Texas Democrats Slam GOP Lieutenant Governor For Championing Hemp Product Ban That Has Now Passed The House

Lawmakers in the Texas House of Representatives have passed a measure to establish a statewide ban on consumable hemp products that contain any detectable amount of THC.

The House approved the bill, SB 3, on third reading vote of 87–54 on Thursday.

Under the latest version of the proposal, championed by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R), who presides over the Senate, adults could face a $500 fine for possessing a hemp product containing any THC—a penalty that would climb to up to 180 days in jail for subsequent offenses.

Earlier this week, Patrick wrote on social media that “we cannot in good conscience leave Austin without banning THC.”

“I’ve been here for 17 years at the Texas Capitol—10 years as your lieutenant governor,” he said in a video Monday evening. “I’ve never been more passionate about anything.”

Democrats have attacked the bill as an assault on personal liberty and gone after Patrick for his zeal around the ban.

“Dan Patrick is coming for your THC,” the party posted on social media. “Why doesn’t he bring this kind of energy to fully funding our public schools and raising teacher pay?”

“In the so-called ‘freedom state’,” it added, “adults should have the right to use cannabinoid products. We allow alcohol and tobacco—why not a gummy or oil to relax and ease pain?”

Democrats also said the lieutenant governor “could use a puff or two—might help him chill out and mind his own business.”

Patrick, for his part, has emphasized that despite his support for eradicating the intoxicating hemp industry, he nevertheless favors expanding Texas’s limited medical marijuana program, at least to some extent, and supports research on the psychedelic ibogaine.

Notably, one of the few exceptions to the proposed hemp THC ban would be for academic research.

As for other consumable hemp products, manufacturers would have to pay a $10,000 state licensing fee and retailers a $20,000 fee in order to work with products containing only the non-intoxicating cannabinoids CBD and CBG.

Penalties for violating the proposed law would be severe, with unlawful manufacture or sale of prohibited cannabinoids deemed a third-degree felony, which typically carries a sentence of two to five years and fines of up to $25,000.

Prior to passage of the bill, however, House members approved an amendment that lowered penalties for personal possession.

The change, from Rep. Joe Moody (D), would make a first offense a Class C misdemeanor—punishable with a fine of up to $500—rather than a Class A misdemeanor as initially proposed.

Class A misdemeanors are punishable by up to a year in jail and a $4,000 fine.

Subsequent offenses, meanwhile, could be charged as misdemeanors, carrying fines of between $250 and $2,000 and jail time of up to 180 days. Courts, however, could also place a person on “deferred disposition,” allowing community service in lieu of incarceration and fines.

Lawmakers passed the amendment on a 107–30 vote.

Shipping or mailing the products would also be a Class A misdemeanor.

Minors, meanwhile, would be subject to a Class C misdemeanor for a first-time possession offense—a record eligible for later expungement—with harsher penalties for subsequent offenses.

Ahead of the vote, some Democrats, including Reps. James Talarico and Ana-María Rodríguez-Ramos, urged colleagues to vote against the proposal.

“Members, this bill is insane,” Talarico said before the vote. “We are about to vote on a complete and total ban on all THC products in the state of Texas.”

“This legislature legalized hemp six years ago, but instead of regulating this booming industry in our state, we are now going backwards to the days of prohibition,” he continued. “This bill is not going to stop Texans from smoking weed or eating edibles just because a bunch of politicians in Austin tell them not to.”

Rodríguez-Ramos said that “Texas deserves better than this bill.”

“For the people who work in this industry and the people who depend on it to live their daily lives,” she said. “I’m sorry that this legislature has again filled you.”

The pro-reform Texas Cannabis Policy Center noted that the bill “criminalizes products that remain legal under federal law, reigniting fears of mass arrests and overcriminalization.”

In the decade between 2009 and 2019, the group said, state authorities made more than 600,000 arrests for cannabis-related offenses.

“This is not just about delta-8 or synthetic cannabinoids,” Executive Director Heather Fazio said in a statement about the measure. “SB 3 re-criminalizes nearly every cannabinoid except for isolated CBD and CBG. It ignores public health, disregards consumer safety, and hands over a multibillion-dollar industry to the illicit market.”

(Disclosure: Fazio supports Marijuana Moment’s work with a monthly pledge on Patreon.)

Prior to House passage of the bill this week, a committee approved an amendment to change the nature of the bill to one that would regulate, rather than ban, hemp products.

On the floor this week on second reading, however, lawmakers adopted a handful of additional changes, including one that removed provisions that would have allowed certain types of hemp THC products. The amendment from Rep. Tom Oliverson (R) largely returned the bill to a form that passed the Senate in March, though some differences still remain.

With the House floor approval on Thursday, the bill next returns to the Senate, which will have the opportunity to sign off on the latest version. If that happens, SB 3 would proceed to Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R) desk for his consideration.

Local reports note that Abbott has generally deferred to lawmakers on their approach to regulating or outlawing hemp products. Earlier this week, a representative for the governor’s office said Abbott “will thoughtfully review any legislation sent to his desk.”

Separate from the hemp ban bill, a measure that would significantly expand Texas’s medical marijuana program had its first Senate committee hearing earlier this week, where a key senator called the House-passed measure a “work in process” and said future changes are in store.

“It’s currently in the works, and we’re still having conversations on what the final product is,” Sen. Charles Perry (R) said of the legislation, HB 46. “There will be a committee substitute, but it is not back from [Legislative] Council yet.”

One lawmaker, Sen. Brian Birdwell (R), said that given the forthcoming substitute, he intends to work with Perry and “see what he’s going to change.”

Birdwell told Perry he had “serious concerns” with the House-passed HB 46 compared to the Senate companion, SB 1505, but he added that “instead of wasting the committee’s time asking questions, now I think I’d rather just consult separately with Sen. Perry.”

As passed by the House of Representatives last week, the medical cannabis bill would build on the Texas Compassionate Use Program, known as TCUP, to ease access to more patients across the state. It would add additional dispensaries, expand the state’s list of qualifying conditions, allow a wider range of available products and allow marijuana for end-of-life patients in palliative or hospice care.

As passed by the House of Representatives last week, the medical cannabis bill would build on the Texas Compassionate Use Program, known as TCUP, to ease access to more patients across the state. It would add additional dispensaries, expand the state’s list of qualifying conditions, allow a wider range of available products and allow marijuana for end-of-life patients in palliative or hospice care.

Specifically, it would allow patients to access cannabis patches, lotions, suppositories, approved inhalers, nebulizers and and vaping devices. The currently limited list of qualifying conditions would be extended to include chronic pain, glaucoma, traumatic brain injury (TBI), spinal neuropathy, Crohn’s disease or other inflammatory bowel disease, degenerative disc disease and any terminal illness for patients receiving hospice or palliative care.

Military veterans would be able to become registered cannabis patients for any medical condition, and the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) would also be authorized for further expand the list.

While Patrick said in his social media post this week that he supports expanding TCUP by adding new licenses and locations, he did not directly address the provisions of the House bill that would authorize additional qualifying conditions and product forms to the program.

Separately last week, House lawmakers also passed a measure to support research on the therapeutic potential of ibogaine with the aim of encouraging federal approval of the psychedelic.

That bill, SB 2308, would create a grant program through the state Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) to provide funding for clinical trials exploring ibogaine as a potential treatment option for people suffering from opioid use disorder (OUD) and other serious mental health condition

“To the veterans who are out there struggling, for the mothers—millions of mothers across the state of Texas who have kids who are addicted to opioids—Texas is coming, Rep. Cody Harris (R), sponsor of a House companion version of the measure, said on the floor.

While the measure has previously passed the Senate, the House slightly amended it to clarify that the definition of ibogaine that would be studied also includes ibogaine-based therapeutics and analogues. As such, it needs to go back to the other body before potentially being sent to the governor and enacted into law.

An analysis of the legislation says OUD “continues to be one of the most insidious threats to public health of our time, devastating individuals, families, and communities across Texas and our nation,” and “current treatment options are often unsuccessful in treating OUD and lives are lost as a result.”

Ibogaine has “shown incredible promise in early research as an effective and fast-acting treatment for OUD and other related or co-occurring conditions,” it says. “However, ibogaine must undergo costly FDA-approved clinical trials before it can become a viable treatment option.”

Earlier this month, meanwhile, the Texas House also gave final passage to a pair of bills designed to ensure speedy access to psychedelic-assisted therapy in the event of federal approval from FDA.

One bill—HB 4014, from Rep. John Bucy III (D)—would establish a state-backed study into the use of psilocybin, MDMA and ketamine to treat conditions such as PTSD and depression. The other—HB 4813, from Rep. Tom Oliverson (R)—aims to minimize delay at the state level if and when FDA approves a new drug, such as psilocybin or MDMA.

With respect to the cannabis legislation, its approval comes months after DPS released a report advising that the state’s currently limited medical marijuana system “does not provide for statewide access for patients” and recommending that the number of licensed dispensaries be significantly expanded to meet demand.

A recent poll found that four in five Texas voters want to see marijuana legalized in some form, and most also want to see regulations around cannabis relaxed.

Meanwhile in Texas, a House committee approved a Senate-passed bill earlier this month that would prohibit cities from putting any citizen initiative on local ballots that would decriminalize marijuana or other controlled substances—as several localities have already done despite lawsuits from the state attorney general.

—
Marijuana Moment is tracking hundreds of cannabis, psychedelics and drug policy bills in state legislatures and Congress this year. Patreon supporters pledging at least $25/month get access to our interactive maps, charts and hearing calendar so they don’t miss any developments.

Learn more about our marijuana bill tracker and become a supporter on Patreon to get access.
—

Under the proposal, state law would be amended to say that local entities “may not place an item on a ballot, including a municipal charter or charter amendment, that would provide that the local entity will not fully enforce” state drug laws.

While several courts have previously upheld local cannabis decriminalization laws, an appellate court comprised of three conservative justices appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has recently pushed back against two of those rulings, siding with the state in its legal challenge to the marijuana policy in Austin and San Marcos.

Despite the ongoing litigation and advancement of the House and Senate bills, Texas activists have their targets set on yet another city, Kyle, where they hope put an initiative before voters to enact local marijuana reform at the ballot this coming November.

Abbott has lashed out against the municipal cannabis reform efforts.

“Local communities such as towns, cities and counties, they don’t have the authority to override state law,” the governor said last May “If they want to see a different law passed, they need to work with their legislators. Let’s legislate to work to make sure that the state, as a state, will pass some of the law.”

He said it would lead to “chaos” and create an “unworkable system” for voters in individual cities to be “picking and choosing” the laws they want abide by under state statute.

Abbott has previously said that he doesn’t believe people should be in jail over marijuana possession—although he mistakenly suggested at the time that Texas had already enacted a decriminalization policy to that end.

In 2023, Ground Game released a report that looked at the impacts of the marijuana reform laws. It found that the measures will keep hundreds of people out of jail, even as they have led to blowback from law enforcement in some cities. The initiatives have also driven voter turnout by being on the ballot, the report said.

Another cannabis decriminalization measure that went before voters in San Antonio that year was overwhelmingly defeated, but that proposal also included unrelated provisions to prevent enforcement of abortion restrictions.

Meanwhile, in March the Texas Senate approved a bill that cannabis advocates and stakeholders said would effectively eradicate the state’s hemp industry, prohibiting consumable products derived from the plant that contain any amount of THC.

That, as well as another measure from Rep. Joe Moody (D) to decriminalize cannabis statewide, is one of the latest of nearly two dozen cannabis-related proposals filed so far in Texas for the current legislative session. Various other measures would legalize adult-use marijuana, remove criminal penalties for cannabis possession and adjust the state’s existing medical marijuana laws, among others.

Moody sponsored a similar marijuana decriminalization bill last legislative session, in 2023. That measure, HB 218, passed the House on an 87–59 vote but later died in a Senate committee.

The House had already passed earlier cannabis decriminalization proposals during the two previous legislative sessions, in 2021 and 2019. But the efforts have consistently stalled in the Senate amid opposition from the lieutenant governor.

Senate Committee Approves Trump’s DEA Pick Who Has Refused To Say If He Supports Marijuana Rescheduling Proposal Before Agency

The post Texas Democrats Slam GOP Lieutenant Governor For Championing Hemp Product Ban That Has Now Passed The House appeared first on Marijuana Moment.