AUSTIN, Texas — With days left to make up his mind about whether to sign or veto Senate Bill 3, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he is still on the fence.
The legislation would ban the sale of consumable products containing THC, the psychoactive compound found in cannabis. The bill would only allow for the sale of CBD and CBG, cannabis compounds that won’t get users high.
“I’ve got 1,000 of these on my desk that I have to get through, and I haven’t gotten to SB 3 yet,” Abbott said during a property tax bill signing on Monday. “There are meaningful positions and concerns on both sides of the issue, and I’ll look into all of those and evaluate all of those.”
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. But SB 3 would end the sale of products with any detectable amount of THC, including edibles, beverages and vapes.
The products began appearing after Texas approved a farming bill in 2019. House Bill 1325 established the Texas Health and Safety Code Chapter 443. It allows for the sale of consumable hemp products across the state that do not exceed 0.3% delta-9 THC. That law has led to the sale of hemp-derived delta-8 THC and products that contain delta-9 THC at 0.3% of the total weight, which can still be an intoxicating amount at a high ratio.
“Smoke and vape shops in Texas are pushing dangerously high levels of THC to our kids and adults in over 8,000 locations, many of which are within 1,000 to 2,000 feet from our schools,” Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who has led the push to ban the products, tweeted Wednesday.
Abbott is under competing pressures, and Rice University Political Science Professor Mark Jones said the governor is between a “rock and a hard place” as he mulls what to do with the bill.
“If he vetoes the bill, he angers one segment of the Republican Party, particularly the lieutenant governor,” Jones said. “If he allows it to become law, though, he angers a substantial share of the owners of these businesses, as well as many of the users of the products from these businesses, and goes against public opinion that, by and large, would prefer to see something like medical marijuana, at least legal in the state of Texas.”
Abbott could sign the bill into law, veto it or take no action and the bill would become law without his signature.
But if he does choose to allow it to take effect without signing it, Jones said Abbott will still be taking a stance on the issue.
“He would be sending a signal that while he doesn’t object to the legislation enough to veto it, he also doesn’t strongly support it,” Jones said. “At least it would be something for those groups that want to see the bill vetoed. It would be his way of signaling to them, ‘I don’t disagree with you, but I don’t agree with you strongly enough to veto this legislation.'”
Polling shows bipartisan opposition to THC ban
The push to ban all THC products has received backlash, with recent polling showing bipartisan opposition, including from Republican voters who don’t want Abbott to sign SB 3.
The polling – conducted at the end of May by Tony Fabrizio of Fabrizio and Lee, President Donald Trump’s pollster during his presidential campaigns – found that voters opposed SB 3 by a margin of 61% to 19%, a 3 to 1 ratio. Among Republicans, the poll found a double-digit margin of opposition, with 44% opposed to 31%, and clear majorities of Independents and Democrats also opposed.
The polling found that 70% of Texas voters would rather have consumable THC products remain legal but be strictly regulated with age restrictions and warning labels, as opposed to 16% who wanted the outright ban. It also found 59% of Republicans support legalization over the outright ban.
In his tweet Wednesday morning, Lt. Gov. Patrick pushed back on what he called “phony polls” the THC industry is “pushing to support their position.”
“These nonsense polls are based on questions they write to slant the answers in their favor, a common polling trick,” he tweeted. “The polling numbers they claim have zero credibility. Real polls are based on straightforward “fact questions” that tell the full story. As more and more republicans learn about dangerous, highly potent THC sold near our schools, the more they support the ban the legislature passed.”
He posted what he called “real polling numbers on this issue from Republican voters” from a poll conducted by pollster Mike Baselice. One question was framed by saying that compared to 1,100 McDonalds in Texas, 8,000 THC stores have opened up in the last three years, selling products with dangerous levels of THC. To that question, 54% of those surveyed said the products should be banned, while 38% said they should not be.
It is worth noting that a poll conducted by Baselice in March found 68% of voters want consumable THC to remain legal but strictly regulated with measures such as age restrictions and warning labels, and only 20% prefer an outright ban. That poll also found 57% of Republicans opposed the effort to fully ban the products – almost double the 29% who said they support those efforts.
“Most of the polling we do shows that about three out of four Texans support medical marijuana and about three out of five support recreational marijuana. So clearly, you know, shutting down these dispensaries is not popular,” Jones said. “Some people view it more as recreational marijuana. Some people view it more as medical marijuana. But regardless, the position of shutting down these dispensaries is a minority one among Texas voters.”
What advocates and critics of SB 3 say
If signed into law, hemp industry advocates say SB 3 will not only dismantle an $8 billion industry supporting over 53,000 jobs but will also open the floodgates to unregulated, unsafe products in Texas.
The Texas hemp industry – including farmers, small business owners and veterans – has been urging Abbott to veto the bill. Veterans have said THC products have been vital to keep them from taking prescription pills and using alcohol, and the products have helped them deal with things like PTSD and anxiety.
Meanwhile, critics of the products – including law enforcement – say they are too accessible and pose a danger to Texans, particularly teens. Patrick has argued retailers have exploited the law and started selling products that contain three to four times the THC content that might be found in marijuana purchased from a drug dealer. He also says the products are marketed toward children.
This week, several groups – including Citizens for a Safe and Healthy Texas, Texans for Safe and Drug-Free Youth, and the Sheriff’s Association of Texas – sent a letter to Abbott, encouraging him to sign the bill into law.
“These products present profound health and safety concerns, with THC concentrations sometimes exceeding 90%. High potency products have been linked with increased risk of psychosis, schizophrenia, anxiety, depression, and addiction” the letter read. “Many products sold contain marketing that youth find appealing, resemble kid friendly foods like Starburst and Oreos, include brightly colored packaging, cartoon characters, and candy flavors, increasing ingestion and poisonings among children. From 2017 to 2022, Texas saw a 495% increase in marijuana-related calls to poison control centers for children aged 5 and younger.”
Abbott has until Sunday to decide what to do. If he does veto the bill, Jones said the governor will be under a lot of pressure to call a special session to look at adding age restrictions or product quality control for THC.
“What was clear in a lot of the discussion that occurred during the debate over SB 3 was that there’s a real strong consensus in Texas that the status quo is unacceptable and that something needs to be done to increase regulation of this industry, as well as crackdown on some of the practices that, have effectively brought a lot of the disrepute or drama to the situation,” Jones said. “If the governor vetoes this bill, he’d almost be forced to call a special session to find some type of compromise legislation to regulate this industry while getting rid of the parts that the lieutenant governor finds to be most objectionable.”
Critics argue that regulation is the most effective path to safety. That’s the approach the House initially took before reverting to a ban passed by the Senate after pressure from Patrick. The lieutenant governor had threatened to push for a special session if lawmakers did not pass a THC ban.
Jones said the calculation is a difficult one for Abbott to make because there are strong arguments for either outcome.
“He has to choose which one he believes has the most pros compared to cons and look at sort of the relative merits are served. He has to look at it from his calculations,” Jones said. “He has to look at the benefits and the costs to him, politically, and to Republicans, politically, and take the one that he believes has the most benefits or least cost.”
