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, likely ending a long-running legislative feud supercharged by the burgeoning hemp businesses that want to keep operating and marijuana companies that believe cheaper, unregulated hemp undercuts their sales.

Proponents 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 on small businesses.

“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.

But it’s still not clear whether Mayor Brandon Johnson will veto the measure.

The mayor has not taken a clear stance on the ban, but has urged aldermen to instead pass narrower regulations as several City Council allies voted against the measure and delayed its passage. 34 votes in favor of the measure would be needed to override a mayoral veto.

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 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 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 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 on Wednesday, he brought forward a substitute ordinance just moments before it would have faced a final vote.

The downtown alderman told his 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 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.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/21/hemp-products-curtailed-in-chicago-city-council/