Some states and municipalities have tried to ban hemp-related products, but it’s a political hot potato because the smoke shops, convenience stores and wellness shops that have sprung up since 2018 are a force that elected officials view cautiously.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott recently vetoed a hemp ban passed by the Texas Legislature but yesterday ordered state agencies to come up with rules to prohibit sales of any products containing THC to people under 21. Texas does not allow recreational marijuana sales.

A bill that passed the Illinois Senate last year would have allowed intoxicating hemp, also known as delta-8, to be sold only by licensed dispensaries, as well as requiring testing and labeling. 

Some opponents viewed it as a giveaway to the cannabis industry. The hemp industry is hardly monolithic and includes shops selling CBD products and retailers who sell products with THC levels rivaling recreational marijuana, as well as THC beverage makers. Some favor regulation but others do not. The battle over how or whether to regulate the industry resulted in an intense lobbying campaign in the Capitol.

State Rep. La Shawn Ford, a West Side Democrat who authored a competing hemp bill last year, said Pritzker’s comments are a warning to the industry.

“It’s clear the governor has given the industry time to make legislative changes,” said Ford, who is running for Congress next year. “We need to get something done. There needs to be some level of regulation for the potency and safety of delta-8. There has to be some level of regulation for taxing, testing, labeling and selling the product.

“If the industry can’t come to some agreement in the interest of public health, the governor is going to have to make some decisions.”

Exactly what Pritzker could do by executive order is unclear. The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation and the Department of Agriculture regulate the sale and production of marijuana, but cannabis industry regulations were created by statute.

Craig Katz — a board member of the trade group Illinois Healthy Alternatives Association, which represents sellers of CBD and retailers, wholesalers and manufacturers of other non-intoxicating hemp products — said the industry continues to work on a legislative solution. 

“We very much want regulation: 21 and over, labeling, testing — all the things the governor is interested in,” he said. “It’s a question of reaching the right method of achieving that goal. (The previous bill) would have killed the hemp businesses in the state.”