Hemp

In a Springfield debate that pits big cannabis companies against the burgeoning hemp industry, all agree weedlike products such as delta-8 should be kept away from kids. So why haven’t lawmakers figured out how to regulate them?

State lawmakers who stood in the way of recent legislation that would’ve regulated intoxicating hemp products have received significant campaign cash from the industry — while some backers of the proposal got money from the rival marijuana industry.

Sales of the weedlike substances have increased, in part thanks to a loophole in federal law, prompting smoke shops that sell unregulated products to minors to pop up.

Lincoln University in Missouri is heading a USDA-funded project researching the commodity, but its prohibition created high hurdles for getting the crop off the ground.

A legislative committee and the Illinois Department of Agriculture agreed recently to delay finalizing new regulations governing hemp production amid an outcry of protests from small, independent producers.

Corn and soybean fields as far as the eye can see are the typical sights of summer throughout rural areas of Illinois. But next year, 'fields of green'...