Section 1200.10  Scope, Definitions and Incorporations

a)         The purpose of this Part is to implement the provision of the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 and the associated regulations of the United States Department of Agriculture (7 CFR 990). The provisions of this Part shall only apply to cultivators and processors licensed or registered by the Department of Agriculture. The provisions shall also apply to government demonstration and research entities and academic research institutions. In accordance with Section 25 of the Industrial Hemp Act [505 ILCS 89], and in order to maintain State regulatory control over the production of hemp, the definitions in this Part differ from those in the Industrial Hemp Act only to the extent that the Industrial Hemp Act's definitions conflict with federal rules, regulations and laws.

b)         The following definitions shall apply to this Part:

"Academic Research" means research conducted by a licensed academic research institution on hemp or industrial hemp.

"Academic Research Institutions" means institutions that: offer in person courses at a physical campus located in Illinois; are Illinois not-for-profit entities; offer agricultural programs or degrees; and conduct research on hemp. This includes accredited public institutions of higher education, as defined in 110 ILCS 205/1; accredited, not for profit, post-secondary educational institutions, as defined at 110 ILCS 1005/1; and community colleges, as defined at 110 ILCS 805/1-2(c); or other academic institutions approved by the Department, including, but not limited to, Illinois public or nonpublic secondary schools registered with the Illinois State Board of Education, which conduct academic research on hemp.

"Academic Research Designated Laboratory" means a laboratory that is under the control of the licensed academic research institution or has a written agreement with another licensed academic research institution to conduct testing on its behalf. Testing conducted between licensed academic research institutions does not need to be contingent upon payment for testing services.

"Academic Sampling Agent" means an individual designated by an Academic Research Institution to sample hemp for that institution.

"Acceptable Hemp THC Level" means a total delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol content concentration level of not more than 0.3% on a dry weight basis for hemp. Hemp will satisfy this standard if laboratory testing produces a distribution or range within the measurement of uncertainty that includes the total THC concentration level of 0.3% or less.

"Act" means the Industrial Hemp Act [505 ILCS 89].

"Agent" means any family member, employee, contracted employee, or farmhand of a licensed or registered hemp cultivator or processor.

"Applicant" means the individual or entity who is applying for a license or registration.

"Biomass" means the result of all flowers, buds, trichomes, leaves, stalks, seeds, and all plant parts from a lot being chopped or shredded in such a way as to create a homogenous, uniform blend of the lot. Only one lot may make up biomass. Chopping and shredding may be done by shredders, composters, or other specialty mechanical equipment.

"Cannabis" means marijuana, hashish, and other substances that are identified as including any parts of the plant Cannabis sativa and including derivatives or subspecies, such as indica, of all strains of cannabis, whether growing or not; the seeds thereof, the resin extracted from any part of the plant; and any compound, manufacture, salt, derivative, mixture, or preparation of the plant, its seeds, or resin, including tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and all other naturally produced cannabinol derivatives, whether produced directly or indirectly by extraction; however, "cannabis" does not include the mature stalks of the plant, fiber produced from the stalks, oil or cake made from the seeds of the plant, any other compound, manufacture, salt, derivative, mixture, or preparation of the mature stalks (except the resin extracted from it), fiber, oil or cake, or the sterilized seed of the plant that is incapable of germination. "Cannabis" does not include industrial hemp as defined and authorized under the Industrial Hemp Act. "Cannabis" also means cannabis flower, concentrate, and cannabis-infused products. [410 ILCS 705/1-10] 

"Cannabis Plant" means a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae of which Cannabis sativa is a species, and Cannabis indica and Cannabis ruderalis are subspecies thereof.  The term "cannabis plant", for purposes of this Part, refers to any form of the plant in which the total delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol concentration on a dry weight basis has not yet been determined.

"Contiguous Land Area" means land areas used for cultivation of industrial hemp that are not separated by more than 100 feet by waterways, fences, railroads, lanes, roads, highways, interstates or other separations.

"Culpable Mental State Greater Than Negligence" means to act intentionally, knowingly, willfully, or recklessly.

"Cultivating" means planting, growing, harvesting and storing a plant or crop.

"Decarboxylated" or "Decarboxylation" means the completion of the chemical reaction that converts THC-acid (THCA) into delta-9 THC, the intoxicating component of the cannabis plant. The decarboxylated value is calculated using a molecule mass conversion ratio that sums delta-9 THC and 87.7% of THC-acid ((delta-9 THC) + (0.877 * THCA)).

"Department" means the Illinois Department of Agriculture.

"Director" means the Director of Agriculture. [505 ILCS 89/5]

"Disposal Report" means the report and notice that the licensee must submit to the Department on the required form, no more than 48 hours after the crop has been disposed of for non-compliance with the Act or this Part.

"Disposal" or "Disposed Of" means an activity that transitions non-compliant hemp or hemp used for research purposes into a non-retrievable or non-ingestible form. Approved methods of disposal include plowing, tilling, or disking plant material into the soil; mulching, composting, chopping, or bush mowing plant material into green manure; burning plant material; burying plant material into the earth and covering with soil, and any other methods approved by USDA and published on the Department's website.

"Dry Weight Basis" means the ratio of the amount of dry solid in a sample after drying to the total mass of the sample before drying, including the moisture in a sample. Dry weight basis is the percentage of a chemical in a substance after removing the moisture from the substance. Percentage of THC on a dry weight basis means the percentage of THC, by weight, in a cannabis plant item (plant, extract, or other derivative), after excluding moisture from the item.

"Farm" means any property used solely for the growing and harvesting of crops; for the feeding, breeding and management of livestock; for dairying or for any other agricultural or horticultural use or combination thereof; including, but not limited to, hay, grain, fruit, truck or vegetable crops, floriculture, mushroom growing, plant or tree nurseries, orchards, forestry, sod farming and greenhouses; the keeping, raising and feeding of livestock or poultry, including dairying, poultry, swine, sheep, beef cattle, ponies or horses, fur farming, bees, fish and wildlife farming.

"Farm Service Agency" or "FSA" means the Farm Service Agency of the United States Department of Agriculture.

"Government Demonstration and Research Entity" means a state or local government body licensed to grow hemp for research, demonstration, soil or water remediation, or soil erosion control.

"Handle" means to possess, transport or store industrial hemp for any period of time on premises owned, operated or controlled by a person or entity, or the agent thereof, licensed to cultivate industrial hemp or registered to process industrial hemp.

"Hemp" or "Industrial Hemp" means the plant species Cannabis sativa L. and any part of that plant, including the seeds thereof and all derivatives, extracts, cannabinoids, isomers, acids, salts, and salts of isomers, whether growing or not, with a total delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol concentration of not more than 0.3% on a dry weight basis.

"Hemp Microgreens" means immature hemp seedlings grown for human consumption that are harvested above the soil or substrate line, prior to flowering, and not more than 14 days after germination and no more than five inches in height.

"Hemp Testing Laboratory" or "Testing Laboratory" means a laboratory approved by the Department to handle, test, and analyze hemp in accordance with this Part. 

"High-Performance Liquid Chromatography" or "HPLC" means a type of chromatography technique in analytical chemistry used to separate, identify, and quantify each component in a mixture. HPLC relies on pumps to pass a pressurized liquid solvent containing the sample mixture through a column filled with a solid adsorbent material to separate and analyze compounds.

"Indoor Cultivation" means the process of cultivating industrial hemp in a greenhouse or in an enclosed building or structure capable of continuous cultivation throughout the year.  Continuous cultivation is not required.   

"Key Participants" means a sole proprietor, a partner in partnership, or a person with executive managerial control in a corporation. A person with executive managerial control includes persons such as a chief executive officer, chief operating officer, and chief financial officer. This definition does not include non-executive managers such as farm, field, or shift managers.

"Land Area" means a farm as defined in Section 1-60 of the Property Tax Code [35 ILCS 200] in this State or land or facilities under the control of an academic research institution or government demonstration and research entity.

"Law Enforcement" means the officers and activities of the federal, State, and local agencies responsible for maintaining public order and enforcing the law.

"License" means authorization by the Department for any individual or legal entity to grow industrial hemp in the State.

"Licensee" means a person or entity that has applied for, and received, a license to cultivate Industrial Hemp from the Department.

"Lot" refers to a contiguous area in a field, greenhouse, or indoor growing structure containing the same variety or strain of the cannabis plant throughout.

"Negligence" means a failure to exercise the level of care that a reasonably prudent person would exercise in complying with this Part.

"Official Sample" means the preharvest hemp sample collected by the Department, or sampling agent which is used to assess the THC concentration of a single lot of hemp.  The official sample may also be used for sample retesting if a sufficient quantity of the original official sample remains.

"Order of Disposal" means an order furnished to the licensee by the Department, ordering the disposal of cannabis plants that exceeds the acceptable hemp THC concentration when remediation is refused or has failed, and the grower refuses to destroy the non-compliant lot.

"Person" means any individual, partnership, firm, corporation, company, society, association, the State or any department, agency, or subdivision thereof, or any other entity, or the agent thereof.

"Post Decarboxylation Value", in the context of testing methodologies for THC concentration in hemp, means a value determined after the process of decarboxylation that determines the total potential delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content derived from the sum of the THC and delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinolic acid (THCA) content and reported on a dry weight basis. The post decarboxylation value of THC can be calculated by using a chromatographic technique using heat, gas chromatography, through which THCA is converted from its acid form to its neutral form, THC. Thus, this test calculates the total potential THC in each sample. The post decarboxylation value of THC can also be calculated by using a high-performance liquid chromatography technique, which keeps the THCA intact and requires a conversion calculation of that THCA to calculate total potential THC in a given sample.

"Process" means the conversion of raw industrial hemp plant material into a form that is presently legal to import from outside the United States under federal law. [505 ILCS 89/5]

"Registrant" or "Processor" means any person or entity that has applied for, and received, a registration to process industrial hemp from the Department.

"Registration" means authorization by the Department for any individual or legal entity to process or handle industrial hemp.

"Remediation" means the process by which non-compliant hemp (THC concentration > 0.3%) is rendered compliant (THC concentration ≤ 0.3%). Remediation can be achieved by separating and destroying non-compliant flowers while retaining stalks, leaves, and seeds; or by shredding the entire hemp plant to create a homogenous biomass. Both remediation options require retesting for THC compliance before entering the stream of commerce.

"Sampling Agent" means someone trained under applicable USDA training program available on the USDA website or a State training program for sample collection and has provided proof of training to the Department.

"Strain" means variations of a cultivar, generally from breeding techniques or genetic mutations.

"THC" or "Delta 9-Tetrahydrocannabinol" means the primary psychoactive component of cannabis.  For purposes of this Part, "delta-9 THC" and "THC" are interchangeable.

"Total THC" or "Total Potential THC" means the value determined after the process of decarboxylation, or the application of a conversion factor if the testing methodology does not include decarboxylation, that expressed the potential total delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol content derived from the sum of the THC and THCA content and reported on a dry weight basis within the measurement of uncertainty. This post-decarboxylation value of THC can be calculated by using a chromatograph technique using heat, such as gas chromatography, through which THCA is converted from its acid form to its neutral form, THC. Thus, this test calculates the total potential THC in a given sample. The total THC can also be calculated by using high performance liquid chromatography which keeps the THCA intact. This technique requires the use of the following conversion: [Total THC= (0.877 x THCA) + THC] which calculates the potential total THC in a given sample.

"USDA Sampling Guidance" means United States Department of Agriculture Sampling Guidelines for Hemp issued on January 15, 2021 by the U.S. Domestic Hemp Production Program which have been incorporated by reference and does not include any letter amendments or editions.  The guidance may be found at https:/www.ams.usda.gov/rules-regulations/hemp/rulemaking-documents and is available from the Department upon request.

"Variety" means a group of plants or an individual plant that exhibits distinctive observable physical characteristics or has a distinct genetic composition.  This includes the terms "cultivar" and "strain".

(Source:  Amended at 49 Ill. Reg. 119, effective December 23, 2024)