After a bill to regulate “intoxicating hemp products” stalled in Springfield earlier this week, hemp industry advocates are celebrating the win as a step towards true social equity. Many Black entrepreneurs turned to hemp when they were locked out of legalized marijuana due to the high cost of entry.
“What we’re trying to do is make sure that we do have regulatory oversight [and] restorative justice in our own legislation that we are trying to pass,” said Caleb Howard, executive director of the Illinois Black Hemp Association. “So now we’re making sure that, while there is proper regulation and everything else being implemented, we’re not just getting rid of an entire industry overnight.”
The proposed “Hemp Consumer Products Act,” backed by Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, would have limited sales to state-licensed cannabis dispensaries, and mandated age restrictions, testing and labeling requirements.
Pritzker says the proposal will keep intoxicating products out of the hands of children. In the unregulated market, processing hemp-derived CBD into a concentrate can create delta-8 and other intoxicating compounds that give a weed-like high, but are not regulated or tested. These items are then placed in fun yet deceptive packaging for consumers, and sold at smoke shops, convenience stores and gas stations.
However, hemp business owners and advocates say the proposal is too broad, adding that it favors big marijuana corporations and would further push minorities out of the industry. They too have championed regulating the hemp space for safety and to shut down the black market that is harmful to business.
“Hemp is not the enemy. I think what’s the enemy is a black market that has been unregulated, as well as the lack of distribution of tax revenue,” Ald. William Hall (6th Ward) said. “I stand against the complete ban of something that is already federally approved.”
Hall is the chair of the City Council’s revenue subcommittee and has planned a subject matter hearing for sometime later this month. He is looking to support hemp regulation proposals that simultaneously create more safeguards around hemp consumption and generate a “sustainable revenue stream” for the city of Chicago.
Hall’s proposal for regulation includes implementing an age limit of 21 for hemp consumption, similar to marijuana and alcohol. He also wants to enforce strict packaging that isn’t aimed toward children.
“Currently, right now, you get a vendor’s license, you can be selling this crap out of your basement. That’s what we want to cut out, the bad guys,” Hall said.
Cannabis sales in Illinois exceeded $2 billion in fiscal year 2024. For Chicago, which has the highest weed tax in the state, Hall said the revenue generated is small compared to the amount that the state makes in sales.
“[Chicago] contributes the most to cannabis, and yet we get the least amount of return on investment,” Hall said. “We have the most expensive cannabis in the country, with the least amount of payout.”
For Hall and other advocates, the hemp sector is a pathway to righting the inequities created when Illinois legalized marijuana sales began in 2020.
“Essentially, [Pritzker’s] trying to ban it or give it regulation that is very similar to [weed] dispensaries, which is, again, no reparation for Blacks who were cut out of cannabis,” Hall explained.
A diversity report conducted by the Peoria-based consulting firm Nerevu Group last summer found that although Illinois has awarded more cannabis licenses to minorities in the country, white men were still the most likely to become cannabis-related business owners.
“I think the biggest opposition is the misunderstanding of what real equity is in 2025,” Hall said, adding that legalized cannabis left Black Chicagoans without entrepreneurial opportunities despite them being a main consumer. “And this was all under the watch of the state legislators. Hemp is an opportunity to heal what cannabis did wrong.”
Edie Moore, co-founder of Black-owned Sway Dispensary in Northhalsted (formerly Boystown), said the unregulated hemp market is undercutting marijuana businesses like hers. She was in favor of the Pritzker-backed regulation bill.
“It’s absolutely about safety, but it’s also about protecting businesses like mine, who these folks are competing with,” Moore said. She added that she went through a strenuous application process to open her cannabis shop and feels that others who didn’t go through the process should not sell products that can cause intoxication.
“They didn’t spend the amount of time and the amount of money and do the amount of community work to get that business open. They just opened it,” said Moore, who is also a founding board member of the nonprofit Chicago NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws).
Hall’s proposal for regulation includes implementing an age limit of 21 for hemp consumption, similar to marijuana and alcohol. He also wants to enforce strict packaging that isn’t aimed toward children.
“Currently, right now, you get a vendor’s license, you can be selling this crap out of your basement. That’s what we want to cut out, the bad guys,” Hall said.
Cannabis sales in Illinois exceeded $2 billion in fiscal year 2024. For Chicago, which has the highest weed tax in the state, Hall said the revenue generated is small compared to the amount that the state makes in sales.
“[Chicago] contributes the most to cannabis, and yet we get the least amount of return on investment,” Hall said. “We have the most expensive cannabis in the country, with the least amount of payout.”
For Hall and other advocates, the hemp sector is a pathway to righting the inequities created when Illinois legalized marijuana sales began in 2020.
“Essentially, [Pritzker’s] trying to ban it or give it regulation that is very similar to [weed] dispensaries, which is, again, no reparation for Blacks who were cut out of cannabis,” Hall explained.
A diversity report conducted by the Peoria-based consulting firm Nerevu Group last summer found that although Illinois has awarded more cannabis licenses to minorities in the country, white men were still the most likely to become cannabis-related business owners.
“I think the biggest opposition is the misunderstanding of what real equity is in 2025,” Hall said, adding that legalized cannabis left Black Chicagoans without entrepreneurial opportunities despite them being a main consumer. “And this was all under the watch of the state legislators. Hemp is an opportunity to heal what cannabis did wrong.”
Edie Moore, co-founder of Black-owned Sway Dispensary in Northhalsted (formerly Boystown), said the unregulated hemp market is undercutting marijuana businesses like hers. She was in favor of the Pritzker-backed regulation bill.
“It’s absolutely about safety, but it’s also about protecting businesses like mine, who these folks are competing with,” Moore said. She added that she went through a strenuous application process to open her cannabis shop and feels that others who didn’t go through the process should not sell products that can cause intoxication.
“They didn’t spend the amount of time and the amount of money and do the amount of community work to get that business open. They just opened it,” said Moore, who is also a founding board member of the nonprofit Chicago NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws).
Moore said many of the shops she’s seen that sell delta-8 products are not owned by Black people. She said people confuse those shops with state-licensed weed dispensaries.
“Those are not Black businesses. Those are owned mostly by out-of-state people,” Moore said. “The public is so confused by them.”
State Rep. La Shawn Ford, who serves the West Side, said he sees the Pritzker-backed bill’s failure as a success. However, he’s not happy about there not being any regulation for delta-8 products.
“I’m disappointed that we did not pass legislation to prevent delta from being sold in Chicago and Illinois without being tested [and] labeled just like we do cannabis,” Ford said. “I’m disappointed that we didn’t pass legislation that would actually prevent the sale of delta products online.”
Ford has been vocal about the ways the War on Drugs harmed Black communities with higher arrests for the possession of drugs. He added that, as written, the hemp proposal would have the same impact.
“It’s important to note that those people that open up delta shops are some that had a failed attempt to open up cannabis shops in Illinois, but the problem with that was the process was too expensive for small people that didn’t have millions of dollars in cash,” Ford said. “So they’ve been able to find a way to start a business with delta. And so they made investments. To try to just pull the rug from under them is not the way government should operate.”
The difficulties of entering the legalized weed space in Illinois have been well-documented. Three Black women who went through the application process to receive a cannabis license previously described the process to The TRiiBE as expensive and tedious.
Moore acknowledged the difficulties many Black applicants encountered while seeking a cannabis license. She added that she is working to open another location for her dispensary in South Shore.
“I’m not going to deny that [the process] is excessive and it is difficult,” Moore said, describing the experience of becoming a licensed dispensary owner, “but what I’ll say to that is, selling an intoxicating product without a regulation and without proper dosing and without some mechanism to educate the public on what they’re getting is not right.”
Mayor Brandon Johnson, who opposed the Pritzker-supported hemp regulation bill, also saw the failure as a win for the industry. In his Jan. 7 statement after the proposed hemp bill did not move forward, Johnson said, “The leadership of the Chicago delegation in Springfield was critical in ensuring the communities of Chicago and other municipalities were central to the conversation. My team is eager to come to the table with partners in Springfield to develop and pass legislation that appropriately regulates hemp products to keep our children safe while ensuring local municipalities across Illinois do not lose a potential revenue source.”
Howard, who also co-owns a wellness company that uses hemp products called Flower Girl, said the Illinois Black Hemp Association is currently working on legislation that would add regulations in the hemp space while ensuring that marginalized communities reap the benefits of its estimated economic impact.
“There’s a lot of money in hemp. There’s a lot of things you can do with hemp. I work with industrial hemp people as well. You can even make hemp into jet fuel. There’s a lot of jobs that can be created, which is even why we’re looking into more so of making trade schools as well so we can get more jobs in this industry,” Howard said.
The post Equity for Black businesses is at the center of the hemp debate appeared first on The TRiiBE.
