The Texas Senate on Sunday night approved the House version of a bill that would ban products containing THC. Now, that bill is headed to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk.
It was just six years ago that state lawmakers legalized hemp as an agricultural product that contains much lower levels of THC than marijuana. That led to a boom in edibles, drinks, vapes and flour buds.
Proponents of this bill say that sales of THC products have gotten out of hand and are putting Texans at risk. Opponents tout the benefits for people with certain medical conditions, and they warn this law could cost Texas its $8 billion hemp business and an estimated 50,000 jobs.
Karen Brooks Harper, who’s been tracking this bill for the Dallas Morning News, said the final version of the bill is everything Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has been crusading for for over a year now.
It’s “a blanket ban on all those vape shops, all those THCA and Delta-8 products, gummies, edibles, drinks, HCP, all those formulas, all of those are gonna be gone,” she said. “The only thing left on the legal market in Texas after the ban would go into effect, assuming it does, would be CBD, CBG products.
“There’s a little bit of a question about whether those would be ensnared because they do have traceable amounts of THC in it, but we’re gonna let the lawyers figure that out. Right now, CBD, CBG are still allowed.”
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This likely spells the end for a good number of the 8,500 retailers across the state that make their profit off THC products.
“There was a chunk of people in the House … that wanted to shrink the market dramatically and regulate it,” Brooks Harper said. “So wipe out the vape shops, wipe out convenience store sections of THC, and focus on small specialty hemp stores that sell only products made with Texas-grown native Delta-9.
“That was the counteroffer from a good chunk of the House. But it didn’t stay in negotiations for very long. There was some back and forth, and there was some vote counting on the night before the vote. But ultimately they got that ban with a good two-thirds of the House.”
There’s been some speculation about Abbott vetoing this bill in response to massive pushback against it, Brooks Harper said. Abbott has yet to publicly take a position on the issue.
“There’s a lot of backlash from the veterans,” she said. “The answer that the pro-ban people are giving is that the Legislature will … expand the medical marijuana program to allow many more veterans in or allow a lot more access to catch the veterans specifically who like to use the THC shops because it helps with their PTSD, their post-traumatic stress symptoms, and they can access it easier than the medical marijuana program.”
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However, Brooks Harper said that promise hasn’t been enough to assuage detractors so far.
“The backlash to this ban is enormous. It is coming from the veterans, it’s coming from Republicans who don’t like the nanny state of the ban,” she said. “It’s the Republicans that drove it and they were driven by the parents and doctors and victims in law enforcement who have had adverse effects to some of these products. Kids who have gotten busted for it when they shouldn’t have been buying it or shouldn’t have been sold to.
“It’s not just about the businesses. The arguments on the other side were very emotional and convincing, clearly.”
Abbott has several choices with what he can do with the bill when it reaches his desk. He can veto it, he can sign it, or he can let it become law without his signature.
“The speculation is that maybe he’ll veto it and then direct [lawmakers] into a special session to regulate it and do something that doesn’t kill so many businesses all in one fell swoop,” Brooks Harper said. “My money is not on a veto, but I don’t know, because the backlash is very powerful, and it’s in his base. It’s not like these are Democrats complaining about this.”
If Abbott does not veto the bill, it will go into effect in September.
“Then we’re expecting to have lawsuits from the industry potentially gumming that timing up a little bit over the summer,” Brooks Harper said. “So we’ll just have to see how that works. But we should know in the next week or two what Abbott’s gonna do.”
