The fight over the future of hemp in Chicago moved to the City Council on Thursday, weeks after a push by Mayor Brandon Johnson helped block state legislation to strictly license, tax and regulate the often high-inducing products.

As aldermen sparred in a council committee meeting alongside dueling hemp sellers and marijuana dispensary owners, the council appeared far from agreement on the safety and fairness of potential local regulations — despite all sides agreeing that the unregulated product that can get users high must face some restrictions.

While no vote was taken Thursday, the possibility of an ordinance to allow hemp’s continued widespread sale in Chicago won a critical early sign of approval from the Johnson administration.

The city should take the unprecedented step to add hemp rules that “mirror regulations” on substances like alcohol and marijuana, Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Olusimbo Ige told aldermen.

“At the city level, we don’t typically set the standards. We follow the directive of FDA,” Ige said. “The problem we have at the moment is there’s no direction from the FDA.”

Ige’s recommendations included adding retailer permits and licenses, product-testing requirements and packaging rules. She also recommended “strict control of contaminants” and maximum-dosage rules. Enacting some of those regulations would require “partnership beyond the city,” she said.

While much of the discussion centered around safety, control over yet-to-be-imposed taxes on the widely consumed products loomed over the debate.

Earlier this month, Johnson’s team launched a high-effort lobbying push to block state hemp legislation backed by Gov. JB Pritzker that had passed in the state Senate with nearly no opposition. Smoke shops and other stores that sell hemp products argued that the legislation was so restrictive it would put many of them out of business.

The legislation was not brought up for a vote in the Illinois House. At the time, Ald. William Hall — who first proposed a hemp tax last fall as a potential way to earn the city more revenue — called the push to pass the now-stalled bill “political bullying.”

As he led the hearing Thursday, Hall did not share an ordinance detailing the broad regulations he and Ige recommended. He also did not share tax proposals on the products, despite having included five-year revenue estimates on a potential hemp tax in November.

The City Council’s no-vote hearing to explore hemp regulation followed a barrage of news conferences from competing interests.

First, a group of marijuana business owners argued they would be unfairly undercut if Chicago legitimizes hemp sales with customized regulation. The speakers, aligned with the Cannabis Business Association of Illinois, called for hemp to be regulated under the same rules that govern marijuana sales statewide.

“If it gets you high, it should be regulated under Illinois’ cannabis regulation,” said Reese Xavier, owner of HT23 Growers. “This product should not receive a separate and special deal.”

At a later news conference, several aldermen more flatly opposed to the sale of hemp products accused Hall and Johnson of brushing aside safety concerns with the aim of bringing in more tax revenue. Hemp products contain dangerous and hard-to-trace contaminants and are often marketed toward teens, they argued.

“You can’t put your morals aside because the city wants to make a buck,” said Ald. Silvana Tabares. Tabares, 23rd, passed legislation earlier this month to effectively block future hemp product sales from her Southwest Side ward. Several other aldermen have signaled they are interested in enacting their own ward-level hemp bans if strict regulation on the products doesn’t materialize.

But Hall, 6th, insisted in his own news conference that his bid for hemp regulation “is not an opportunity for blood money.” The dozens of Chicago smoke shops that sell hemp products should not be “penalized” or “destroyed” by the stricter regulations that have stalled at the state level.

The Pritzker-backed state legislation would amount to a “prohibition” on hemp, Hall said. He argued that the bill is really a push by wealthy marijuana companies to box out stores selling hemp products.

“The disagreement is coming to who wants to own the industry,” he said. “That’s greed.”

After hearing Ige and Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection Commissioner Ivan Capifali describe how regulations could work, Ald. Andre Vasquez, 40th, said he doubts the city is the right body to govern hemp.

Vasquez questioned whether the city could properly oversee chemical testing, one of the many new responsibilities it might need to facilitate.

“I don’t have a lot of confidence that the city can actually execute on it,” he said. “There are just a lot of challenges.”

Originally Published: January 30, 2025 at 3:34 PM CST