illi News - The Real Story Behind the Hemp Bill- Open Letter to Chicago Tribune - Response to Editorial

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The bill, positioned as "regulation" to "protect children", falsely portraying the hemp industry as an unregulated army of bad actors. News coverage has been drenched in hyperbole kindled by a powerful marijuana lobby seeking a monopoly.

CHICAGO - illiNews -- The following is an open letter to the Chicago Tribune in response to their editorial ("Brandon Johnson puts Chicago kids at risk by helping kill Springfield hemp crackdown," published on January 8, 2025.

Subject matter experts and attentive elected officials in Springfield prevented a flawed, anti-hemp, pro-marijuana bill (HB4293) from being forced through the lame duck session. Headlines sensationalized a fight between the Mayor and the Governor while failing to scrutinize the deep gulf between how supporters described the bill in public versus what the bill actually contained.

Positioned as "regulation" to "protect children" while falsely portraying the entire hemp industry as an unregulated army of bad actors, coverage has been drenched in hyperbole kindled by a powerful marijuana lobby seeking a monopoly on the same inaccurately described "synthetic" and "poisonous" hemp products they seek to only be available exclusively in their dispensaries.

There is a concerted effort to point fingers by falsely portraying a "powerful hemp lobby" as manipulating the legislative process. The "hemp lobby," is largely composed of responsible small business owners and family farmers who desperately want responsible regulation to eliminate bad actors selling illegitimate products. To make our voices heard in opposition, industry leaders have begun to organize in fighting for both survival and the implementation of appropriate regulation.

As founders of Cubbington's Cabinet, a wellness retail business in Roscoe Village specializing in carefully vetted plant-based wellness products, including hemp-derived cannabinoids like CBD, we feel compelled to address the misrepresentations surrounding this bill and the issues it raised. The Tribune's recent editorial ("Brandon Johnson puts Chicago kids at risk by helping kill Springfield hemp crackdown," Jan. 8, 2025) amplified this mischaracterization. For years, we have been steadfast advocates for sensible regulation within the hemp industry. While we fully support the implementation of robust regulations to protect children and consumers, HB4293 was not that.

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For hemp businesses and consumers, this fight was not about the politics of the Mayor versus the Governor. This fight was a multi-year effort in pursuit of a fair and equitable policy development process and the need for effective regulation that truly protects consumers by setting strict age restrictions and clear product quality and labeling standards. It was about safeguarding our mission-oriented business and ensuring our community can continue accessing the essential wellness products they rely on. HB4293 was not about targeted regulation of a small subset of illegitimate and counterfeit products. Instead, it would have effectively banned mainstream hemp wellness products, such as CBD, from being available in Illinois and would have forced the closure of many responsible businesses that sell federally legal hemp products. It was a blanket ban camouflaged as targeted regulation.

The bill also contained technical inaccuracies and scientifically unsound definitions that would have created devastating outcomes. For example, it proposed unattainable processing limits, effectively criminalizing all hemp extraction in Illinois. Its broad definitions would have banned virtually all hemp products, including CBD topicals and pet products. Most egregiously, the bill included a special exemption for the alcohol industry while simultaneously shutting down hemp companies and conscientious businesses like ours. These flaws would have incentivized the illicit market, hurt our economy, and benefited out-of-state businesses at the expense of Illinois business.

For several years, we tried, in vain, to gain a seat at the table to help craft reasonable regulation. Instead of including us in policy discussions, we were left out and expected to accept the demise of an industry and the business we painstakingly built. The sponsors of HB4293 may point to required legal meetings as "negotiation," but there was no meaningful exchange or effort made to address our concerns. The only negotiation we are aware of happened behind closed doors with the influential beverage lobby to allow sodas with 10mg of Delta-9 THC to be sold at liquor establishments, without childproof containers, which might then be placed in family refrigerators next to cans of Pepsi.

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As HB4293 was pushed through the Illinois Senate at the end of the spring session, legislators were misled about the complex bill's contents. This led to a near-unanimous passage in the Senate despite the public submitting 773 witness slips opposing the bill compared to only 32 in favor. The clear public outcry against the bill was overlooked and discounted.

We are profoundly thankful that, for the first time this lame duck session, some politicians and staffers engaged with us — even examining our line-by-line analysis of the bill. They saw its many flaws and recognized that the realities of this bill did not match the "protect kids" narrative. Courageous leaders amongst them asked tough questions and stood up against intense political pressure to support it.

We are humbled to have witnessed the best of our democratic process play out this week in Springfield, and we're relieved that a bad bill did not pass. We ask that legislators take immediate action to pass age restrictions to protect children. Meanwhile, we ask legislative leaders and the Governor to collaborate with us in crafting regulation that ensures products on the market follow strict quality testing standards, are accurately and appropriately labelled, and provide a reasonable taxation structure to benefit the people of Illinois.

Sincerely,
Jennifer Weiss, Ph.D. & Jeremy Dedic
Cofounders, Cubbington's Cabinet
Chicago, IL