Abbott’s order comes less than a week after lawmakers ended a second special legislative session without coming to an agreement on how to rein in the burgeoning THC market.
By Karen Brooks Harper
Dallas Morning News
https://www.dallasnews.com/
Elias Valverde II / Staff Photographer
AUSTIN — Hemp-based THC products such as gummies and drinks infused with the cannabis compound will be restricted to adults age 21 and older while state alcohol regulators study how to further regulate the burgeoning industry, under an executive order issued Wednesday by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
The age limit goes into effect immediately, the order says.
The products, which contain low doses of hemp-derived tetrahydrocannabinol — the psychoactive compound in marijuana — could also be subjected to testing, location and packaging restrictions if agencies such as the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission and state health officials can come up with a way to do it after lawmakers failed to pass any new laws about the products this year, the order says.
“Absent the kinds of regulations that apply to other psychoactive substances that may safely be enjoyed by adults like alcohol and tobacco, minors have been allowed to purchase these products without any safeguards,” Abbott said in his order. “The Legislature did not pass any legislation concerning consumable hemp products, not even a ban for minors, leaving in place the status quo.”
Consumables containing THC have been legal since a 2019 law legalized hemp farming, but because lawmakers didn’t anticipate the proliferation of intoxicating products, they have gone unregulated as the number of retailers has skyrocketed.
The state outlawed THC vapes starting Sept. 1, but snacks, gummies and drinks are still available.
Abbott’s order comes less than a week after lawmakers ended a second special legislative session without coming to an agreement on how to rein in the burgeoning THC market.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Houston Republican, insisted that the state ban all of those products — currently available in smoke shops, convenience stores, grocery stores, coffee shops, bars and other locations — with no exceptions. Abbott vetoed that proposal in May and urged him to allow legislation creating a framework that allowed adults to continue to access the products. Patrick refused.
Regulating the industry — which had at one point grown to 8,000 retailers in the state since hemp products became legal in 2019 — was one of Abbott’s highest priorities for lawmakers for both special sessions.
But a flurry of last-minute negotiations over dueling hemp market proposals — ranging from an outright ban on all products to a layered regulatory framework similar to the way the state regulates alcohol — failed to overcome a stalemate.
Rather than letting another two years go by with no age limits, packaging or testing requirements, or state oversight, Abbott on Wednesday directed the TABC and the Texas Department of State Health Services — which oversees the licensing for those retailers — to look into whether the agencies could implement a regulatory framework for consumable hemp without a new law in place.
That could include provisions similar to those laid out in House Bill 309, by Rep. Briscoe Cain, R-Deer Park, which conformed to Abbott’s request in his June veto of the total ban but never got a hearing.
Karen Brooks Harper is a Mizzou alumna who has covered Texas politics in and out of Austin for nearly 30 years. She’s also covered the cartel wars along the TX-MX border, Congress in Mexico City, 3 presidential races, and 6 hurricanes. Raised on blues in the MS Delta, she lives in ATX with her son, her boxing gloves, and her guitar. In that order.
This story, originally published in The Dallas Morning News, is reprinted as part of a collaborative partnership between The Dallas Morning News and Texas Metro News. The partnership seeks to boost coverage of Dallas’ communities of color, particularly in southern Dallas.
