As Congress took action to resume government operations, the legislation included a late provision to ban intoxicating hemp products, which would largely eliminate an industry that’s been estimated to generate sales of nearly $3 billion annually. Hemp businesses have been criticized for, in some cases, selling untested, mislabeled and potentially hazardous products to minors and adults, resulting in warnings from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The federal action comes after Illinois lawmakers, caught between the licensed cannabis industry, which favored a ban, and hemp businesses, which sought regulation, failed to act on the issue.
Gov. JB Pritzker had supported a proposal that would have in effect banned the existing hemp industry, even threatening to take executive action on his own, if necessary. The Senate approved such a measure, but House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch didn’t call it for a vote because it didn’t have enough support to pass with a supermajority of 60 votes. Lawmakers failed to enact even an age limit, which led to some cases of high schoolers being taken to hospitals after ingesting hemp products.
“While special interests and Illinois House legislators stopped this important legislation, Governor Pritzker has always supported advancing these safety measures and bringing the intoxicating hemp industry into the state’s existing system of cannabis dispensaries that are regulated, safe, and equitable,” Pritzker’s office stated. “In the absence of action in Springfield, Governor Pritzker supports policies to protect people, including children, from being misinformed or harmed by these products.”
Hemp business owners said the ban would likely put them out of business, along with the thousands of jobs they provided. CBD sales and licensed cannabis dispensaries would remain in business under state law, though cannabis remains illegal under federal law.
Glenn McElfresh, CEO of Plift, a THC beverage company based in Chicago, and co-founder of Perfectly Dosed, which makes THC emulsion to put into beverages, feared the ban would hurt people he knows and others who drink THC to keep alcoholism at bay.
“No doubt there are public health concerns, but prohibition has never been good for public health,” McElfresh said. “We’re all about sensible regulation. This clearly goes too far.”
In Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration had proposed setting standards for hemp manufacturing, contents, packaging, marketing, licensing and taxation. In his proposed budget, he had counted on $10 million in tax revenue from some 1,900 locations that sell hemp in Chicago.
Because of uncertainty over the federal legislation, the mayor’s office removed the hemp revenue from the budget and was talking with aldermen to fill the tax gap.
“Instead of regulating hemp, as we do with marijuana, this legislation has the potential to create the conditions for an underground market which would be unregulated and unsafe,” the mayor’s press office stated. “The mayor’s top priority is to ensure that hemp consumption is regulated and safe in the city of Chicago.”
Hemp comes from the same cannabis plant that produces marijuana, but was defined in the 2018 federal Farm Bill as having less than .3% delta-9 THC. But hemp processors figured out how to derive alternate cannabinoids such as delta-8 and delta-10 THC that got users high, or found other ways around the limit.
As a result, from 2021 to 2025, America’s Poison Centers managed 10,434 delta-8 THC-related exposure cases, many of which involved children. Symptoms included drowsiness, vomiting, confusion, hallucinations, and uncoordinated movements, such as difficulty walking. Severe toxicity has been associated with changes in heart rate, low blood pressure, difficulty breathing and coma.
The Cannabis Business Association of Illinois, whose state-licensed members must follow hundreds of pages of regulations including testing and labeling products for contaminants and potency had long sought to rein in hemp sales.
In September, Executive Director Tiffany Chappell Ingram repeated her call for strict regulation of hemp.
“This action ends years of imbalance between tightly regulated cannabis operators and an unregulated intoxicating hemp marketplace,” she told the Tribune. “But the work isn’t over. During the one-year transition, Illinois must protect residents by ensuring that these unregulated intoxicating hemp products do not harm the people of Illinois.”
Hemp business owners were waiting to see what they could salvage of their business under the new limits, which include a non-intoxicating maximum of .4 milligrams of THC per product container. President Donald Trump has indicated he would sign the bill to end the shutdown. The hemp ban would take effect in about a year.
Charles Wu, owner of Chi’tiva, which operates two hemp stores in Chicago, had previously shut down his hemp manufacturing business and two stores due to uncertainty over the future.
The hemp issue, he said, got caught up in the much larger controversy over the government shutdown. Besides his business, he said, the ban will affect farmers who grow hemp, as well as grocery stores, liquor stores, gas stations and convenience stores that sell hemp edibles, flower and vapes, generally at lower prices than licensed dispensaries.
“It’s definitely a roller coaster,” he said. “We were feeling really good with the Chicago ordinance (to regulate hemp). We’ve been seeing positive momentum in Illinois. This is another example of government overreach.”
Anti-cannabis activists welcomed the ban. Kevin Sabet, president and CEO of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, issued a statement saying in part, “That this was ever legal, even temporarily, was a travesty; that Congress has now put the interest of the people above corporate profits is a triumph.”
