Politics
Texas Governor Explains His New Stance On Hemp Products As Ban Quickly Advances In Special Legislative Session
The governor of Texas is detailing where he stands on a renewed push in the legislature to ban most consumable hemp products, seemingly departing from a proposal that advanced through a Senate committee this week by calling for regulated access to low-THC hemp items for adults.
Gov. Greg Abbott (R) made headlines last month after vetoing a controversial hemp THC ban bill, after which point he convened a special session with a mandate to legislators to take the issue, as well as others, back up. But advocates say a new measure from Sen. Charles Perry (R), SB 5, that cleared the Senate State Affairs Committee on Tuesday would effectively create the same prohibition the governor vetoed—and it’s moving quickly through the process.
Asked about the proposal, Abbott told FOX 4 on Tuesday that he stands “in favor of doing all we can to protect the lives of our children, while also protecting the liberty of adults.”
“So the structure of what I’m looking for is this, and that is, we must continue to criminalize marijuana in the state of Texas—no change in the marijuana laws,” he said. “We need to ban THC, as well as hemp products, for children under the age of 21. We don’t want them to be exposed to that.”
He added that the state needs to “ban synthetics that are laced onto hemp products that are extraordinarily dangerous.” But once those safeguards are in place, the governor said “we need to have a highly regulated hemp industry to ensure that farmers are able to grow it, and that hemp products that do not have an intoxicating level of THC on it and can be sold in the marketplace for adults to be able to use.”
That’s where there’s some apparent splintering between what the governor is describing as his preference and what’s moving through the Senate.
Abbott gave a somewhat confusing definition of what he’d be comfortable with as far as allowable THC limits in hemp, saying there should be a “three percent” or “three milligram” cap, which is a meaningful difference. SB 5, on the other hand, would prohibit products with any quantifiable amount of THC or most other cannabinoids—explicitly exempting CBD and CBG from the ban, but industry stakeholders say that’s logistically unfeasible and would decimate the market.
“To be clear, with regard to adults—again, with minors, no access to it at all. For adults, we do want the THC level to be below 3 percent, or we’re doing it in milligrams, three milligrams of THC, and it’s called non-intoxicating levels of hemp that would be marketed,” Abbott said. “But it would be a highly regulated system where, from the farmers to the wholesalers to the distributors to the retailers, there would be checks along the way to make sure that anybody involved in that entire system would not be able to be selling, transmitting, moving or involved in any hemp-based product that had more than three milligrams of hemp in it.”
“At the same time, we want to make sure that there’s strict enforcement. And so the only way we’re going to be able to do this is through tough enforcement,” he said. “The money for enforcement would would come from all the market participants, and we would create an enforcement structure like what we have in the alcohol system that would ensure that the [Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission] would be involved in the process to make sure this can be completely monitored, and there’s going to be criminal consequences for anybody who violates these standards.”
The interviewer pointed out that Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R), who strongly advocated for the vetoed hemp ban bill and continues to support outright prohibition, believes the hemp market is too large to effectively regulate.
Abbott acknowledged that “every law enforcement official I’ve talked to has said the same thing, and that is, they don’t have the resources to regulate it… If they’re measuring the hemp product not based upon the current methodology, 0.3 percent THC, but on the milligram basis, it’s a whole lot easier to be able to measure it.”
Again, that’s not quite what SB 5 would accomplish—and stakeholders are voicing concern about the expedited legislative process that it’s moving through, urging supporters to contact their representatives and ask them to oppose the legislation.
“Even after hours of compelling testimony, the Senate State Affairs committee voted unanimously to approve SB 5, advancing the bill to the Texas Senate for a vote,” Heather Fazio, director of the Texas Cannabis Policy Center, said in an action alert on Wednesday.
She added that the Senate meets on Thursday and “could vote on SB 5.” However, she added that once it reached the House, “representatives are much more inclined to support regulation.”
(Disclosure: Fazio supports Marijuana Moment’s work via a monthly Patreon pledge.)
Separately, a spokesperson for the governor issued a statement that largely aligns with what Abbott described in the interview.
“Governor Abbott has been clear that Texas must do all we can to protect the lives of children while protecting the liberty of adults. Hemp products should be banned for those under the age of 21, with a full ban on extraordinarily dangerous synthetic products,” they said. “Adults should be able to access heavily regulated, nonintoxicating levels of hemp, and there should be strict legal enforcement of hemp that exceeds 3.0 milligrams total THC per serving. The Governor will continue working with the legislature to establish a framework that meets those goals.”
Meanwhile, response to questions from senators during Tuesday’s Senate committee hearing, most law enforcement speakers said they supported an all-out ban on hemp products containing any THC rather than attempts at regulation. Some later added, however, that they felt the state’s limited medical marijuana program, known as the Texas Compassionate Use Program (TCUP), should be expanded to ease access by patients—especially military veterans—who could benefit from therapeutic cannabis.
Notably, Abbott in June signed a bill into law that expanded the state’s list of medical cannabis qualifying conditions, adding chronic pain, traumatic brain injury (TBI), Crohn’s disease and other inflammatory bowel diseases, while also allowing end-of-life patients in palliative or hospice care to use marijuana.
SB 5 is among a small handful of bills introduced for the new special session to address consumable hemp products.
Among the other proposals are measures to require extensive product warning labels and limit how hemp products are packaged.
Abbott has specifically asked lawmakers to prioritize hemp regulatory issues during the special session that kicked off on Monday. Two other newly introduced bills are HB 160 from Rep. Charlene Ward Johnson (D) and SB 39 from Sen. Judith Zaffirini (D).
The former would require a number of warning labels to be carried on hemp products with any more than trace amounts of THC, cautioning that the products can cause “cannabis poisoning that can be life-threatening to children,” harm brain development in youth, increase “risk of mental disorders like psychosis and schizophrenia” and lead to anxiety, depression and substance abuse disorders.
SB 39, meanwhile, would prohibit hemp products from being packaged or marketed “in a manner attractive to children,” limiting packaging shaped like humans, animals, fruit, cartoons or “another shape that is attractive to minors” as well as packaging that looks similar to legal products already marketed to children, for example candy or juice. It would also outlaw misleading product packaging. Violations would be a Class A misdemeanor, carrying up to a year in jail and a $4,000 fine.
Separately, last week Rep. Nicole Collier (D) introduced a one-page bill, HB 42, designed to protect consumers in the state from criminal charges if what they believed was a legal hemp product turned out to contain excessive amounts of THC, making it illegal marijuana. It would prevent the criminalization of someone found in possession of a product that’s labeled as hemp but is determined to contain “a controlled substance or marihuana.”
In order for the person to obtain the legal protection, the product would need to have been purchased “from a retailer the person reasonably believed was authorized to sell a consumable hemp product.”
The governor also said last month that rather than ban consumable hemp products outright, he wants to see lawmakers establish a regulatory framework that treats cannabinoids “similar to the way alcohol is regulated.”
Lawmakers at Tuesday’s hearing said that criminalization of possession would only kick in on a person’s third offense, however that provision does not seem to be included in the current version of SB 5.
Ahead of the governor’s recent veto of SB 3, hemp advocates and stakeholders had delivered more than 100,000 petition signatures asking Abbott to reject the measure. Critics of the bill argued that the industry—which employs an estimated 53,000 people—would be decimated if the measure became law.
Texas lawmakers legalized the sale of consumable hemp in 2019, following enactment of the 2018 federal Farm Bill, which legalized the plant nationwide. That led to an explosion of products—including edibles, drinks, vape products and cured flower—now sold by an estimated 8,000 retailers.
Military veterans advocates, including Texas Veterans of Foreign Wars, also called on the governor to veto the hemp ban, saying it “would cause irreversible harm to communities across the state.”
Farmers said the prohibition would devastate a key sector of the state’s agriculture industry.
Following his veto, Abbott proposed an extensive list of policy changes that he said he would support—and which the legislature will have the chance to enact during the special session.
“Texans on each side of the Senate Bill 3 debate raise serious concerns. But one thing is clear—to ensure the highest level of safety for minors, as well as for adults, who obtain a product more dangerous than what they expected, Texas must strongly regulate hemp, and it must do so immediately,” Abbott said.
Part of the rationale behind his veto was the risk of litigation over “valid constitutional challenges” that he suggested would hold up in court. Multiple top Texas hemp companies had already filed a preemptive lawsuit challenging the legislation before the governor’s veto.
“If I were to allow Senate Bill 3 to become law, its enforcement would be enjoined for years, leaving existing abuses unaddressed,” Abbott said in his veto message. “Texas cannot afford to wait.”
Rather than face the possibility of having the law enjoined, or indefinitely delayed, the governor said the state “must enact a regulatory framework that protects public safety, aligns with federal law, has a fully funded enforcement structure, and can take effect without delay.”
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Meanwhile, a recent survey from a GOP pollster affiliated with President Donald Trump showed that Texas Democratic and Republican voters are unified in their opposition to the hemp ban bill.
Another poll commissioned the Texas Hemp Business Council (THBC) found that Texas Republican primary voters oppose the proposal.
Last month, the governor signed bill to significantly expand the state’s medical marijuana program with new qualifying conditions additional product forms and more dispensary locations.
Abbott separately signed a bill into law to create a state-backed research consortium to conduct clinical trials on ibogaine as a possible treatment for substance use disorders and other mental health conditions. The ultimate goal of the project is to develop the psychedelic into a prescription drug with federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval, with the state retaining a portion of the profit.
The measure expands the state’s list of medical cannabis qualifying conditions to include chronic pain, traumatic brain injury (TBI), Crohn’s disease and other inflammatory bowel diseases, while also allowing end-of-life patients in palliative or hospice care to use marijuana.
Separately in Texas, a House committee approved a Senate-passed bill in May that would prohibit cities from putting any citizen initiative on local ballots that would decriminalize marijuana or other controlled substances—as several localities have already done despite lawsuits from the state attorney general.
Under the proposal, state law would be amended to say that local entities “may not place an item on a ballot, including a municipal charter or charter amendment, that would provide that the local entity will not fully enforce” state drug laws.
While several courts have previously upheld local cannabis decriminalization laws, an appellate court comprised of three conservative justices appointed by the governor has recently pushed back against two of those rulings, siding with the state in its legal challenge to the marijuana policy in Austin and San Marcos.
Despite the ongoing litigation and advancement of the House and Senate bills, Texas activists have their targets set on yet another city, Kyle, where they hope put an initiative before voters to enact local marijuana reform at the ballot this coming November.
A recent poll found that four in five Texas voters want to see marijuana legalized in some form, and most also want to see regulations around cannabis relaxed.
Photo courtesy of Brendan Cleak.
