>> move >> to ban the sale of hemp products in Chicago has several older people lit up.

13th Ward Alderman Marty Quinn has criticized the recent rise of smoke shops, calling them, quote, shady storefronts that, quote, prey on kids with products that look like Candy.

He's proposed ordinance banning the sale of hemp-derived cannabinoid products in the city passed out of committee last week but is drawing sharp criticism from the folks who make and sell him.

Joining us for more are James Swartz, a professor in the college of Social Work at University of Illinois, Chicago.

Josh owner of Revolution Brewing a Chicago based craft brewery and Knicks alderman for the 38th Ward.

We also reached out to a number of the proposed ordinances supporters and city council.

But they declined.

Gentlemen, we welcome the 3 of you back.

2 Chicago tonight.

I'm James words.

Let's start with you.

How did hemp-derived products become so popular and why aren't they regulated the same way as marijuana?

>> Well, it all goes back to the Agricultural Improvement act of 2018, which is now commonly referred to as the farming.

The legislators were interested in carving out a niche for hemp producers so that they wouldn't be fed they wouldn't experience the same problems that cannabis, which is illegal under DEA.

So they removed it.

They removed hemp from that definition of cannabis.

And in the DEA scheduling drugs and what they put in the farm act to try and prevent hemp producers from producing intoxicating drugs was a restriction that the THC level THC being the psychoactive ingredient in hemp products.

The get you high, they put a restriction on the percent.

0.4% by dry weight, which is very minor mountain with would not affect, wouldn't have high.

Make it make you feel high.

What happened was that so that created this hemp industry?

Right?

And what happened was they didn't anticipate that enterprising chemist would find ways around that.

And this created this was called a loophole whereby they've been able to concentrate and you can get a bit of a high.

>> Off of hemp products more than a bit that's right.

so there was no effective regulation Hemp was removed from the scheduling drugs.

There was no effective regulation as there was with cannabis.

And that's how we got here.

So some states like Illinois have legalized recreational cannabis, of course, but they did not foresee that these types of hemp products would be the products that we know how have on store shelves like products that look like candy or snack food, correct?

And colorful packaging, correct Madgen, right?

So products are subject to the same regulation that the cannabis products are.

And that's that's true.

And that's why these stores have been able to proliferate without having to licensing restrictions.

That cannabis dispensary Stu.

So you see lots so there just is no regulation of these products at all at any level at any level.

Josh, you oppose prohibition, but you support the regulation of hemp products.

What kind of hemp products does revolution brewing produce and distribute so grand as we started making a beverage line called reverb about 6 months ago.

>> After a kind of studying doing our research for over a year and we saw a low dosage beverages with both CBD and THC in them.

>> Both those can happen a degree come from the hemp plant and they're very low potency, but they've become pretty mainstream in today's world and we're selling them through our her beer distributors.

We're selling them to stores with liquor licenses that are already carting for people to be.

21 and people are enjoying them.

They look at them as an alternative to alcohol at times they're on the low.

Putin sees, you know, spectrum of what we're talking about here today.

And we think there's a place for them in check out, especially as like sober curiosity, miss that word.

>> I'm sort of increases in popularity.

I imagine for a company like yours.

It is.

It is interesting and useful to sort of experiment with a different product.

that's right.

Around the corner here.

So the timing of this ban is.

>> We were looking to appeal to people looking for and alternative that time of year.

We've had a lot of people come to us and say, you know, used to drink your beer and eyes slowed by drinking or stop drinking a few years ago.

And thanks for making these hemp beverages.

We really enjoy drinking these.

>> Alderman I know you're a member of the committee on License and Consumer Protection.

You voted against the ordinance.

Describe your thought process had to write well.

My thought process I actually came into the meeting.

Very open-minded.

My mind was that made My colleague was talking to me quite often about it.

I just want to hear what the people and to say.

And once I was there and I felt pretty owners like Josh, even though Jackson get to speak.

>> Many people there had the same.

Presses business owners that built up a business legitimate business owners as an alternative for.

Xcel College.

People want to drink anymore to something.

Thank God I'm something, make them feel better.

It was a hard thing.

So I I did not support of >> Have you heard complaints or what have you heard from residents?

yet heard anything from anybody?

I mean, you know, kind of the same page about know my colleague is very concerned about stuff in the grocery stores and gas stations.

Whatever else that appeals to kids.

>> So he's working on a compromise on but in your ward, no complaints about cubes on my colleagues, I think and 7 or 8 of my colleagues, Van der Sentir Ward.

I was not one of them.

I was never an issue in my community.

So I just didn't want destroyed.

A small business that are literally trying to do the right thing.

>> James, you've said that the health risks soaps associated with hemp-derived cannabis products about the same as those associated with marijuana to write products.

What are some of those health concerns and from which products in particular?

>> The high-potency things like vapes edibles in particular for children what we but to the extent we're able to track that, what the problems these products are causing and it's difficult because essentially what you have is exactly the same drug.

You have THC in both cannabis and hemp.

And so when someone shows up in emergency departments as you poisoning a cook, took an edible.

They may not be able to discriminate that it was hemp versus cannabis.

But we are seeing is a very distinct rise in poisonings among pediatric cases.

So one to 11 year-olds primarily getting into the edibles of their parents or caretakers and showing up either at the emergency department or calling into the Illinois Poison Center.

Those those have been primarily been causing the problems that we see.

>> Just describe if you would like sort of the rise in popularity around sort innovating, you know, hemp-derived cannabinoid products and how businesses are responding.

>> Yeah, just to share the history of it since the farm bill passed was actually the state of Minnesota who acted first to legalize these have beverages and the league like as well.

But a low dosages and they did not have recreational marijuana in place at that time.

They do now.

But that really led to a lot of the local breweries seeing that as an opportunity, learn more about this, making these beverages and really finding a market up in Minnesota, you can go into a target and by having beverages.

That's how mainstream it's gotten up.

There.

And we're seeing it fall pretty quickly here in Illinois.

It's a wide variety of customers that are getting into these beverages that the reselling at 5.10 miligrams first as like my local dispensary, those lowest thing they selling a beverage format is 100 milligrams.

And that's not something that I would like to consume personally.

But maybe there's a market out there for that.

So it's a whole different market that these lower doses beverages that we make our meeting right now.

Josh, what types of regulations would you like to see?

>> Yeah, definitely here to call for So we we sell as a brewery.

We work with all levels of government.

We work with in the 3 tier system of regulation that was put in place after prohibition.

We're a manufacturer primarily as a brewery.

We somos or beer straight to a beer distributor and they warehouse said they pay the taxes to the state.

They collect the taxes from retailer on behalf of the city and the county and they deliver it to someone with a liquor license.

They verify that the place has an active liquor license.

and that's the kind of system that we need to put in place.

And I think it's exactly what we should do it, but it's a good model in the cannabis sector.

There's a similar type of regulatory framework in place to regulate everything.

And that's the kind of framework that have in place that has safeguards in there to make sure that stores are selling to anyone under 21 plus, before time, 20 seconds, Alderman, do you think your vote on the head band will be the same by the time this makes it check out following question.

Pretty level-headed guy, I'm sure will come up with something to.

>> help businesses like Jashun and resolve this and keep it to keep this stuff out of hands of kids.

So yes, I will be think there's an outright ban on working on a compromise right now.

pretty confident I'll be able to support, OK?

All right.

That's what we'll