Politics
Texas Lawmakers Take Up Bill To Ban Hemp THC Products As Democratic Walkout Prevents Floor Vote
Texas lawmakers took up a bill on Wednesday that would ban consumable hemp products containing THC. But despite the committee hearing being held, the legislation isn’t expected to advance during an ongoing special session as Democratic state lawmakers continue to deny the House a quorum to pass any measures amid a conflict over proposed redistricting.
The House bill, a companion to an identical Senate-passed hemp proposal, was discussed during a lengthy meeting of the House Public Health Committee, which is able to conduct business despite the broader lack of quorum in the chamber. While the governor has threatened prosecution or dismissal of absent Democratic members, the walkout hasn’t shown signs of relenting.
Time is running short in the special session Gov. Greg Abbott (R) convened to address a series of outstanding issues, including legislation related to hemp cannabinoid products. Abbott vetoed an earlier version of the controversial ban that passed during this year’s regular session, and he recently outlined what he’d like to see in a revised version of the bill.
The governor and legislative leaders have since affirmed that, if Democrats members don’t show up and establish a quorum by Friday, they will end the current special session and start a new one. Under the state constitution, special sessions cannot last longer than 30 days, but there is no limit to how many can be called.
At Wednesday’s hearing, the committee chair, Rep. Gary VanDeaver (R), gave a history of the state’s hemp laws, saying state legislators’ intent when initially allowing hemp following passage of federal legislation “was to open up a new agriculture market for Texas farmers because hemp is a viable agricultural prop crop and an agricultural commodity.”
“Unfortunately, the bill’s original intent was not realized,” he said. “An illicit market quickly sprung up to fill an unintended void since House Bill 1325 did not set regulatory guardrails on the sale and availability of hemp products.”
Ahead of the committee hearing, Heather Fazio, director of the advocacy group Texas Cannabis Policy Center, submitted written testimony stating that the proposed legislation “doubles down on failed policies of the past—policies that cause real harm and waste public resources.”
“We agree that gaps in the current regulatory infrastructure must be addressed. But the problem is not legal hemp—it’s the lack of regulatory enforcement,” she said. “Without proper oversight, bad actors slip through the cracks. But this does not have to continue. Accountability is critical—and it should come through administrative enforcement, including fines, license revocation, and product recalls, not criminalization.”
“Texans deserve safe, legal access to hemp products—not arrests and criminal records,” Fazio said. “Let’s fix what’s broken through smart regulation, not prohibition.”
(Disclosure: Fazio supports Marijuana Moment’s work via monthly Patreon pledges.)
John Harloe, general counsel at Village Farms International, said in a statement to Marijuana Moment that “Texas has the opportunity to do this right and regulate thoughtfully.”
“The Texas House has shown a willingness to learn, understand, and do right by the millions of Texans who want safe, well-regulated hemp products,” he said.
Paige Figi, executive director of Coalition for Access Now who’s daughter was a key force in enacting legislation in Texas to provide CBD access, said “SB 5 would have been a death sentence for my daughter.”
“It’s dangerously wrong—and it puts lives at risk,” she said.
Another parent who’s child benefits from cannabis as a treatment for epilepsy, Stephanie Fokas, stressed in written testimony that the hemp THC bill “does not allow for full-spectrum CBD.”
“This bill is not regulation—it is a ban. A ban on the very product that keeps my son alive. A ban on non-intoxicating medicine that has given thousands of Texans relief, stability, and hope,” she said. “You don’t protect kids by banning what works—you protect them by regulating what doesn’t. Texans deserve smart regulation, not blanket bans. Please don’t take that away.”
Mitch Fuller with the Texas branch of Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) also testified against the bill. He said the proposed hemp ban would deny veterans and the general population “effective, affordable and accessible alternative modality opioids and antidepressants that many veterans, including me, used to address pain and PTSD.”
“This issue is ultimately about freedom and liberty for us and unshackling us from opioids and alcohol,” he said. “We defended this country and fought on foreign soil for freedom and liberty.”
Steve Dye, chief of the Allen Police Department representing the Texas Police Chiefs Association, spoke in support of the hemp THC ban, asserting that “a vote for regulation is 100 percent a vote for the legalization of recreational marijuana in Texas.”
“Some say this is a hard decision. But as you study the facts of these products, it really becomes an easy decision, and committee members, I think we’re at a defining point,” he said. “Are we going to tell our children and grandchildren that we stood up to protect their health and safety and the prosperity of all Texans? Or did we acquiesce to the hemp industry desensitizing us to profit billions of dollars with many proceeds going outside of our country?”
Chambers County Sheriff Brian Hawthorne, president of the president of the Sheriffs Association of Texas, echoed many of the police chief’s points, saying “we cannot chase after the attempts to regulate individual products, compounds or concentrates every session, because the illicit drug makers of the drug are always are more nimble than the legislative process.”
“Make no mistake: The recreational marijuana market—the market that some members and state leaders aspire to regulate—is infiltrated by organized crime,” he said. “That is why we believe THC regulation will fail.”
The panel took no action on the bill at the end of the 11-hour-long hearing.
“For all who came to testify, we appreciate you. We have heard you,” VanDeaver, the committee chair, said before adjourning the meeting. “We will take your testimony into consideration.”
The ongoing Democratic walkout isn’t related to the hemp legislation. Rather, Democrats say they’ve left the capital to stop the House from passing a bill that would change the congressional districting map in a way that would create five Republican-leaning districts by dividing existing districts in primarily urban areas that lean Democratic.
But the hemp proposal remains controversial. Some, including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) and Senate bill sponsor Sen. Charles Perry (R), are insisting that an outright ban is a public safety imperative to rid the state of intoxicating products that have proliferated since the crop was federally legalized in 2018. Others say the legislature should instead enact regulations for the market to prevent youth access while still allowing adults 21 and older to access the products and preserving the massive industry.
At a press conference last month, a group of Democratic state senators introduced two new cannabis-related bills, including one that would regulate the hemp market, allowing adults 21 and older to purchase hemp products containing no more than 5 mg of THC per serving.
A second new bill would effectively legalize cannabis for adult use by removing criminal penalties for possession of up to two ounces of marijuana on a person and up to 10 ounces in a single household if it’s secure and out of sight. Cultivation of up to six plants, only half of which could be mature, would also be legalized.
The governor, who during the state’s regular legislative session this year vetoed a similar hemp product ban, SB 3, has also backed the idea of limiting THC potency and prohibiting sales to minors rather than outlawing products entirely.
Under the current Senate-passed proposal, consumable hemp products with any amount of THC—or any other cannabinoid besides CBD and CBG—would be illegal. Even mere possession would be punishable as a Class B misdemeanor, carrying up to 180 days in jail and a $2,000 fine.
Some advocates are hopeful that either SB 5 or its House counterpart could see revisions as they make their way through the legislative process—either to affirmatively regulate the hemp market or to at least ease some of the criminal penalties on individuals found in possession of the affected products.
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Meanwhile, 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.
Texas officials have since taken an initial step toward implementing the law, with the Department of Public Safety (DPS) recently previewing proposed rules to significantly increase the number of licensed dispensaries.
Separately, 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.”
Another bill—HB 195, introduced by Rep. Jessica González (D)—would legalize marijuana for people 21 and older, allowing possession of up to 2.5 ounces of cannabis, with no more than 15 grams of that amount being in concentrated form.
Yet another proposal would order state officials to conduct a study on testing for THC intoxication.
As for what Texans themselves want to see from their representatives, proponents of reining in the largely unregulated intoxicating hemp industry in Texas shared new polling data indicating that majorities of respondents from both major political parties support outlawing synthetic cannabinoids, such as delta-8 THC.
The survey also found that respondents would rather obtain therapeutic cannabis products through a state-licensed medical marijuana program than from a “smoke shop selling unregulated and untested hemp.”
Ahead of the governor’s veto in June of SB 3—the earlier hemp product ban—advocates and stakeholders had delivered more than 100,000 petition signatures asking Abbott to reject the measure. Critics argued that the industry—which employs an estimated 53,000 people—would be decimated if the measure became law.
Image element courtesy of AnonMoos.
