IL hemp businesses file lawsuit to block new regulations from taking effect

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) – Illinois banned the sale of intoxicating hemp products to people under 21 in June, but a new set of hemp regulations will kick in next Thursday. Over 250 hemp businesses have signed onto a lawsuit in hopes of blocking the law from taking effect.

The Illinois Healthy Alternatives Association told WAND News Friday that hemp businesses sustain thousands of jobs and generate more than $30 million in revenue for the state.

They argue the law will immediately and unconstitutionally slam shut access to Illinois markets by out-of-state companies that cultivate, manufacture, and sell federally legal hemp-derived cannabinoids. The group also said the Hemp Act could obliterate business for thousands of Illinois farmers, infusers, distributors, and retailers who grow, manufacture, or sell hemp-derived products.

“We’re really at the penultimate moment here when things have got to come to a head,” said ILHAA President Craig Katz. “We need to have some definitive idea of what’s going to happen on Nov. 12.”

Illinois is preparing to require childproof packaging for intoxicating hemp and a ban on marketing and packaging catered to kids. The law will also ban gas stations, convenience stores, and smoke shops from selling intoxicating hemp products, as those items will only be sold in licensed dispensaries.

“Parents shouldn’t have to worry that a product containing intoxicating levels of THC is deceptively packaged as a bag of candy in a convenience store,” Gov. JB Pritzker said in July. “Consumers shouldn’t have to guess whether a product has been tested or properly labeled.”

Katz knows state lawmakers acted quickly to respond to federal changes for hemp regulations. However, he noted Congress extended the effective date of their changes to Dec. 11. That could mean there will be a one-month period where hemp products manufactured and sold by plaintiffs would be legal under federal law but illegal in Illinois.

“Best case scenario is the Attorney General agrees to respect the Dec. 11 date and says we won’t enforce until Dec. 11 and see if Congress does something or acts before that date,” Katz said.

ILHAA hopes a federal judge will grant a temporary restraining order and injunction to stop the law from taking effect. Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and directors for the Departments of Agriculture, Financial and Professional Regulation, Illinois State Police, Revenue, and Public Health were all named in the lawsuit.