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Illinois SB 3222 restricts intoxicating hemp sales, expands cannabis equity measures

Published

6 hours ago

July 6, 2026

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Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed SB 3222 into law Thursday at Chicago’s SWAY Cannabis Dispensary, aiming for equity in the cannabis industry and increasing oversight of intoxicating hemp products sold outside the state’s regulated adult-use market.

The new law prohibits the sale of intoxicating hemp products, including Delta-8, THC-P and HHC, to minors. According to the governor’s office, these products have often appeared in packaging designed to appeal to children or distort their contents. From November, such products will require child-friendly packaging, and misleading marketing aimed at children will be banned. The current regulatory framework for cannabis will be extended to cover these intoxicating hemp products.

The legislation also expands patient access to medical cannabis by allowing all dispensaries in Illinois to register as medical cannabis dispensaries. Dispensaries will also be allowed to offer drive-up and curbside pickup, and the amount of marijuana they can legally possess at a time is doubled under the new rules.

For cannabis growers and infusers, the law provides hardship exemptions based on income, extending business start-up time and reducing costs. According to Pritzker, “Illinois has the most diverse and equitable cannabis industry in the country, which has created more than 16,000 new jobs and helped grow our economy.”

After legalizing recreational marijuana in 2020, Illinois cannabis rights holders have faced years of delays and bureaucratic hurdles, even as the state records billions of dollars in cannabis sales. The new legislation aims to streamline how state agencies share information, administer financial aid programs and regulate operations in the cannabis industry.

Related Topics:Cannabis Equity expands Hemp Illinois intoxicating measures restricts Sales

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Virginia Hemp Farmers And Businesses Worry About Changes Included In Newly Passed Marijuana Market Legislation

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Cannabis News

Virginia Hemp Farmers And Businesses Worry About Changes Included In Newly Passed Marijuana Market Legislation

Published

6 hours ago

July 6, 2026

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Lawmakers “want to change the law that was created to clearly favor Wall Street corporations over Virginia’s farmers and small businesses.”

Author: Charlotte Rene Woods, Virginia Mercury

A The legal cannabis market will go into effect next summer in Virginia Under the state’s latest budget, but Mannassas-based Barbara Biddle has already given her owner notice to close two of her hemp shops.

As a purveyor of hemp-infused products, his District Hemp Botanicals store sells creams, bath salts, infusions and gummies that contain CBD or THC, two chemical compounds found in cannabis and the hemp plant.

The upcoming federal hemp definition changes that come after Congress opened the door to wider hemp markets will go into effect in November of this year, while Virginia’s potential cannabis market will go into effect next July.

While CBD, short for cannabidiol, doesn’t get you high, THC, short for tetrahydrocannabinol, does.

Both ingredients have been noted for their health benefits, such as pain relief and stress or anxiety relief. THC-infused drinks have also emerged as an alternative to alcohol for those who don’t want to get completely sober. The concept has been part of Virginia’s years-long effort to establish a legal recreational cannabis market after allowing a medical prescription in 2018.

While the nation’s cannabis laws have slowly sprouted, the entrepreneurial hemp industry has taken root following Congress’s 2018 Farm Bill, which allowed hemp products with 0.3 percent THC. Late last year, however, Congress reversed course and by November many products will become illegal.

As of late June, some federal lawmakers have been seeking measures to support the hemp industry.

“There’s so much flux,” Biddle said.

With a new baby on the way, he noted that the one-in-two store scale isn’t entirely driven by Virginia’s legal limbo, but it certainly didn’t help, he said.

With Biddle’s Leesburg location closing soon, Caroline County farmer Graham Redfern is stressing about his crops during his planting season.

By fall, he said, many of his products will be illegal.

“Cannabis, which is hemp, will produce cannabinoids,” Redfern said this spring as he looks out over his fields on a rainy day when The Mercury visited. “It is impossible to create any industry in the world of industrial hemp without bringing the plant to maturity, which will produce cannabinoids, which will then become marijuana.”

Redfern and Biddle point out how they have already met strict restrictions on their industry within the state.

Tighter guardrails were put in place after a spike in calls to poison control centers from children eating what they thought were candy or people who were higher than intended. New potency thresholds and clearer labeling requirements have since been implemented after Senate Bill 903 of 2023 made state hemp laws stricter than federal ones.

This led to child safety improvements in packaging, third-party laboratory testing and product reformulation. It also contained a chemical composition where products had to contain 25 times the amount of CBD for every part of THC.

Sen. Lashrecse Aird, one of the sponsors of Virginia’s latest attempt to legalize cannabis, D-Henrico said in a statement, “Closing the 25-to-1 loophole will not prevent farmers from continuing to grow industrial hemp or continue to produce hemp products that meet Virginia’s 2 milligram THC limit.”

Instead, he said, it “faces a loophole where intoxicating products can be marketed and sold as cannabis outside of a strong regulatory framework that protects consumers.”

Biddle believes that classifying hemp businesses as “unregulated” is unfair to those who have obeyed state and federal laws for years.

“Now (lawmakers) changed the law they created to clearly favor Wall Street corporations over Virginia’s farmers and small businesses,” Redfern said.

As the medical marijuana industry has established itself in the state for years, with donations to lawmakers, he worries that small businesses like his and Biddle’s are being sidelined by corporations.

Redfern said he and others have contacted lawmakers and the governor about their concerns. He said they felt relieved until recently.

“We are left with zero road and we will not survive until July 2027 without a grace period,” Redfern said.

State lawmakers and the governor have been waging a state budget debate for months over data center taxes ahead of a July 1 deadline to implement them or face a government shutdown. After the legislature approved the agreements with the prime minister last week, the body met on Monday to approve its amendments.

This story was first published by the Virginia Mercury.

Brendan Cleak’s photo.

Marihuana Moment is made possible with the help of readers. If you rely on our pro-cannabis journalism to stay informed, consider a monthly Patreon pledge.

Cannabis News

No need to remove fully compostable sachets during crop rotation

Published

1 day ago

July 5, 2026

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Biobest has developed a new home grow bag for predatory mites designed to reduce greenhouse labor requirements while addressing the growing challenge of single-use plastic waste in crop protection systems.

According to Ines De Craecker, Director of Product Management at Biobest, the project arose out of discussions with growers, rather than regulatory pressure.

“People might think it started from a regulatory perspective, but we started from a conversation,” he shares. “The growers were really conflicted. The labor is expensive, and they had to choose between removing the bags from the harvest or leaving behind non-recyclable waste.”

Mite predator bags are widely used in IPM programs and have become a standard biological control tool in greenhouse production. Most bags on the market today are made of single-use plastic.

“At the end of the season, growers have to decide whether to remove all the growth bags from the crop by hand, which is labor-intensive, or leave them in place. It becomes a choice between yield and sustainability.”

Maintaining performance while improving sustainability
Biobest estimates that more than 350 million grow bags are used each year, generating more than 1,400 tons of non-recyclable waste. In addition, more than 20 hours of skilled labor per hectare may be required to remove the sachets.

“For large growers working several hectares, this can mean extra work at the end of the week to remove the bags at the end of the season,” says Ines.

Developing a sustainable alternative presented significant technical challenges. The company aimed to create a fully compostable portfolio without compromising biological performance.

“It sounds simple, but it’s really complicated to develop a grow bag in sustainable materials without compromising the product’s performance. You still want to deliver the quality and performance that customers expect.”

The development process involved collaboration between Biobest’s R&D, packaging and production teams, as well as external material suppliers and commercial teams. Field validation was also essential to confirm that mite performance and pest control effectiveness remained unchanged.

“If you compare it to a regular single-use grow bag, it looks exactly the same. The mite performance and the actual control in the crop is unchanged.”

Home compostability at room temperature
A key feature of the new bag is its ability to biodegrade under home composting conditions. Ines says that in order to obtain a certificate of home compostability, the materials must fully biodegrade within 180 days, at an ambient temperature of 20°C to 30°C, under specified humidity conditions.

“Our bag has been designed with the minimum amount of polymer that can be composted at home, and it is mainly made of paper-based fibers. These fibers not only support biodegradation, but also improve the quality of the compost, helping to regulate the moisture level, making the bag well suited for both home composting and local composting.”

This is a significant advantage over industrial compostable materials, which require specialized composting facilities operating at temperatures between 70°C and 80°C.

“One of the challenges with industrially compostable solutions is that many growers do not have access to industrial composting facilities. This means that waste cannot be composted as intended or must be transported off-site for processing,” he added.

In practice, many industrial compostable materials are not even accepted by commercial composters. They are usually screened early in the process because they break down more slowly than the composting cycle, are too coarse or stiff to be shredded effectively, or are considered a visual pollutant in the final compost.

According to Ines, they have designed their bag to overcome these challenges. Its paper fiber construction makes it easy to shred, helping to reduce moisture levels during composting. The ultra-thin layer of home compostable polymer breaks down even faster under industrial composting conditions, eliminating concerns about inconsistent composting deadlines.

“We wanted to develop a bag that doesn’t put any restrictions on a grower’s waste stream. It can stay with the crop waste and follow its existing end-of-life path, whether it’s a backyard compost pile, a farm composting system, or industrial composting.”

At the end of the crop cycle, the bags can be removed along with the plant material and composted, eliminating the need for separate collection, sorting and disposal.

A gradual rollout is planned
The compostable home portfolio is now a concept and was nominated for the GreenTech Concept Award. According to Ines, the technology is suitable for all predatory mites that are currently supplied in grow bags.

“In the future it is our intention to change all our products to a home compostable format.” Biobest plans to initially introduce the pouches to select European markets, before gradually expanding production and availability globally.

For more information:

Biobest Group NV

Telephone: +32 14 25 79 80

Cannabis News

North Carolina Senate Passes Bill To Restrict Hemp THC And Kratom Products

Published

1 day ago

July 5, 2026

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“If there are people who want to legalize marijuana, they can introduce that bill, we’ll talk about it.”

By Brandon Kingdollar, NC Newsline

On the last day before going home for nearly a month, North Carolina senators voted to ban most cannabis products sold in the state.

The version of House Bill 328 that passed the Senate would have banned all intoxicating hemp products in North Carolina. Intoxicating hemp products are defined as any with a total THC content of more than 0.4 milligrams. THC is the compound responsible for the psychoactive effects of cannabis. Hemp business owners say the ban will ban almost all products from the market.

The bill would also ban the sale of hemp consumables to anyone under the age of 21, and ban xylazine and synthetic kratom, two other substances that have raised health concerns. Sales of natural kratom would also be restricted to people over the age of 21.

It’s the latest in a back-and-forth between the state House and Senate over what regulatory framework should be put in place for substances that have been widely used in recent years. Kratom and potent hemp derivatives can be found on the shelves of almost any gas station in the state.

The Chamber was already in session when the senators voted to approve the bill. But Senate President Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) said the crisis caused by these substances was too serious to wait until lawmakers return at the end of July.

“The personal loss that has occurred in the state of North Carolina as a result of these products cannot and must not be delayed any longer,” Berger told members of the media after Thursday’s session. “We have reached a point where doing nothing was not an option.”

The lack of regulation surrounding hemp derivatives, which hit the market en masse after federal regulations allowed them to be sold in 2018, has sparked bipartisan concern, reflected in the Senate’s 43-6 vote to pass the bill.

Sen. Paul Lowe (D-Forsyth) said he supports the bill because of the dire need for regulation of the hemp industry.

“Some of these products sold in these stores, which come from other countries, cannot even be sold in the country they come from,” Lowe said. “I have absolutely no problem voting for this bill because I don’t think this thing is safe.”

The state’s child mortality task force reported in 2025 that since 2019, emergency room visits have increased 600% for cannabis-related minors. Rep. Jimmy Dixon (R-Duplin) cited the case of a 14-year-old hospitalized after purchasing an intoxicating hemp product. The House debated its own version of the bill last month.

Senate Democratic Leader Sydney Batch (D-Wake) said she supported the bill primarily because of restrictions on “gas station drugs that really hurt our constituents,” such as kratom, which has led to an increase in health emergencies. He was more skeptical about his approach to hemp, raising concerns that non-intoxicating products with legitimate medical uses would be hijacked.

“What I’m hoping we can do, as far as the next month we’re not here, is sit down, give our ideas, see if they can put it into a conference call that goes to the many farmers in North Carolina who are growing hemp, so they don’t go bankrupt,” Batch said.

The invoice It follows a federal ban on intoxicating hemp products that was enacted last year as part of the Farm Bill, but has yet to take effect. Hemp industry lobbyists have rallied to overturn the ban before it takes effect in November.

Those efforts appear to be paying off, according to a letter to Congress last month The Trump administration asked Congress to reverse itself and keep these hemp products legal.

Berger said passing the ban at the state level ensures North Carolinians will be protected regardless of what the federal government does.

“What we’ve put in place, or what we’re trying to put in place, hopefully the House will pass the conference report, is a ban on intoxicating hemp products,” he said. “And if the feds decide they don’t want to do that as we go forward, North Carolina would still ban intoxicants.”

It left the door open to relaxing some restrictions in the future.

“If there are people who want to legalize marijuana, they can introduce that bill, we’ll talk about it,” Berger said. “If there are people who want a specific regulatory scheme on some of these things that would allow people over the age of 21 to buy, let’s introduce a bill and let’s see.”

The Senate version of the bill goes further than the House version, which would have imposed a 21-year age limit on hemp-derived consumables but would have otherwise left the market undisturbed, banning a wide range of hemp-derived products currently being sold. The Senate also requires consumers to be 21 for products that remain legal.

Advocates for loosening marijuana restrictions also supported the bill. Sen. Bill Rabon (R-Brunswick), the architect of the bill that almost succeeded in legalizing medical marijuana in North Carolina, issued a fiery rebuke Friday to hemp products being sold across the state.

“The big players and the people who want to make money can’t make the money they want to make, they can’t catch the people they want to catch, in a regulated product,” Rabon said. “So if that’s the case, we have to get rid of everything. There’s no other option.”

The House will have a chance to take up the Senate’s version of the bill when they return to session on July 27. It is not clear whether they will agree to this or not.

This story was first published by NC Newsline.

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