* SJ-R…

Farmers in Illinois are one step closer to being allowed to grow industrial hemp.

A bill sponsored by Sen. Toi Hutchinson, D-Olympia Fields, passed unanimously in the Senate this month and now goes to the House.

While the state currently allows universities offering four-year agricultural science degrees to grow hemp, this new legislation would expand that to all farmers.

According to the Illinois Stewardship Alliance, there are at least 25,000 different products that could be made from hemp, ranging from plastic alternatives, to food, cosmetics, rope and clothing. […]

“One of the most important things that we need to do is make people and farmers understand that what we’re suggesting with industrial hemp has nothing to do with cannabis or marijuana,” [Rob Davies, marketing director for the Illinois Farmers Union] said. “It’s a multipurpose commodity that we’re presently importing in enormous quantities into our own country to do jobs that we can take care of ourselves.”

The article doesn’t mention it, but the bill is stuck in the House.

The House sponsor, Rep. Larry Walsh, has a huge medical marijuana facility in his district so the med-mar lobsters were able to tie it up. The Stewardship Alliance, Sen. Hutchinson and several House members have complained bitterly about the way this bill got jammed up in the House, but the med-mar people deny they were a problem, even though they were demanding things like a 4-mile setback from their facilities (which seems ridiculously excessive for indoor grow facilities, so they eventually settled at a quarter mile). Rep. Walsh has flatly denied allegations that he was a “hostile sponsor,” claiming that he was just trying to settle differences among various interest groups.

And then all of a sudden the lieutenant governor’s office intervened. The LG runs the Rural Affairs Council, so that gave her some skin in the game. It now looks like veto session at the earliest.

The med-mar people have interests to protect. I get that. But this was starting to look to me like the days when the casinos worked against video poker machines.

Nothing’s ever easy in this state.

* Semi-related…

* Odds against Springfield casino after amendment blocked: Chances of a Springfield casino took a major hit Sunday when a House committee blocked an amendment to add the casino to an omnibus gambling expansion bill.