Chicago aldermen approved a sweeping ban Wednesday outlawing unlicensed businesses in the city from selling all but a few hemp products.
The ordinance passed in a 32-to-16 vote. But following the City Council meeting, Mayor Brandon Johnson said he has “serious concerns about this measure,” warning that it will hurt small businesses and “inevitably create a black market” for the products.
Asked whether he will veto the package, Johnson said “I have not made a decision yet, but when we enact policy, I think it’s important that we do it right, that we do it well.” He said he will continue to have conversations with aldermen and stakeholders. It would take 34 votes to override a mayoral veto.
The new regulations are set to take effect April 1, giving Johnson and aldermen a few months to try to negotiate changes or for the mayor to move ahead with the veto before hemp sellers have to remove products from their shelves.
Proponents have argued the often marijuana-like hemp products that can get users high are dangerous to children, while hemp’s defenders said the ban is an overly broad crackdown.
“I think we found a path forward that ensures our kids are protected and safe, and that’s the bottom line,” chief sponsor Ald. Marty Quinn, 13th, said.
Also looming over the debate is a so-far undefined national ban on hemp products, some of which were made legal through a federal loophole.
The ban includes several exceptions. It does not outlaw hemp topicals and animal products. It also allows for hemp beverages to continue to be sold by many Chicago taverns, restaurants and liquor stores.
Ald. Maria Hadden, 49th, praised Quinn for trying to find middle ground on the measure, but argued the ordinance could harm lots of small businesses that make up a growing hemp industry.
“They have been clever, they have been creative, and we’ve had strong entrepreneurs build whole businesses around CBD and hemp products, especially a lot of minority-owned businesses that were shut out by the larger cannabis space,” she said.
Hadden, recently back from an extended medical leave, said CBD products that she has taken offer health benefits — not intoxication — but now could be banned.
“CBD and the broad spectrum products do have a lot of healing benefits for people. Whether it’s for anxiety, whether it’s for PTSD, whether it’s for inflammation, there are a lot of products,” she said.
Like Hadden, Ald. Daniel La Spata, 1st, opposed the ordinance by noting the beverage exception allows for products generally viewed as intoxicating but safe to continue to be sold.
“It’s all being digested, but it’s legal if you drink it with a straw, and it’s illegal if you chew it with your mouth,” La Spata said. “I can’t square that.”
But supporters of the measure said it finally created much-needed regulations after years of inaction, even if the rules eventually change. The measure “gives us a clean slate,” Ald. Raymond Lopez, 15th, said.
“Is it perfect for keeping good actors whole? No. But does it address the large-scale bad actors that we see? Yes,” he said. “That’s the starting point we need.”
The ordinance immediately bans sales to Chicagoans under 21 years old. The broader ban goes into effect at the start of April.
Also Wednesday, Ald. Brian Hopkins, 2nd, opted not to hold a vote on his ordinance designed to crack down on large teen gatherings.
Hopkins had previously proposed an ordinance giving the city’s police superintendent the power to implement a teen curfew anywhere, anytime with a 12-hour notice. But Wednesday, he brought forward a substitute ordinance just moments before it would have faced a final vote.
The downtown alderman told colleagues his new proposal would allow police to order teens to disperse from unruly gatherings and allow teens to be apprehended, without charge, if they did not quickly leave after such an order.
As debate ensued, colleagues who have long backed Hopkins’ now yearslong push for broader powers to restrict teen gatherings blasted the last-second proposal as a bad replacement. Ald. Matt O’Shea, 19th, warned the new measure could lead to lawsuits against the city and described it as toothless.
“If we’ve got a situation downtown like we did a few weeks ago where a child went to the morgue instead of going home, what does this do?” he said. “This is just something to placate.”
After O’Shea’s pushback, Hopkins said he would not move ahead with a vote.
Also Wednesday, Wrigleyville Ald. Bennett Lawson, 44th, moved ahead in an effort to establish himself as permanent chair of the council’s powerful Zoning Committee.
Lawson has run the committee as its interim leader for months as Johnson struggles to find someone who can win a council majority, but pledged last month to not hold more meetings until a permanent chair was chosen.
Lawson said he believes he has a majority. Asked if he will hold a Zoning Committee meeting in February after not calling one this month, he responded: “We’ll see.”
“There’s a lot of conversations that continue to happen, but we need to get this resolved one way or another,” he said.
