About half of the United States has fully legalized marijuana, but Texas isn't one of them, and we’re not getting any closer. Since Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill that legalized the production and sale of low-concentrate hemp products there’s been a war waged by many local police departments in North Texas on smoke shops selling products that exceed the legal limits. That disdain for hemp products is possibly matched in the Texas Legislature, now that there's a new bill aiming for an outright ban all THC products.
In 2019, Abbott signed House Bill 1325 that legalized hemp products with a 0.3% or less THC level, anything higher is considered illegal marijuana. That followed the 2018 passing of the Farm Bill, a federal law that, among many other things, legalized industrial hemp and opened the doors for intoxicating hemp products to flourish in Texas. THC is the chemical component that creates the euphoric feeling of smoking weed, and concentrated versions are available in gummies, vapes and pretty much any other way the human brain could possibly conceive. Since then, smoke shops have stocked thousands of these products on their shelves.
Even below the legal limit, the products do create a small high. However critics are more concerned with high-content products being advertised as below the legal limit, and lawmakers claim high-potency versions are being unwittingly sold to children.
“Dangerously, retailers exploited the agriculture law to sell life-threatening, unregulated forms of THC to the public and made them easily accessible,” said Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick in a statement. “These stores not only sold to adults, but they targeted Texas children and exposed them to dangerous levels of THC.”
Last week, Carrollton police say they confiscated "3,277 grams of various THC products, 2,624 grams of various psilocybin products and 517 grams of marijuana" from CBD Vape Shop on old Denton Road while also arresting the shop's owner, who is charged with several felonies.
"This case reflects our department’s commitment to addressing businesses that engage in illegal narcotics sales, particularly those involving juveniles," read a post on the Carrollton police's Facebook page.
Last September, a string of raids, conducted by the Allen Police Department and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, resulted in the confiscation of hemp products with THC levels far higher than the limit from nine smoke shops across the city. Police Chief Steve Dye claimed some of the products seized had THC levels over 15%. Since then, the police department hasn’t stopped their helicoptering of smoke shops in the city, and Dye has continuously advocated for stricter state laws.
“Labels on many products do not reflect the actual level of THC inside the packaging, which is leading to accidental intoxications, overdoses and increased addiction for these psychoactive products, particularly to our youth,” Dye said to the Senate.
THC and the State Legislature
Texas lawmakers seem divided over the legality of THC. While Abbott has so far dodged a firm stance on the products, Patrick listed banning them as one of his top legislative priorities months ago.
“Since 2023, thousands of stores selling hazardous THC products have popped up in communities across the state, and many sell products, including beverages, that have three to four times the THC content which might be found in marijuana purchased from a drug dealer,” Patrick said in a release.
Senate Bill 3, filed by Sen. Charles Perry, a Republican from Lubbock, would place a firm ban on all THC products, effectively closing many smoke shops throughout Texas that use the concentrate in their products. The bill does not affect the sale or distribution of CBD products, nor does it change the law surrounding medical marijuana. But still, a vast number of rule-following businesses, and thousands of hemp-consuming Texans, would be impacted by the ban.
"The marketplace has really spoken for itself," said Jim Higdon, co-founder of Corn Bread, a THC gummy company. "Texas is a place where the people enjoy freedom and liberty and they're enjoying their freedom and liberty with hemp products. And that freedom and liberty is under threat in Austin."
Higdon said the ban is an overreaction that moves the cannabis industry backward, although he admits people are abusing the system, and finding legal loopholes to distribute high-content products without discretion. On the flip side, however, he says there are also far more law-abiding distributors that will be negatively affected. The hemp industry is reported to create $8 billion in revenue for the state and supply more than 50,000 Texans with jobs. The business owner says the solution is to create limitations and stipulations that make it harder to circumvent the law instead of creating prohibition-like restrictions.
"There are bad actors who are making bad products that are, in fact, trademark copyright violations of existing candy and snack food companies and that are attractive to children," he said. "This is a fact, and that's why we need good regulations to prevent those bad actors. But the solution to that problem is not an outright ban."
