Political figures blamed for blocking legislation supported by Gov. JB Pritzker to impose strict regulations on intoxicating hemp products accepted campaign contributions from people and groups affiliated with the industry in the months leading up to the showdown, records show.
Among the recipients: Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, a Hillside Democrat who refused to call the Pritzker-backed measure for a vote this month despite likely having enough support among legislators for it to pass.
The Council for the Safe Regulation of Delta, which includes members of the industry who fought Pritzker’s plan, gave $10,000 in October to one of Welch’s campaign funds, People for Emanuel Chris Welch, according to elections records.
Charles Wu, a lobbyist for the Illinois Hemp Business Association who’s also part of the council, donated another $9,000 to the same campaign fund on the same day.
A company called Organic Pharma Techs LLC that’s part of the business association gave another $10,000 to Welch on the same day, records show.
Wu donated $450 in August to another political fund overseen by Welch.
Lobbyist Dan Shomon, who’s been hired to work for another Wu firm, Nexem Inc., made two $500 campaign donations to Welch in 2024, one in June and one in September, records show.
Another lobbying firm representing Nexem gave Welch $1,000 in October.
While those figures pale in comparison to political donations from the cannabis industry in recent years, the hemp lobby’s contributions came as the long-running delta-8 debate reached a fever pitch in Springfield.
“Both hemp and cannabis organizations, who are on opposite sides of this issue, have contributed to many different campaigns,” Wu said. “With millions of dollars being spent on campaigns in Illinois, it is hard to believe that a few relatively minor contributions would influence someone’s major policy positions.”
Marijuana sales and production are heavily regulated by the state following legalization several years ago. But products derived from hemp that can make people feel high — including delta-8 — are completely unregulated and for sale at numerous retail outlets in Chicago and beyond.
State Sen. Kimberly Lightford, a Maywood Democrat, sponsored a measure to hold hemp businesses to the same costly, lengthy licensing requirements as cannabis dispensaries — effectively shutting down scores of businesses that have proliferated not only with sales of delta-8, but also non-intoxicating products like CBD oil.
Pritzker made it a legislative priority as an important consumer protection given that minors have easy access to the unregulated intoxicating hemp products. Hemp businesses argue the real intent was to eliminate competition for big cannabis companies.
Even though the bill sailed through the Illinois Senate and appeared to have enough backing in the House, Welch refused to call it for a vote, following a policy of only bringing legislation to the floor if it has the backing of at least 60 members in his 78-member Democratic supermajority.
There was heavy opposition from state Reps. La Shawn Ford and Theresa Mah, both Chicago Democrats who floated an alternative proposal favored by the hemp industry. Their approach would have limited sales to people 21 or older, prohibited name-brand lookalike packaging that can appeal to kids and required manufacturers to undergo product testing to obtain licenses.
The Illinois Hemp Business Association gave Ford’s campaign $5,000 in November, and $1,000 to Mah’s campaign in October and another $1,000 in August, records show.
“I’ve gotten campaign contributions from the cannabis industry, too, and they were opposed to my bill,” Ford said. “It doesn’t run the way I do things.”
Mah said she doesn’t give “favoritism to any particular advocate just because they’ve made a contribution.”
The ICANN political action committee, which is linked to the Cannabis Business Association of Illinois that pushed Lightford’s bill, has contributed at least $285,000 to lawmakers on both sides of the aisle since 2020, including $175,000 to a campaign fund benefiting state Senate President Don Harmon, an Oak Park Democrat.
ICANN, which is funded by corporate pot giants like Cresco and PharmaCann, has given $57,000 to Welch’s campaign, including a $25,000 contribution in December 2023. The committee has also given $2,000 apiece to Lightford and Ford.
After the hemp regulation bill died in the General Assembly’s lame-duck session, Pritzker claimed the “vast majority” of House Democrats and Republicans would have approved the measure, saying its demise demonstrated “the power of special interests and the money that they spread around to thwart the health and safety of the public.”
The billionaire governor who championed Illinois’ cannabis legalization also lobbed major campaign cash in October, sending contributions of $50,000 apiece to dozens of Democratic lawmakers — including more than $2 million to funds controlled by Welch.
Mayor Brandon Johnson also opposed the Lightford-Pritzker legislation, citing a potential loss of revenue.
The debate has shifted to the city, where Ald. William Hall (6th), a Johnson ally, is pitching a plan to regulate hemp shops, while Alds. Marty Quinn (13th) and Silvana Tabares (23rd) successfully introduced an ordinance banning sales in their wards.
Nicholas Jackson of DNA Strategies, a lobbying firm that just recently began representing Wu’s hemp association for interactions with City Hall, gave $1,000 in July to a group called Leaders for Tomorrow — whose leaders include an O’Hare Airport contractor and has contributed heavily to Johnson.
Jackson says he knows one of the Leaders for Tomorrow executives, so his donation “had nothing to do” with anything other than helping that longtime friend.