Texas government outlaws THC—confuses country, consumers, and themselves

The Lone Star mess gives us a preview of the upcoming nationwide hemp ban.

At the end of last month, a long-stalled ruling from the Texas Department of State Health Services finally went into effect that made the vast majority of hemp THC products illegal to buy, sell, or consume in the Lone Star State.

This comes after a confused process full of false starts, broken promises, and rank incompetence, in which it had seemed like hemp-derived cannabinoids had found a home in Texas and the industry was here to stay.

After a Texas Supreme Court ruling cleared the way for that old rule to take effect, the rug had been completely pulled out from under the multi-billion-dollar Texas hemp industry, leaving the entire field in a state of confusion.

The situation is the result of nearly a full year of contentious debate in the Texas House, where legislators attempted, but ultimately failed, to combat this ruling by instituting a new legal framework for hemp.

This process saw fault lines in Texas politics explode, turning the fates of Texan hemp producers and consumers into yet another political football. Proponents of a ban used arguments rife with misinformation and bad faith, and with a national hemp ban on the horizon, the case of Texas gives us a window into a possible future we’re all headed toward if the nationwide ban is allowed to go through.

What’s in the bill 

This rule amounts to a ban on all THC products totalling over 0.3% delta-9 THC in dry weight, in addition to a ban on the usual suspects of hemp cannabinoids: delta-8, delta-10, THCP, and the big one, THCA. The only category that has fully escaped the falling hammer is low-dose D-9 and non-intoxicating CBD. It’s the regressive reinstitution of prohibition that Texan advocates had worked so hard to move beyond, a great leap backward for an industry that had truly been finding its way.

Those found to be in possession of products that violate this rule will catch a state jail felony charge, with possible punishments including up to two years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000. No slaps on the wrist; these products are now treated as Schedule I drugs, same as heroin and LSD.

While the Texas hemp industry has vowed to fight this rule in court (a new lawsuit has already been filed, with more possibly on the way), the ban has already had a real financial impact on the fledgling industry. The Texas Tribune is reporting that some retailers are pulling up to 50% of their supplies from shelves, with a related impact on sales. It’s a safe bet that thousands of jobs won’t survive the change, and some consumers will be pushed toward less-than-legal means to acquire their THC.

This crackdown has long been championed by folks like Lt. Governor Dan Patrick (not the sports podcaster, the other one) and state AG and Senate hopeful Ken Paxton, along with a coterie of legislators with an average age that’d make Methuselah blush, who seem to have opposed legalization efforts using information from anti-drug specials glimpsed from underneath a desk during duck-and-cover drills and enough spite to choke an elephant. Allegedly.

How we got here 

Here’s the timeline: the 2018 Farm Bill opened the floodgates for hemp-derived products to enter the market. Highly populated non-rec-legal states, like Texas, took especially well to the new market; Texas has the second-largest state economy and population in the nation, and the hemp industry there was big business. After the national legislature passed last November’s funding bill, which included some sneaky language inserted to once again kneecap the hemp industry, more and more state legislatures followed suit before the national ban took full effect.

However, it seemed as though Texas may have survived this culling: Governor Abbott signaled that he wouldn’t sign a ban when he vetoed a bill last year, and asked for a special legislative session to put the issue to bed in a way that treats all involved fairly. There was hope that this was a firm step in the right direction. Abbott didn’t seem to have a good reason to break his word and sign a ban. Hemp, like traditional cannabis, was generally a boon to the state, pulling in tax dollars, bringing jobs, and keeping folks out of jail.

However, that special session turned out to be bunk. The legislature impotently spun its wheels for months, unable to deliver a bill that Abbott would sign. Then, to add insult to injury, they tried and failed again in another special session. Instead of working to untangle the knot, the Texas Legislature threw up their hands and gave up on passing anything at all. 

That left the decision in the hands of the state’s Supreme Court, which ruled in May of this year that the Texas Department of State Health Services did indeed have the authority to classify the hemp cannabinoids as a Schedule I drug, ending the injunction that had been placed to stay the ban. With no legislative rescue for the industry forthcoming, the rules finally took effect at the end of last month. 

This whole process has been a clinic in regulatory malpractice. Even in a country like ours, where gridlock and feuds exploding real people’s lives are the name of the game, this fiasco has taken the cake. After getting contradictory signals for months, with products being pulled, then restored, then pulled again, Texas hemp businesses are left holding the bag. 

In truth, the only people who win here are some state officials who will score some fleeting political capital that will dissipate in a few months’ time, regressive social forces which won’t be satisfied with this latest scalp, and the illegal dealers who are now, once again, the only game in town for Texans looking to enjoy THC.

The blind leading the blind 

The level of cannabis and hemp knowledge on display from the state legislature, the media, and the various lobbying bodies has been truly abysmal. This debate has revived vintage anti-drug arguments that had, seemingly and hopefully, been put to bed.

Reefer Madness is alive and well in the state of Texas, with sympathetic media outlets ready to swallow the most sensationalized, hyperventilating takes about scromiting victims, perma-fried kids with bleary eyes and zombified minds, and lazy stoners loitering and collecting unemployment.

The number of people in government who understand the difference between the different cannabinoids, what hemp products are and how they differ (and fail to differ) from traditional cannabis, and why anyone would choose to consume THC is vastly outstripped by the amount of people who don’t know and don’t care to know. That’s not just Texas, either; it’s a nationwide problem, and one we’re going to have to continue to deal with if we’re ever going to find our way out of this mess.

Underneath the layers of propaganda, bad faith, institutional racism, and outright lies, the case for nationwide legalization and regulation of hemp is ironclad, but we can’t let being right make us lazy as we continue to fight for a better future. Opponents of hemp and cannabis are fighting in all states to roll back the clock to the bad old days, trying to ensure that loopholes are closed and existing legalization frameworks are repealed.

These guys are organized, they’re well funded, and they are not afraid to fight dirty in any situation. Texas shows us that we can lose, and we will lose, if we remain unorganized and content in the belief that legalization is inevitable. While the legal challenges may still provide relief for the Texan industry, we simply cannot rely on an eleventh-hour miracle to sustain an entire industry.

If you want to keep your weed in your hand, if you don’t want to risk winding up behind bars for possession of a plant, then you’ve got to get involved. Call your reps, check out some advocacy groups, and for the love of God, register to vote.

Help probably isn’t coming from above, but if we lock in and force these legislatures to see the light of day, we can beat the bastards and win this thing in Texas and everywhere else, too.