Gov. Greg Abbott must decide this week whether to sign or veto a bill to ban hemp-derived intoxicants, part of a national debate over the fast-growing industry.
Recreational marijuana may still be illegal in Texas, but its close relative, recreational hemp, is everywhere.
More than 5,000 stores across the state sell joints, gummies and drinks loaded with T.H.C., the intoxicating ingredient in cannabis. In some towns, retailers of T.H.C. products outnumber fast food restaurants.
By the end of this week, Gov. Greg Abbott must decide whether to sign what might be the nation’s broadest legal prohibition on intoxicating hemp-derived products, potentially making Texas a leader in the fight against the intoxicant, whose vocal opponents include Texas’s hard-right lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick, and California’s liberal standard-bearer, Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Lobbyists opposed to the ban — passed by the Republican-dominated State Legislature last month — have bombarded Mr. Abbott with messages urging a veto. They have stressed the number of jobs created by the nascent industry, whose sales in the state exceed $4 billion a year, industry experts say. And they have highlighted the use of T.H.C. products to cope with post-traumatic stress, chronic pain and other ailments, particularly among military veterans.
The lieutenant governor has accused the industry of peddling drugs.
“They want to hook a generation of young people,” Mr. Patrick said in a news conference at the Texas Capitol last month, standing over a table filled with T.H.C. products.
“They want to hook a generation of young people,” Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said of purveyors of hemp-derived intoxicants, an assortment of which he displayed at a news conference at the Texas Capitol last month.Credit…Ilana Panich-Linsman for The New York Times
Gov. Greg Abbott must decide this week whether to sign or veto a bill to ban hemp-derived intoxicants, part of a national debate over the fast-growing industry. Read More
