Chicago has decided to implement a ban on hemp-derived THC products even before any amendment to the 2018 Farm Bill becomes law. However, there is a caveat: the city is still allowing hemp-derived THC beverages.
I didn’t even know about this until attending a Cannabis Equity IL Coalition (CEIC) Zoom meeting last week.
Banning “Gas Station Weed”
I actually believe the ban on “gas station weed” is a good thing. I’ve worked in many commercial cannabis grows at the state level, and even within regulated systems I witnessed some extremely shady practices. This was in Colorado, where we had the MED — the Marijuana Enforcement Division. This state government agency operated as a subsidiary of the state police and was tasked with ensuring cannabis was responsibly grown.
The goal was not only to create barriers to diversion out of state, but also — allegedly — to protect consumers from unsafe products.
In practice, this was somewhat of a joke. I don’t know whether the MED was corrupt or simply lacked the bandwidth to catch everything (most likely the latter), but I can say from firsthand experience that a lot of toxic products still made it onto the legal market.
The reason I bring this up is simple: if a state-sanctioned industry, with a dedicated third-party enforcement division — something many states don’t even have — couldn’t catch everything, what do we expect from an industry that exists solely because of an exploited loophole in the 2018 Farm Bill?
It’s safe to assume the checks and balances are even more lax.
Liquor Licenses Only
In Chicago, retailers must now have a liquor license to sell hemp-derived THC drinks. Let’s dissect that for a moment. You need a license to sell poison in order to sell THC — a compound that is often medicine. Whether it remains medicine once you inject a Red Bull with THC is debatable, but I digress.
Even the term “budtender” says a lot about how society views people who work in dispensaries. Cannabis is still treated as just another vice — something that needs to be gated and controlled rather than respected as plant-based medicine.
After attending the CEIC Zoom call this past week, much of the sentiment echoed how cannabis was legalized in Illinois to begin with. Large corporations — armed with legal teams and political influence — get local governments to bend to their will. That’s the real game.
Certain companies, such as Green Thumb Industries, are well positioned under these rules. They operate dispensaries but also produce beverages. In fact, GTI’s CEO is an heir to the Jim Beam fortune. I’m sure he’s more than happy that his THC drinks can still be sold in gas stations and convenience stores.
How the EU is Different
I often reference Europe because the EU does not allow many of the additives and practices in food production that the FDA and USDA permit in the United States.
Germany has taken cannabis distribution even further. There, medical cannabis is only available through pharmacies, and it goes through levels of quality control I can only dream about in the U.S.
So whether it’s hemp-derived or cannabis-derived, you can pretty much count on the United States doing whatever it can to prop up large corporations, disenfranchise minority communities, and poison all of us — regardless of race or social class.
Grow your own.
One love.
