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Texans who enjoy having access to legal THC may soon be SOL. As of this writing, a bill which would ban all hemp derived THC consumables was sent to Gov. Greg Abbott. As someone with a long history of enacting terrible legislation, it’s expected he will sign it. In doing so, he will eliminate a growing industry which analysts say has created over 50,000 jobs, and has generated over $8 billion annually in tax revenue. MJBizdaily shares that “Texas has the nation’s largest market for hemp-derived THC products.” I’ve lived in Texas, in the summer. This tracks.
Texas doesn’t exactly have a progressive attitude towards cannabis. Simple possession can result in jail time, there is no Recreational Adult Use program, and the medical program is one of the most restrictive in the nation. The list of qualifying conditions is short, and those approved through a physician’s recommendation are limited to edibles and topicals, none of which may contain more than 1% in THC of the entire products weight (i.e a one gram gummy may have no more than 10 mg of THC.)
Enrique Macias
Those 50,000 jobs came about when in 2019 the legislature passed a bill to support the state’s hemp growers which legalized “consumable hemp products.” Which at the time, was believed would be CBD. As The Texas Tribune reports, “Though that 2019 law does not allow products to contain more than trace amounts of delta-9 THC, it did not establish that same threshold for other hemp derivatives.”
Delta-9 is what you find in cannabis products sold in Oregon dispensaries, which overwhelmingly sell products grown from cannabis plants. Hemp plants, which is where CBD is taken from, have it as well, in small amounts. The Feds have placed an utterly arbitrary limit of .3% delta-9 THC for hemp -derived products. Any more than that, and it’s a drug, and cannot be sold outside a regulated Adult Use or Medical program.
It was believed that passing the bill would establish a market for CBD products, and it did. But despite what the Church and State in Texas might have you believe, people love, love, LOVE to get high. And because it was now legal to process hemp for cannabinoids, processors found there were other fun things you could extract.
As a Missouri Department of Health report stated “One recent study found at least twenty-six different intoxicating compounds in hemp-derived cannabis products readily available on the market, the most common being Delta-8tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), THC-P, Delta-9 THC, HHC, THC-A, Delta-10 THC, THC-H, THC-B, THC- JD, THC-X, HHC-P, and Delta-11 THC.
(New goal: Try THC-X.)
As I’ve written here previously (“Getting High Down South: Delta 8 and THCA y’all”), I had a chance to try some of these while in Nashville at a head shop that sold products containing many of these. I sat down for an in-store flight of three hemp derived dabs, and bought some THC-A flower for later. Overall, it was better than not having tried it, but I was eager to get back to the Pacific Wonderland flower I had brought with me. (Um, that I forgot was in my suitcase, I mean.)
All these intoxicating hemp derived cannabinoids were not what the Texas legislature had in mind, and should Gov. Abbott sign the bill, it’s going to leave Texans with far more limited choices. From the bill, “Legal consumable hemp products would be limited to isolated CBD or CBG cannabinoids. All other cannabinoids, even those that do not cause impairment, would be banned and criminalized.” The bill would go into effect September 1, 2025, so stock up, Longhorns.
Not just consumers would be getting screwed. Want to manufacture CBD or CBG products? That’ll cost you $10,000 per year. Want to sell them? That’s $20,000 per year.
Texas isn’t alone. California has banned “intoxicating hemp products,” Alabama has banned smokable hemp, and other states are making moves to do the same, in some cases to protect the sales of a regulated cannabis program. All of this could be addressed with a new Federal Farm Bill, which Congress is now two years late in passing. (The 2018 Farm Bill expired in 2023.)
Don’t hold your breath.
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