Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick introduced Wednesday that lawmakers within the state Senate would transfer to ban all types of consumable tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, in Texas.
Patrick, who presides over the Senate and largely controls the movement of laws within the chamber, stated the THC ban can be designated as Senate Invoice 3 — a low invoice quantity that alerts it’s amongst his high priorities for the upcoming legislative session.
The Republican-controlled Legislature was broadly anticipated to take intention at Texas’ booming hemp market, which has proliferated with 1000’s of hashish dispensaries since lawmakers approved the sale of consumable hemp in 2019.
That legislation, handed one 12 months after hemp was legalized nationwide, was meant to spice up Texas agriculture by allowing the commercialization of hemp containing hint quantities of non-intoxicating delta-9 THC. However Patrick contends the legislation has been abused by retailers utilizing loopholes to market merchandise with unsafe ranges of THC, together with to minors.
“Dangerously, retailers exploited the agriculture legislation to promote life-threatening, unregulated types of THC to the general public and made them simply accessible,” Patrick stated in a press release saying the measure late Wednesday. “Since 2023, 1000’s of shops promoting hazardous THC merchandise have popped up in communities throughout the state, and plenty of promote merchandise, together with drinks, which have three to 4 occasions the THC content material which is perhaps present in marijuana bought from a drug vendor. ”
Texas has not legalized marijuana in any type for broad use.
Critics of the present hemp market level to an absence of testing necessities, age restrictions, and regulation, arguing that the proliferation of merchandise — starting from gummies and drinks to vapes and flower buds — has posed well being dangers and disrupted entry for medical hashish sufferers. Consumable hemp merchandise are required by legislation to include not more than 0.3% THC — the intoxicating a part of the hashish plant that is available in varieties often known as delta-8, delta-9 and THCA — however Patrick asserts that some gadgets bought in Texas far exceed this restrict.
The Texas hemp business, in the meantime, has argued in courtroom that delta-8’s excessive is minimal, and if delta-8 and delta-9 merchandise are banned, it could do irreparable hurt to the business and the state’s economic system.
Patrick stated the invoice to ban THC can be carried by state Sen. Charles Perry, the Lubbock Republican who beforehand carried the 2019 agricultural hemp invoice. Perry has expressed dismay in regards to the exploding marketplace for hashish merchandise from the numerous hemp dispensaries which have popped up since lawmakers approved the sale of consumable hemp.
Consumable hemp merchandise are available in varieties that embody smokable vapes and flower buds, oils and lotions, baked items, drinks, gummies and candies.
They include industrial hemp or hemp-derived cannabinoids, together with the non-intoxicating cannabidiol often known as CBD, and are required to remain underneath the 0.3% THC threshold.
The distinction within the authorized and unlawful merchandise lies within the crops from which they arrive. Hemp and marijuana crops are each hashish crops. Marijuana crops have excessive THC. Hemp has low THC.
The Legislature is scheduled to reconvene Jan. 14.
This text initially appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2024/12/04/texas-thc-ban-dan-patrick-delta-8-9-hemp/.
The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and interesting Texans on state politics and coverage. Be taught extra at texastribune.org.
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