Illinois cannabis industry cautious on child-safety bill, questions
focus on regulated products
[January 28, 2026]
By Cat Barker | The Center Square contributor
(The Center Square) – A newly introduced bill in the Illinois Senate
would add new child-safety education, warning labels and storage
requirements for cannabis products, prompting cautious support, and
questions, from the state’s cannabis industry.
Senate Bill 2866, sponsored by Sen. Michael Hastings, D-Frankfort, would
expand child-safety requirements for cannabis dispensaries.
Tiffany Ingram, executive director of the Cannabis Business Association
of Illinois, said the industry supports protecting children but wants
clarity on how the proposal would be implemented and what issue it is
intended to address.
“I appreciate Sen. Hastings introducing this legislation,” Ingram said.
“Of course, first and foremost, we want to make sure these products are
kept out of the hands of little people and bigger little people like
teenagers.”
Ingram said cannabis businesses are open to working with lawmakers on
child safety but emphasized that dispensaries are already subject to
extensive regulations.
“We are tightly regulated,” Ingram said. “There is a track-and-trace
system that tracks everything from seed to sale. Regulators are in our
stores several times a month, if not weekly.”
While the bill focuses on regulated cannabis, Ingram said many incidents
involving children and cannabis exposure stem from unregulated
intoxicating hemp products, such as delta-8 THC.
“What I think is interesting about this is that the products that we
often see challenges with are actually not regulated cannabis products,”
she said. “A lot of times, when you hear that a child got a hold of a
cannabis product, what they really got was an unregulated product, but
that distinction is lost on people.”
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At the federal level, Ingram noted that Congress has already acted
to close the so-called hemp loophole that allowed intoxicating hemp
products to proliferate, creating a timeline for states to unwind
those businesses.
“Congress has already spoken on this by closing the federal hemp
loophole,” she said. “By November 2026, these businesses are going
to have to start being unwound.”
Some states have moved more quickly to align with the new federal
definitions. Ingram pointed to Ohio as an example.
“You see states like Ohio and others that are already starting to
adopt the new federal definitions that closed the loophole and
starting to unwind these businesses quicker than the [2026]
requirement,” she said.
Illinois, however, has not taken similar statewide action, making it
an outlier, according to Ingram.
“Illinois has not been in that camp,” she said.
As state lawmakers debate child-safety rules for regulated cannabis,
Chicago has moved to crack down on unregulated intoxicating hemp
products. On Jan. 21, the City Council voted 32–16 to ban the sale
of most intoxicating hemp products, citing concerns the items are
marketed to minors and fall outside the state’s cannabis
regulations.
Despite her concerns, Ingram said the cannabis industry supports
education efforts aimed at preventing children from accessing
cannabis products — as long as those efforts are targeted
appropriately.
“Education is always good,” she said. “It’s just a matter of what we
are trying to solve for.”
She added that the industry wants to work with lawmakers to better
understand the intent behind the bill.
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