Oak Park’s ordinance imposing an age limit on the sales of hemp-derived THC products and kratom went into effect June 1.
The village’s board of trustees passed an ordinance in March that banned the sale of those products to anyone under the age of 21, banned the use of images likely to appeal to children in packaging for the products and set hefty fines for businesses that violate the ordinance. With the ordinance in effect, Oak Park became the latest Chicagoland community to set its own regulations on the substances, which are sold in a “grey market” across much of the United States.
The move came months after village health officials recommended an outright ban on the sale of the substances, but the board favored a regulatory approach focused on keeping the products out of the hands of children.
The ordinance does not impose a special tax on the products or require businesses selling the products to pay for a license fee to sell them. Village staff are drafting proposals including both of those things to present to the board soon, with the funds from the license fees expected to pay for enforcement of the ordinance, according to the village.
The most common form of hemp-derived THC products sold in Oak Park is delta-8 THC, which is chemically very similar to the primary psychoactive compound found in marijuana, and produces similar feelings of euphoria and relaxation, according to the village.
The market for the products exists as a result of the 2018 Farm Bill which made the sale of hemp products federally legal so long as they contained less than 0.3% by dry weight of THC, the chemical in marijuana that gives it its psychoactive properties.
While this provision opened the door for the boom in the market for non-psychoactive CBD products, it also created a loophole for an industry to sell products chemically engineered to provide the “high” of marijuana that didn’t surpass the federal 0.3% THC limit.
The Village of Elk Grove became the first Illinois community to ban businesses from selling unregulated THC products after reports that a store in the community had knowingly sold an 11-year-old a psychoactive product. In March, Trustee Chibuike Enyia said that he’d heard from constituents that similar things have been happening in Oak Park.
“There are business owners that have already shown they’re willing and able to take those first steps forward, but we also have to find the bad actors who are doing this. And I can tell you I know where some of them are,” he said. “I was approached by a mom the other day who said, ‘I followed my son, watched him go purchase this, go right out of the store and begin to smoke right after he walked out of the store.’”
In communications associated with the new ordinance, Oak Park officials published an image of delta-8 THC products packaged to look like popular snack foods and candies, a practice expressly banned by the new ordinance over how the packaging appeals to children.
A state bill last year sought to enforce an age limit of 21 for hemp-derived THC products but stalled out to make it to a final vote before the end of the legislative session. The bill fell apart along fault lines within the state Democratic party, with Gov. JB Pritzker saying the episode spoke to the sway that monied special interest groups can have on what legislation gets passed.
Kratom is another unregulated plant-based substance, often sold in the same tobacco shops and convenience stores as hemp-derived THC products. The state of Illinois already imposes an age limit of 18 on kratom sales, but the ordinance will raise that limit to 21 in Oak Park.
Kratom is known to produce an opioid-like effect in high doses and a stimulant-like effect in small doses, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
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