(WTTW News)
Sales of delta-8 and other hemp-derived snacks, drinks and products will continue unabated in Illinois despite potential safety concerns, after the state legislature adjourned early Wednesday morning without passing new regulations.
Lawmakers had two competing options.
The more aggressive measure (House Bill 4293), backed by the highly regulated marijuana industry and opposed by those in hemp, would have restricted sales of increasingly popular hemp-derived products to state-licensed marijuana dispensaries. That would likely mean non-cannabis CBD lounges and smoke shops would be put out of business and many CBD drinks and products currently sold everywhere from specialty shops to bars and gas stations would be taken off the market.
Senators approved that plan over the weekend, but the House didn’t take it up.
The other proposal, which was preferred by the hemp industry (Senate Bill 3790 / House Bill 5306), didn’t advance at all — leaving, its advocates say, $1.5 billion in revenue over the next four years, as the plan would tax hemp at the wholesale and retail levels and require all hemp businesses to pay $500 for a state license.
Cannabis companies are against their cannabis-adjacent competitors getting such an easy path to entry, given that Illinois’ legal marijuana structure was designed to be restricted, and has high barriers to entry — companies have competed to win licenses, and winning one is costly, at $60,000 for a cannabis dispensary.
The lack of any meaningful measures moving before the end of the General Assembly’s spring session also means there’s no oversight or required testing of what reaches consumers, despite research out of the University of Chicago, reported on by the Sun-Times, that found most hemp products were mislabeled and at times significantly more potent than advertised.
Both cannabis, or marijuana, and hemp products contain THC, the psychoactive cannabanoid that makes people high, but by definition have less than .3% of the chemical.
Additives and synthetic processes used by manufacturers, however, may alter products sold as hemp or delta-8 to be stronger.
Alternately, any product sold in an Illinois licensed cannabis dispensary is tested and tracked from seed to sale.
Illinois lawmakers also failed to pass a separate measure (House Bill 2911) that would have allowed cannabis dispensaries to offer drive-thru and curbside service.
That measure would also have allowed state-licensed craft cannabis growers to expand their footprint to 14,000 feet, after long-standing complaints that they can’t grow enough under the current 5,000 foot canopy limit to obtain financing or make cultivation worthwhile.
Contact Amanda Vinicky: @AmandaVinicky | [email protected]
