Mayor Brandon Johnson’s veto of a city hemp ban has its chief sponsor wondering why.
“The mayor’s actions on my hemp ordinance really defies logic,” Alderman Marty Quinn (13th) said Feb. 16. “When you start vetoing compromise ordinances, and it’s not just Marty Quinn and the 13th Ward, but me plus 31 other alders that supported the ordinance to keep these dodgy storefronts from selling products to kids off-market in the City of Chicago, you’re defying logic.”
The hemp ban was approved 32-16 on Jan. 21. It would have allowed hemp beverages, additives to beverages and topical products while banning edibles like gummies and infused baked goods.
The ordinance targeted unregulated hemp products — particularly edibles marketed to look like candy — that have flooded Chicago since a 2018 federal loophole legalized hemp derivatives containing less than 0.3% THC.
Ward specific total bans on cannabinoid sales are already in place in Quinn’s 13th and Alderman Silvana Tabares’ 23rd wards. They are not affected by Mayor Johnson’s veto.
Quinn also thinks it’s possible the mayor’s decision to veto the compromise ordinance could backfire.
“There are seven other wards … that already have a ban in the mix, depending on what stage they are in,” he said. “Back to defying logic, theoretically, the mayor could have 32 [ward] bans across the entire city.”
The impetus for the initial ward-specific Midway hemp ban in the 13th and 23rd wards, done in partnership with Tabares, was based on “anecdotal information that kids from Kennedy High School were getting their hands on this product,” Quinn said.
“After that took place, a lot of the other alders had come to me asking for help on how to do a ban like ours in their wards; but it all stemmed from Kennedy High School kids getting their hands on unregulated, untested hemp products,” he said.
Johnson’s veto will be moot come November when a law kicks into effect that reasserts federal controls over certain hemp products.
“The irony, right, is the mayor is now going to rely on the federal government to tell the city what to do,” Quinn said. “I mean, come on. And let’s not forget this whole industry was created by a loophole from 2018. Who knows what the federal government is going to do? Who knows?”
Any unintended consequences from harm to children after November are the Mayor’s responsibility, he said.
“I’m at a loss,” he said. “I’m trying to figure out why the Mayor does what he does. This will have an adverse impact on the City of Chicago.”