Texas Governor Vetoes Bill To Ban Hemp Products With Any THC Following Forceful Pushback From Industry, Veterans And More
From toxifillers.com with love
The Republican governor of Texas has vetoed a bill that would have banned consumable hemp products with any traces of THC that advocates and stakeholders say would have decimated a growing industry in the state.
Gov. Greg Abbott (R) rejected the legislation, SB 3 from Sen. Charles Perry (R), on Sunday.
This comes after weeks of uncertainty around how the governor would approach the bill, which was championed by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R)—with Abbott repeatedly declining to comment after being asked by reporters and saying he was overwhelmed with measures to review and hadn’t gotten to the hemp proposal at the time.
Hemp advocates and stakeholders had delivered more than 100,000 petition signatures asking Abbott to veto the measure. Critics of the bill argued that the industry—which employs an estimated 53,000 people—would be decimated if the measure became law.
Texas lawmakers legalized the sale of consumable hemp in 2019, following enactment of the 2018 federal Farm Bill, which legalized the plant nationwide. That’s led to an explosion of products—including edibles, drinks, vape products and cured flower—sold by an estimated 8,000 retailers.
Military veterans advocates, including Texas Veterans of Foreign Wars, have also called on the governor to veto the hemp ban, saying it “would cause irreversible harm to communities across the state.”
Farmers have also said the prohibition would devastate a key sector of the state’s agriculture industry.
Heather Fazio, director of the Texas Cannabis Policy Center, cheered the governor’s veto.
“We are deeply grateful to Governor Abbott for listening to the people of Texas and recognizing that regulation is a better approach to ensuring public health safety,” she said in a press release on Sunday. “This is a win for freedom and free markets.”
(Disclosure: Fazio supports Marijuana Moment’s work via a monthly Patreon pledge.)
Abbott on Sunday also called a special session of a legislature to begin on July 21, saying in a press release that SB 3 and other vetoed bills would be placed on the agenda for further consideration.
Meanwhile, a recent survey from a GOP pollster affiliated with President Donald Trump showed that Texas Democratic and Republican voters are unified in their opposition to the hemp ban bill.
Another poll commissioned the Texas Hemp Business Council (THBC) found that Texas Republican primary voters oppose the proposal.
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Abbott separately signed a bill into law this month to create a state-backed research consortium to conduct clinical trials on ibogaine as a possible treatment for substance use disorders and other mental health conditions. The ultimate goal of the project is to develop the psychedelic into a prescription drug with federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval, with the state retaining a portion of the profit.
On Saturday, the governor signed bill to significantly expand the state’s medical marijuana program with new qualifying conditions additional product forms and more dispensary locations.
The measure expands the state’s list of medical cannabis qualifying conditions to include chronic pain, traumatic brain injury (TBI), Crohn’s disease and other inflammatory bowel diseases, while also allowing end-of-life patients in palliative or hospice care to use marijuana.
Separately in Texas, a House committee approved a Senate-passed bill last 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.
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 the governor 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.
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.
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Image element courtesy of AnonMoos.
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