal about regulating intoxicating hemp. When it’s available everywhere, and it’s got names like ‘Skittlez’ with a Z on the end, and it looks the same as Skittles the candy — it’s just not right,” Pritzker said. “I have been disappointed that the industry here has been unwilling to accept proper regulation. So now we’ll end up at the table talking about how best to move forward.”
Pritzker previously backed a failed state bill that would have required hemp businesses to go through the same lengthy and expensive licensing process as cannabis dispensaries — effectively banning most of the hemp products that can be found in gas stations, corner stores and smoke shops.
That measure easily passed Illinois Senate President Don Harmon’s chamber, but never got a vote in the House, facing steep opposition from the hemp industry and pushback from lawmakers reluctant to criminalize products that have supported thousands of jobs.
“This surprised everybody, and we’re trying to figure it out,” Harmon said. “Obviously, the Senate’s been trying to regulate hemp for a long time, and maybe this changes the baseline and gives us a fresh perspective from which to tackle the problem, but it’s just too early for us to pronounce what direction we’re going in.”
State Rep. La Shawn Ford, a Chicago Democrat who pushed for less stringent state regulations to keep the hemp products legal, bemoaned “a new war on drugs” with the federal ban.
“But I think the General Assembly can go back and do for hemp what it did for cannabis,” Ford said.
Hemp industry leaders were holding out hope to knock the federal ban down altogether.
“This is not one year to a ban. This is one year to regulate,” said Thomas Winstanley, executive vice president of Edibles.com, a hemp wellness marketplace. “And the industry will do exactly that — united, determined, and unwilling to let Washington destroy what farmers built and consumers want.”