Most Texas THC products remain legal after GOP leaders fail to break legislative impasse

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The Texas Legislature ended another legislative overtime round without banning or further regulating most THC products after a monthslong fight between lawmakers to rein in the exploding hemp industry.

The Texas House gaveled out of the second special session late Wednesday, leaving behind Senate Bill 6, which would have broadly banned consumable hemp products with any “detectable amount of any cannabinoid.” Only those with cannabidiol or cannabigerol, which are both non-psychoactive, would have stayed legal.

That means most forms of consumable hemp-derived products stay legal in Texas. There also remains no age limit on who can purchase these goods, which come in the form of gummies, smokeable flowers and drinks. Yet it is now illegal to sell — but not possess — THC vape pens under a separate law, passed earlier this year, that went into effect Monday.

The House’s move followed a last-minute effort earlier in the day between top Republicans to hash out a compromise, after SB 6 sat without a hearing for two weeks in a House committee.

Earlier in the night, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick had announced that the Senate would wrap up the second special session without any new THC restrictions or ban in a post on X. Patrick said he, Gov. Greg Abbott and House Speaker Dustin Burrows were not able to reach an agreement despite “long discussions.”

“My position remains unchanged; the Senate and I are for a total THC ban,” he said, adding that the Senate will adjourn after finalizing its remaining flood bills.

The upper chamber ended their special session work early Thursday morning.

It was not immediately clear if Abbott would call another special session to consider more THC restrictions, after vetoing an outright ban in June and putting the issue on two special session agendas. His office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. In his veto, Abbott said the attempted ban would run afoul of federal law. He called for a regulatory approach instead, including restrictions on potency, age limits, enforcement mechanisms and a prohibition of synthetically modified hemp compounds.

But Patrick insisted a ban was necessary to keep Texans safe, arguing that it would be impossible to properly regulate the more than 8,000 retailers that make up the state’s fast-expanding hemp market. The Legislature inadvertently opened the door to Texas’ consumable hemp industry in 2019 when lawmakers, seeking to align the state with federal law, passed a bill legalizing hemp.

The industry has so far backed Abbott’s position for restrictions instead of prohibition.

“This ban is wildly unpopular,” said Cynthia Cabrera, president of The Texas Hemp Business Council. She is also the chief strategy officer for Hometown Hero, an Austin-based manufacturer of hemp-derived THC products. “And the fact that the lieutenant governor continues to push something everybody has essentially said they don’t want speaks volumes about how disconnected he is to what Texans want, what the governor wants and what consumers want.”

Still, the industry could also start to see more enforcement of current laws restricting the drug.

Currently, these products may not contain more than 0.3% concentration of delta-9 THC, the intoxicating part of the cannabis plant, in dry weight. Enforcing this rule has been a challenge because it is difficult to test products and cite retailers.

Patrick’s vow to end the Senate’s work without a ban was a whiplash development after Texas Republicans spent much of the day working on a compromise, according to five legislative staffers and three lawmakers familiar with the discussions. But those last-minute talks were also an unexpected twist: The main legislative proposal — an outright ban on THC products — had been dormant since Aug. 20. It was not clear earlier Wednesday what a potential deal would look like.

Other proposals during the second special session included legislation from Rep. Briscoe Cain, R-Deer Park, that would create the Texas Hemp Council to study and develop rules for THC products and establish hemp testing and licensing requirements, among other restrictions. Rep. Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth, also proposed a bill barring the sale of THC products to those under 21.

The split between Abbott and Patrick marked a rare public disagreement between the men, who have largely aligned over a decade in office together.

A full ban cleared the Senate both special sessions this summer but stalled in the House, where it became clear that it lacked enough votes to pass. During the regular session, some House members said they voted for a full THC prohibition under the impression that their unrelated bills would die in the Senate if they failed to get in line.

“We looked hard for that common ground and just never could find it,” Rep. Gary VanDeaver, R-New Boston and the ban’s author, said Tuesday afternoon before the last-ditch negotiations began. “We just don’t see that we can get anything off the House floor.”

Kyle Bingham, a farmer in the South Plains who also serves as vice president of the National Hemp Growers Association, said it has been frustrating to navigate the legislative uncertainty over the past few months. Instead of growing hemp, he said he has been focusing on other crops such as wheat and cotton.

“It’s already difficult to operate in this emerging industry,” he said, “and this is just one more layer of how difficult it is to do business.”

Still, Bingham and Cabrera said that there could be improved regulations such as age restrictions — even as they oppose a full ban. In particular, Cabrera said the Legislature should have focused on the bill raising the age limit instead and that it was disappointing that lawmakers couldn’t reach this “simple fix.”

“But it is a sigh of relief,” she said after learning about Patrick’s announcement.

Katharine Neill Harris, drug policy fellow for Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, similarly said it’s worth another session to address specific issues such as the sale and marketing of THC products towards minors — separate from a blanket ban.

“If you ban them, they become truly unregulated because they go to the illicit market,” she said. “And we know that there are no regulations for illicit drugs.”

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