Mayor Johnson vetoes hemp ban, as measure's sponsor, Ald. Quinn, throws in the towel
Mayor Brandon Johnson on Friday vetoed a City Council-approved ban on hemp-derived products to save Chicago's burgeoning hemp industry, and the chief sponsor of the ban said he won’t try for an override.
Southwest Side Ald. Marty Quinn’s decision to throw in the towel means that hemp-derived products can continue to be sold in Chicago — at least until a federal ban takes effect later this year.
The ban on most hemp products was aimed at keeping unregulated intoxicants out of reach from minors. Johnson used his first veto to kill a snap curfew ordinance and made it stick by preventing a 34-vote override. His second veto will also stand.
Quinn (13th) muscled the ban through the City Council by a vote of 32 to 16. But he said he won’t pursue an override he knows he can’t win.
“I don’t have the votes… I’m at 32. I don’t have 34. That’s where it’s at. It’s not going to change,” said Quinn, who learned his vote-counting skills while serving as chief lieutenant for now convicted and imprisoned former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago. “I still have the ban on the Southwest Side in the Midway [Airport] region and I would anticipate other alders doing the same thing in their wards” in addition to the seven wards where hemp products are already banned.
Quinn said the mayor will now have to live with the consequences of “placing business over the safety of kids.”
In a letter to the City Council, Johnson argued that a balanced regulatory framework for hemp products must safeguard Chicagoans, “especially young people” in a “thoughtful, evidence-informed way that avoids unnecessary disruption for consumers, retailers and entrepreneuers.”
The mayor argued that the “most responsible path forward” is for the city’s hemp regulation to “align with forthcoming federal guidance rather than acting prematurely in a rapidly shifting regulatory landscape.”
In a statement accompanying his veto, Johnson said he shares concerns raised about “intoxicating hemp products, especially when it comes to packaging that may appeal to children.”
“We must have strict age verification, responsible labeling, and clear enforcement standards. There must be zero tolerance for businesses that market or sell these products to minors,” the mayor said.
But Johnson said he is also concerned about the impact that the “prohibition style ban” could have on small businesses in general and minority-owned businesses in particular.
“The ordinance protects some establishments at the expense of many of our small businesses who have been following the law and deserve to have a seat at the table,” he said. “Many of these businesses are Black- and brown-owned. Many are operated by entrepreneurs who were shut out of the expensive cannabis licensing process and turned to federally legal hemp as a pathway into the marketplace. We cannot claim to support equitable economic development while advancing policies that concentrate the market in the hands of a few large entities.”
Business Affairs and Consumer Protection Commissioner Ivan Capifali has warned that a full ban “would be nearly impossible to enforce” and threaten “hundreds, if not thousands, of jobs.” During a Sun-Times podcast earlier this week, Capifali reiterated those concerns.
“My job is not to shut down businesses. My job is to help businesses expand and grow and scale,” Capifali said. “When you put bans like this that will shut down businesses that, their whole model is around hemp, it pains us. Anything that is not business friendly is something that we have a problem with.”
Quinn took aim at that argument.
“That’s what you’re propping up? Dodgy storefronts as a marketing tool for the city of Chicago? Oh, my God. That’s absurd,” Quinn said. “You’re going to talk about these small businesses that were opened up on a loophole under the disguise of night as a good thing? It defies logic.”
Hemp-infused beverages have soared in popularity and kept many bars and restaurants afloat as consumer trends have shifted away from alcohol since the COVID-19 pandemic.
After a close vote in committee, Quinn tweaked the full-on ban to allow for hemp beverages to be produced and sold by licensed vendors, after pushback from the Illinois Restaurant Association and other industry leaders. Creams and ointments also would have been exempt from the citywide ban, and hemp products would have been allowed for animals.
Retailers licensed to sell cannabis products would have been allowed to sell hemp-infused beverages, powders and crystalline additives to customers over 21, provided they include “no more than 10 milligrams.” Hemp-infused beverages and additives could also have been sold at bars, restaurants with incidental liquor licenses and packaged goods stores.
Johnson’s administration opposed the measure because of the small-business boon from the 2018 loophole in federal law that allowed delta-8 THC and other hemp derivatives to proliferate without the restrictions placed on Illinois’ heavily regulated cannabis industry.
That loophole is set to close later this year, prompting Quinn’s push to close it down in the city even sooner. The ban on the sale of hemp products to minors would have taken effect in 10 days, but other provisions would be pushed back until April 1.
On the day the ban was approved, Johnson said he had “some real serious concerns about this ordinance” and hadn’t decided on a potential veto. “It’s paramount for the good of our city [not only] to regulate, have the ability to actually test, to actually regulate what was passed and to keep people safe, but ultimately to make sure that we’re not driving small businesses out of it,” Johnson said at the time.
Illinois Hemp Business Association Director Charles Wu has argued that Quinn’s ordinance came down to “economic favoritism” for the cannabis and alcohol industry over the burgeoning hemp industry.
“I am not here asking for special treatment. I am asking for clear rules, consistent enforcement and a path to compliance that applies equally to everyone,” Wu told Council members.
Jeremy Dedic, co-founder of Cubbington’s Cabinet, a hemp wellness retailer in Roscoe Village, applauded Johnson for vetoing an ordinance that “would have shut us down” and deprived Chicagoans of access to what he called “non-inebriating solutions” for an array of health issues.
"Hemp products are popular because they can help people sleep, manage stress and anxiety, reduce inflammation and minimize side effects of cancer treatment” and post-traumatic stress disorder, Dedic said. “It’s dishonest saying it’s about protecting the children or public safety. What it’s really doing is trying to provide carve-outs and a monopoly for your multi-state operators of marijuana dispensary operations and the alcohol industry.”
Now that the hemp ban is history, Dedic encouraged the City Council to focus on “common sense regulation” that “supports public safety and protects kids, but also supports Chicago’s economy [and] consumer access to wellness products.”
“Ban sales of any hemp-cannabinoid products to anyone under the age of 21. Ban these look-alike products that keep being held up…that appeal to kids. Require… product testing from independent third party labs,” Dedic said.
The federal Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 allowed THC to be extracted from hemp and concentrated into an array of products with chemical compositions nearly identical to marijuana but that aren’t classified as drugs.
They’ve sometimes been marketed to kids with packaging styled after popular candy, prompting outcry from hemp industry critics, including Gov. JB Pritzker. Hemp businesses have invited taxation and regulation, calling for an age minimum of 21 and standards for testing and labeling.
State lawmakers butted heads for years over how to regulate the booming industry, but a late provision tacked onto the federal spending bill to reopen the government last fall promised to close the hemp THC loophole by November unless Congress takes additional action. Hemp industry leaders are making a full-court press in Washington to stave off the looming ban.
Discussion in the ATmosphere