Akele Parnell is among the many Black owners of cannabis dispensaries who are frustrated by the lack of hemp regulation in Chicago and Illinois. He says he wants to see regulation that not only ends the marketing of intoxicating hemp products as cannabis, but also completely stops the sale of those products in smoke shops. Parnell says these shops undercut social equity weed dispensary owners, like himself, who face numerous hurdles to open dispensaries.
Over the last six years, Parnell says he’s faced several challenges while trying to open his Chicago-based weed dispensary Ümi in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. Some of those hurdles, he said, include high real estate costs, community opposition and legal battles with anti-weed organizations that opposed the dispensary; the latter resulted in high legal fees.
As an example of undercuts to the legal cannabis business, Parnell pointed to the Chicago Cannabis Company, a hemp-derived cannabinoid company that opened its first brick-and-mortar in Lincoln Park at 2501 N. Halsted St. in 2022. The smoke shop is around the corner from Parnell’s upcoming weed dispensary, which is scheduled to open next month.
Parnell says the unregulated hemp market allows smoke shops to promote intoxicating hemp products such as delta-8 and delta-9 — both can give a weed-like high — while his licensed cannabis shop is forced to comply with restrictive guidelines such as having their products tested, not permitting anyone under 21 years of age into the store, and participating in community meetings.
“They have a huge weed leaf as their logo. They have weed leaves all in the window, and they advertise it as ‘your local neighborhood weed shop,’” Parnell said. “We can’t put a weed leaf on our window and advertise [cannabis] because that’s against the state regulations. And we agree with the neighborhood that they didn’t want that. So we said we wouldn’t do that.”
The TRiiBE reached out to the Chicago Cannabis Company. Someone who identified as an employee answered the store’s phone Tuesday and said that the plant in the logo is a hemp leaf and the tagline describes its CBD and Delta-9 products. Both weed and hemp come from the same plant.
According to its website, the Chicago Cannabis Company’s “THC product contains less than 0.3% Delta 9 THC,” which falls in line with the federal Farm Bill of 2018. The TRiiBE also reached out to the owners of Chicago Cannabis Company. They did not respond to a request for comment.
Shops that sell hemp-derived products such as delta-8 and delta-9 that produce a drug-like high have been the subject of contentious regulation conversations. On Tuesday, business leaders and proponents of social equity in cannabis gathered for a press conference in the South Loop to discuss the need for hemp regulations.
Meesha Pike celebrated the grand opening of her legal weed shop Prairie Cannabis, located at 622 W. Roosevelt Road, on April 15. Like Parnell, she pointed across the street to CBD Kratom as a smoke shop that’s undercutting her social equity weed business. CBD Kratom is a chain with multiple stores throughout Illinois and other states. On its website, CBD Kratom’s logo includes the words “cannabis dispensary,” however, it’s removed from the physical signage at the South Loop’s location. The words are included in the logo on the store’s front door.
“Myself and other members of the social equity [cannabis] program face hurdles to getting licensed and operating our businesses. We put in tremendous time, energy, and personal financial risk because we believe the opportunity will be worth it,” Pike said. “But today, licenses like mine are struggling to survive because of unregulated hemp flooding the market.”
Craig Katz, government and relations compliance director with CBD Kratom, told The TRiiBE that their stores are federally legal and their products are under the federal legal limit of 0.3% THC in dry weight, which is the lawfully accepted standard for hemp-derived products.
“We are licensed as appropriate by the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois to do business. There is no regulation at this moment that prohibits the sale of our products,” Katz said.
The fight to regulate hemp is centered on the topic of social equity. In January, the Hemp Consumer Products Act was introduced in Springfield and notably backed by Gov. JB Pritzker. The bill would’ve limited the sale of hemp products to state-licensed weed dispensaries. Groups like the Illinois Black Hemp Association saw the bill as too restrictive, only favorable to big marijuana companies, and would cut out minority business owners.
During the press conference outside of Prairie Cannabis on Tuesday, State Rep. La Shawn Ford (D-8th), who opposed the Pritzker-backed hemp proposal, said that Black people in both the hemp and social equity cannabis spaces are joining forces for healthy regulation that will protect minors and properly test and label weed products.
“Everyone realized that we want what the governor wants. It’s just a matter of how we get there. Everyone wants regulations; the governor wants regulations, hemp businesses want regulations, cannabis dispensaries want regulations,” Ford said. “Now we have to negotiate what regulations look like.”
Katz said there is a possibility that some legislation for regulation will be presented during the next session in Springfield. He added that he’s working on this in collaboration with Ford.
In detailing his experience with the opening process for the store, Parnell said Ümi had to receive approval from the Chicago City Council and the council’s zoning committee. The dispensary got approval in 2023, though some Lincoln Park neighbors were opposed to its opening because of its proximity to Jonquil Park.
“There’s no legal mechanism for the community to do anything [for hemp shops], whereas we had to have a community meeting, they didn’t even need that,” Parnell said. He’s the CEO of Ümi.
Ümi established an “Adult Use Cannabis Dispensary Plan of Operation” with the community group Wrightwood Neighbors Association. The plan includes specific details for various business aspects, including operations, security, deliveries, and other guidelines.
“Shops like Chicago Cannabis, which is technically outside of the Wrightwood Neighbors Association boundary, have been brought up in conversation for both those for and against Ümi opening,” August Etsch, president of Wrightwood Neighbors Association, wrote in an emailed statement to The TRiiBE. “In fact, I’d say that one of the big reasons that many felt that Ümi should have the opportunity to open was because shops like Chicago Cannabis are legally able to open and operate outside of the much stricter rules that a traditional dispensary, like Ümi, must abide by.”
Pike says she has joined the Alliance of Independent Cannabis Entrepreneurs to ask policymakers at the state level to regulate intoxicating hemp products. Parnell serves as the alliance’s treasurer.
“I just hope that everything is fair. I hope that the state recognizes how dangerous intoxicating hemp is to public safety and also to social equity applicants, and social equity business owners who did everything by the book,” Pike said. “We really took a risk and put everything that we own on the line. I just feel like everything should be fair and equitable.”
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