Billionaire Illinois Governor JB Pritzker has been using his outsized influence to promote a bill, IL HB 4293, that will decimate the state’s hemp industry. If it passes, the bill will place all products containing intoxicating cannabinoids, including ones that are hemp-derived, under the Illinois Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act (CRTA). The CRTA legalized adult-use cannabis in 2019. In effect, HB 4293 will take away the hard-earned market for hemp products from the state’s hemp industry and give it to the state’s marijuana industry.
HB 4293’s short history is convoluted and a little difficult to follow. It was unanimously passed by the Illinois House in April. Strangely, this does not indicate support in the House to kill the state’s hemp industry. This is because the House version of the bill dealt solely with massage therapy misconduct. However, rather than pass the massage therapy bill, the Senate completely replaced the bill’s language and replaced it with the Hemp Consumer Products Act, which it passed in May 2024. The newly re-written bill is now back in the House and may get attention in the “lame duck session” as soon as January 4.
Governor Pritzker, who in a federal lawsuit is alleged to have deep connections with the Illinois marijuana industry, is apparently lobbying hard to put the hemp industry out of business. I have heard from reputable sources that he is going so far as to “call in favors” from House members that he has helped in the past to convince them to vote in favor of HB 4293. He stated the following about the hemp industry during a December 13 press release:
“This regulatory gray area has created a loophole that put Illinois consumers of all ages, but particularly children, in danger while an underground market flourished—the exact opposite of what Illinois has done by regulating our cannabis industry. We’re closing that loophole and protecting Illinoisans of all ages by incorporating these products into the regulated and equitable system of dispensaries already in place in the state.”
The hemp industry is not an “underground market”. It is a lawful, regulated market that has existed in Illinois for almost a decade. Additionally, and as has become typical for politicians who promote anti-hemp legislation, the issue of “safety” was front and center during Pritzker’s press conference. However, the real issue in Illinois is not regulation of hemp products for safety, which the state’s hemp industry supports. Rather, the problem is that HB 4293 is not a “hemp regulation” bill so much as a “kill hemp” bill. If passed, it will shutter thousands of small hemp businesses, eliminate thousands of jobs, and give hemp products to the marijuana industry. In other words, according to Governor Pritzker, products that are “unsafe” when sold by federally lawful hemp businesses are “safe” when sold by federally illegal marijuana businesses. That doesn’t make sense.
Aside from being patently unfair, HB 4293 is akin to a “regulatory taking” without cause or compensation. As discussed by the Legal Information Institute, a regulatory taking occurs
“when the government seizes private property for public use. A taking can come in two forms. The taking may be physical, which means that the government literally takes the property from its owner. Or the taking may be constructive (also called a regulatory taking), which means that the government restricts the owner’s rights so much that the governmental action becomes the functional equivalent of a physical seizure.”
Given the size and scope of the current legal hemp market and industry in Illinois, it is understandable why HB 4293 seems like a regulatory taking to hemp business owners on the receiving end of the bill. If it passes, the current hemp industry participants’ activities (ie, their economic rights) will be so restricted as to amount to a “seizure”. This is especially hard to swallow since those “economic rights” will be given over to the state’s marijuana industry without compensation for the taking.
All of this is to say that the Illinois hemp industry is facing an existential moment. Now is the time to contact your state representatives and encourage them to vote “no” to HB 4293. As I often discuss, it is possible and desirable to regulate hemp for safety while fostering a healthy hemp economy for the industry.
Many thanks to Charles Wu and the Illinois Hemp Business Association for all of their hard work on behalf of the hemp industry. Additionally, thanks to Chicago Alderman William Hall, who supports the hemp industry and recently stated: “Hemp is legal. Hemp is not the issue. It is the bad players that are the issues.”
December 31, 2024
Rod Kight is an international cannabis lawyer. He represents businesses throughout the cannabis industry. Additionally, Rod speaks at cannabis conferences, drafts and presents legislation to foreign governments, is regularly quoted on cannabis matters in the media, and is the editor of the Kight on Cannabis legal blog, which discusses legal issues affecting the cannabis industry. You can schedule a call with him by clicking here.
https://cannabusiness.law/governor-pritzker-is-bent-on-destroying-the-illinois-hemp-industry/
