Products containing THC are in the crosshairs of Texas lawmakers, who are deciding whether to ban them altogether.
Thousands of retailers across the state sell products with low concentrations of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Houston Republican, made ridding the state of the low-dose gummies, vapes, candies and drinks a priority for the session.
That measure has won final age in the Senate and preliminary age in the Texas House. After final age, expected late Thursday, the chambers will negotiate technical details before they’re expected to send it to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk within days.
The bill had met some initial resistance in the House, where Democrats and some business-friendly Republicans questioned the need to wipe out an entire thriving industry when regulations could address concerns about safety. An effort to replace the ban with a smaller, regulated market for Texas-grown hemp products failed.
of both parties have objected to the removal of products they say are beneficial, to the creation of new offenses, and to the threat to the small businesses that would result in a ban.
ers of the ban say lawmakers never wanted to bring a make a new intoxicating substance available to the public when they ed a farm bill legalizing hemp products in 2019.
Why are Texas lawmakers arguing over THC?
The state has a proliferation of retailers selling largely unregulated consumable products — such as gummies and vapes — that contain the psychoactive hemp-derived compound tetrahydrocannabinol, known as THC.
Texas does not regulate the labs that test products to ensure they contain legal amounts of cannabis ingredients or to test for harmful components ones, such as heavy metals or pesticides.
Beyond risking harm to s, the situation can have legal implications for those who buy products — or inadvertently sell them — products d as legal but which contain illegal levels of THC.
What are the two sides of the debate?
Some lawmakers want to ban the products from Texas shelves altogether, which would make THC available only through the state’s narrow medical marijuana program.
Others want to simply regulate them with age limits, testing standards and packaging requirements. Still others want to limit the products to just hemp-derived THC drinks and regulate them through the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission.
Those in favor of keeping the industry alive argue that the products can have health benefits; that the medical marijuana is too inaccessible; and above-board businesses that play by the rules deserve to thrive in business-friendly Texas.
What are the THC products in question?
The products are made of compounds derived from the hemp plant, which is legal in Texas and has lower concentrations of psychoactive compounds than illegal marijuana plants. Both are of the cannabis plant family.
Shelves in more than 8,000 retailers across Texas are filled with vapes, gummies, chocolates and other types of candies, snack foods, drinks, and smokable hemp flower. The products are found in every corner of the state — in coffeeshops, gas stations, smoke shops, restaurants, bars and breweries, among others. They are in rural areas as well as metroplexes.
The state’s retail hemp industry raked in an estimated $8 billion in 2022 and created an estimated 50,000 jobs in the state, according to insiders.
Why are THC products legal in Texas?
A 2019 law legalized growing and selling hemp and hemp products to help Texas farmers.
It limited the amount of delta-9 THC, the primary psychoactive compound in cannabis, in the plants to no more than 0.3% by weight as a way to avoid high-potency products getting into the market.
The law did not place limits for any other hemp derivatives.
Consumable hemp was not addressed as there was little market for it at the time. Hemp was removed from the state’s Controlled Substances Act, effectively legalizing all of its derivatives without potency limits on most of them.
The Texas Supreme Court upheld a prohibition on manufacturing consumable hemp products for smoking within Texas, but the law allows retail sales and wholesale distribution of products made outside Texas.
What are the main proposals and where are they in the Texas Legislature?
Senate Bill 3, by Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, is a total ban on hemp-derived THC products. The bill does not ban the non-intoxicating CBD and CBG compounds that are often found in products containing THC but also are sold separately.
SB 3 has ed the Senate and was awaiting final age in the House.
The House version of that bill, carried by House State Affairs Chairman Ken King, R-Canadian, would have made it illegal for anyone to sell THC products to minors as well as require childproof packaging and testing from Texas-based labs. It also would have banned vape shops, vapes and higher dose THC products. The bill also restricts the products only to those containing CBD, CBG and delta-9, derived from hemp grown only in Texas. Counties could opt to ban them entirely with local elections.
That version failed a vote of 53-86.