Consumable hemp-derived products will remain legal in Texas and there is no formal age limit on who can purchase these goods.
AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas legislature gaveled out and adjourned the second called special session overnight without taking any action to ban or regulate THC products, capping a months-long fight over efforts to rein in the industry.
State lawmakers did not pass Senate Bill 5, which would have banned the sale of consumable hemp products with THC, the chemical in marijuana that gets you high, while keeping non-intoxicating products like CBD and CBG products legal.
As a result, consumable hemp-derived products will remain legal in Texas, and there is no formal age limit on who can purchase these goods. However, many stores that sell them impose their own restrictions.
“We’re elated to still survive,” Mark Bordas, the executive director of the Texas Hemp Business Council, said. “We had hoped that some of the positions would have softened over on the Senate side, but at the end of the day, Senate leadership determined that if it wasn’t a ban, it wasn’t going through. So, we retain the status quo.”
Since 2019, products with 0.3% THC or less have been legal in Texas. Generally speaking, legal THC can be accessed in several forms, from the actual cannabis plant to THC-infused sodas.
On the last day that the governor could veto bills from the regular session in the 11th hour, he vetoed a bill to ban the sale of all hemp products containing THC. Abbott cited the potential legal challenges the ban would have faced and expressed concerns that it conflicted with federal law.
Banning all THC products has become a passion project for Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who said it’s dangerous and unregulated. Patrick and law enforcement officials advocated for a ban, while representatives from the hemp industry and the public argued that the ban would infringe on their individual rights.
While the governor put regulating THC on the special session call, the Senate quickly passed a bill to ban it during the first and second special sessions. But it stalled in the House amid disagreements over whether to ban or regulate it.
In a last-ditch effort, the top Republican leaders at the Texas Capitol spent several hours negotiating and trying to hash out a compromise.
In a social media post Wednesday evening, Patrick said after “long discussions” with Gov. Greg Abbott and House Speaker Dustin Burrows (R-Lubbock), they were not able to reach an agreement on either THC restrictions or a total ban, so both chambers ended their work for the special session.
“The House, caught in the middle, ultimately decided not to try to take a winner in a loser, because ultimately they would have ended up the losers in this, and so they essentially decided to punt this to another session,” Joshua Blank, the research director for the Texas Politics Project, said.
Senate Bill 6 would have banned the sale or marketing of consumable hemp products to individuals under 21, while also introducing new labeling and packaging requirements. It would also create new criminal penalties, making the manufacture or distribution of a controlled substance a third-degree felony, and labeling possession a Class C misdemeanor.
Blank said getting that passed would have been a heavy lift in the House and during a special session.
“It was creating a whole new regulatory framework for an entire industry, and to do that during a special session is hard, and to do it in a way that would pass the preferences of the lieutenant governor even harder still,” Blank said. “For that reason, it was almost preordained saying that this was unlikely to move unless something really substantially changed.”
Members of the hemp industry don’t deny that the bad actors are a problem, but they also pushed for stricter regulation rather than an outright ban.
“We want to get the bad actors out. We want to maintain the good actors,” Bordas said. “We want to make sure those who choose to use the product can do so safely and reliably know what’s in that product.”
The Texas Hemp Business Council on Thursday called on lawmakers to take additional steps to further regulate the industry, like banning those under 21 from buying hemp products, requiring more transparent labeling, banning marketing or packaging that could be attractive to minors and following proper testing standards.
“We just don’t understand why there’s such a reluctance to adopt common sense approaches to protecting the youth,” Bordas said.
Opponents argued the ban would have shuttered hundreds of businesses and harmed Texans who rely on these products. Particularly those who use them as an alternative to alcohol, opioids and anti-depressants.
“This is about our mental and physical health. It’s something as simple as a 0.03 THC level gummy. I personally use the gummies myself,” Mitch Fuller, the National and State Legislative Chairman for the VFW Department of Texas, said. “It’s very helpful.”
“We will take the win because the veteran community, we are responsible for our own bodies. We know what we’re putting in our bodies,” Fuller added. “We didn’t need Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick telling us what we can or cannot do with our bodies, with the legal product.”
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and other Texas lawmakers have expressed concern that products are being marketed and sold to minors, with little accountability.
“The ban was the only responsible solution fiscally and for the health of Texas,” Aubree Adams, the director of Citizens for a Safe and Healthy Texas, said. “This industry is out of control. There’s not enough money to try to rein them in.”
Gov. Abbott vetoed a similar bill passed during the regular session after intense public pressure. In his veto message, Abbott said that he preferred regulation over a ban.
Patrick and supporters of the bill say regulation is not feasible because law enforcement does not have enough resources to regulate the level of THC in products properly.
Adams said she worries more people will be harmed now that the products are staying on the shelves.
“THC is a serious, dangerous drug that causes severe psychosis and can lead to chronic psychiatric disorders like schizophrenia and bipolar with psychosis,” Adams said. “Governor Abbott is responsible for all the future injuries, physical and mental, from THC at this point.”
It is not clear if Abbott would call another special session to consider more THC restrictions.
Blank said it is not likely Gov. Abbott will call state lawmakers back for another special session on hemp. Since he is up for re-election this year, Blank said Abbott will want to steer clear of the issue because it isn’t popular with voters.
Polling from the Texas Politics Project this summer showed 53% of Texans oppose a ban on hemp-derived cannabis products.
“Further criminalizing access to THC and THC adjacent products is really not something that many voters are asking for,” Blank said. “So this really was, in a lot of senses, a political loser that died the deaths that political losers usually do, which is they don’t make it out of committees.”