Texas Senator Files Bills To Regulate Hemp Products And Legalize Marijuana As Chamber Takes Up THC Ban

As Texas Senate leaders work to advance a bill to ban most consumable hemp products, a Democratic lawmaker is putting forward an alternative proposal to instead enact regulations for the market, while also announcing separate legislation to legalize adult-use marijuana.

Ahead of a scheduled Senate vote on the controversial hemp THC ban bill on Wednesday as part of an ongoing special session, Sen. Nathan Johnson (D) held a press conference with colleagues and advocates where he outlined his shared concern about the proliferation of intoxicating hemp products since the crop was legalized—but stressed that outright prohibition doesn’t represent a practical solution.

To that end, the senator is proposing a middle-road approach to the issue, with a measure that would allow adults 21 and older to purchase hemp products containing no more than 5 mg of THC per serving.

Johnson said the legislation largely resembles a measure advanced by Rep. Ken King (R) during this year’s regular legislative session, with certain differences such as a revised mandate for an advisory committee to monitor and report on the marketplace as well as a lower THC threshold.

It would also impose a separate sales tax on hemp products, rather than an excise tax that Johnson said would ensure that the state reaps the necessary revenue to fund education within the existing medical marijuana program, law enforcement and testing.

“The unregulated sale of hemp-derived THC products poses grave threats to public health overall, particularly to children, as it has been marketed and sold to children,” Johnson said. “The documented surge in THC use by kids in corresponding cases of serious medical harm caused by this unscrupulous and dangerous and unpredictable product quality and potency demands that we act immediately in the legislature to enact an enforceable regulatory framework for THC.”

Meanwhile, Gov. Greg Abbott (R), who vetoed an earlier version of the hemp ban bill during the state’s regular legislative session, is continuing to call for a compromise that would allow small amounts of THC in hemp products.

On Wednesday, Johnson also unveiled a second new bill, which he described as “decriminalization” but would effectively legalize cannabis for adult use by removing criminal penalties for possession of up to two ounces of marijuana on a person, up to 10 ounces in a single household if it’s secure and out of sight and cultivation of up to six plants (only half of which could be mature).

“Decriminalizing adult-use cannabis would put Texas on par with nearly half of the nation, create a more cohesive cannabis ecosystem for regulation, and allow for law enforcement officers to concentrate on violent crimes,” a summary of the legislation that was distributed at the press conference says.

It’s not clear that a commercial market would be stood up immediately, but the bill would create a Texas Hemp and Cannabis Commission to “create rules and regulations for cannabis growers, beverage brewers, product manufacturers, and retail establishments that ensures public health and safety are a priority.”

Those regulations would need to address product and beverage testing requirements, age restrictions, marketing and advertising restrictions, public consumption rules, retail location policies and expungements for people who’ve been criminalized over activities that would be made legal under the measure.

“In addition to getting rid of the injustice, we now are working towards a more harmonious way to regulate THC products,” Johnson said. “It will be up to a subsequent legislature to fully regulate THC products that come from the marijuana plant. I just don’t think we can do that quickly enough in the session.”

With respect to the hemp bill that a Senate committee unanimously advanced last week and is set to be taken up by the full chamber on Wednesday, consumable hemp products with any amount of THC would be illegal. Even mere possession would be punishable as a Class B misdemeanor, carrying up to 180 days in jail and a $2,000 fine.

Only products with two specific cannabinoids—CBD and CBG—would be allowed under the Senate proposal.

Ahead of the special legislative session, Abbott specifically asked lawmakers to prioritize hemp regulatory issues. He reiterated his opposition to enacting a blanket prohibition on hemp products, which he called “a lawful agricultural commodity,” and called on the legislature to make two chief reforms.

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At last week’s Senate committee hearing on SB 5, most law enforcement speakers said they supported an all-out ban on hemp products containing any THC rather than attempts at regulation. Some later added, however, that they felt the state’s limited medical marijuana program, known as the Texas Compassionate Use Program (TCUP), should be expanded to ease access by patients—especially military veterans—who could benefit from therapeutic cannabis.

Notably, Abbott in June signed a bill into law that expanded the state’s list of medical cannabis qualifying conditions, adding 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.

SB 5 and companion HB 5 are among a small handful of bills introduced for the new special session to address consumable hemp products.

Among other proposals are measures to require extensive product warning labels and limit how hemp products are packaged.

Two other newly introduced bills are HB 160 from Rep. Charlene Ward Johnson (D) and SB 39 from Sen. Judith Zaffirini (D).

The former would require a number of warning labels to be carried on hemp products with any more than trace amounts of THC, cautioning that the products can cause “cannabis poisoning that can be life-threatening to children,” harm brain development in youth, increase “risk of mental disorders like psychosis and schizophrenia” and lead to anxiety, depression and substance abuse disorders.

SB 39, meanwhile, would prohibit hemp products from being packaged or marketed “in a manner attractive to children,” limiting packaging shaped like humans, animals, fruit, cartoons or “another shape that is attractive to minors” as well as packaging that looks similar to legal products already marketed to children, for example candy or juice. It would also outlaw misleading product packaging. Violations would be a Class A misdemeanor, carrying up to a year in jail and a $4,000 fine.

Separately, last week Rep. Nicole Collier (D) introduced a one-page bill, HB 42, designed to protect consumers in the state from criminal charges if what they believed was a legal hemp product turned out to contain excessive amounts of THC, making it illegal marijuana. It would prevent the criminalization of someone found in possession of a product that’s labeled as hemp but is determined to contain “a controlled substance or marihuana.”

In order for the person to obtain the legal protection, the product would need to have been purchased “from a retailer the person reasonably believed was authorized to sell a consumable hemp product.”

Another bill—HB 195, introduced on Thursday by Rep. Jessica González (D)—would legalize marijuana for people 21 and older, allowing possession of up to 2.5 ounces of cannabis, with no more than 15 grams of that amount being in concentrated form.

Yet another proposal would order state officials to conduct a study on testing for THC intoxication.

As for what Texans themselves want to see from their representatives, proponents of reining in the largely unregulated intoxicating hemp industry in Texas shared new polling data on Wednesday indicating that majorities of respondents from both major political parties support outlawing synthetic cannabinoids, such as delta-8 THC.

Image element courtesy of AnonMoos.