Texas considers banning products infused with THC derived from hemp, and retailers are worried
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Walk into enough gas stations and they're likely easy to find: gummies, drinks and vapes infused with THC, the compound that gives marijuana its psychoactive properties.
That's given lawmakers across the U.S. headaches over how to regulate the booming market, and it's a conflict now taking hold in Texas, where a proposed ban passed by the Legislature poses another major battle for the industry.
Texas has some of the nation's most restrictive marijuana laws, but thousands of retailers in the state sell THC consumables, underscoring states' struggle to set rules around the products that generate millions in tax revenue.
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has not indicated whether he will sign the ban. Other states, including California, have imposed restrictions in recent years that include banning underage use and limits on the potency of the products, which are often marketed as legal even in states where marijuana is not.
'Governor Abbott will thoughtfully review any legislation sent to his desk,' spokesperson Andrew Mahaleris said when asked for comment on the bill.
Texas tries to crack down
The Texas bill would make it a misdemeanor to sell, possess or manufacture consumable products with tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC. The proposal shadows several other state efforts to crack down on a market that has exploded since a 2018 federal law allowed states to regulate hemp, which can be synthetically processed to create THC.
Hemp is a plant that is grown to make textiles, plastics, food and several other products. It is related to marijuana and must contain less than 0.3% THC to still be classified as hemp under federal law.
The proliferating market has given residents in states with strict marijuana laws such as Texas a legal way to access products that can give them a similar high.
Nationwide, the substances are often sold through legal loopholes, despite concerns about potential health risks and a lack of oversight of how they're produced.
Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick laid out bags of THC snacks on a table in front of a group of reporters last week to reiterate his determination for Texas to ban the products. He said he wasn't worried about Abbott when asked about the possibility of a veto.
'This is serious business,' Patrick said.
If enacted into law, Texas would have one of the most restrictive bans in the country, according to Katharine Neil Harris, a researcher in drug policy at the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University.
'I'm not aware of any other states without recreational marijuana markets that also prohibit consumable hemp products from having any THC,' Harris said.
A jumbled legal landscape
States that prohibit recreational marijuana have also made efforts to regulate the THC market, including Alabama, Kentucky and Tennessee.
In Florida, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed a bill last year that would have put in place age restrictions and banned marketing directed toward children, stating that it would hurt small businesses.
'There's such a variety in how states have responded to this," Harris said.
Texas has one of the most restrictive medical marijuana programs in the country, only allowing three licensed dispensaries to operate in the state to sell low-potency marijuana to residents with PTSD, cancer or other conditions. Proposals to expand the state's medical program are a sticking point for some Republican lawmakers.
A total of 38 states and the District of Columbia have laws that allow the medical use of marijuana. About 6 in 10 voters across the country said they favor legalizing recreational use nationwide, according to AP VoteCast, in a 2024 survey of more than 120,000 U.S. voters.
Retailers push back on ban
Kyle Bingham, a farmer in the Texas Panhandle, said he doesn't plan on growing hemp anymore if there's a ban. He has grown the plant on a family farm with his dad for four years and said it is one of many crops they grow, including cotton.
'We've never planted more than 5% of our acres in hemp, and that's part of the business plan," said Bingham, who is also vice president of the National Hemp Growers Association. 'So for us, it's definitely hard to walk away from as an investment.'
Because of a lack of federal oversight into manufacturing processes and a lack of uniform labeling requirements, it's hard to know what exactly is in THC products sold in stores.
Many dispensaries, worried about their future, have urged the governor to veto the legislation. They have defended their industry as providing medical relief to people who cannot access medical marijuana through the state's restrictive program.
'It's absurd they think they can sign away 50,000 jobs,' Savannah Gavlik, an employee at Austin-based dispensary Dope Daughters, said. The store will likely have to close if the ban takes place, but the anxiety has not yet set in, she said.
'One of the biggest things we provide is self care,' Gavlik said. 'It's people genuinely wanting medical relief.'
___
Lathan is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Associated Press
22 minutes ago
- Associated Press
Former Zambian President Edgar Lungu has died at 68
LUSAKA, Zambia (AP) — Former Zambian President Edgar Lungu, who served as the leader of the southern African nation from 2015-2021, died Thursday, his daughter said. He was 68. Lungu's daughter, Tasila Lungu-Mwansa, announced his death in a video posted on the official Facebook page of his political party, the Patriotic Front. She said he died in a hospital in South Africa after having been under 'medical supervision' in recent weeks. Lungu-Mwansa, who is a lawmaker, did not give a cause of death. Lungu became president in 2015 to complete the term of Michael Sata after he died in office. Lungu was elected to a full presidential term in 2016, beating current Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema. Lungu later lost to Hichilema in the 2021 election. Lungu had sought to challenge Hichilema in next year's presidential election, but a court last year barred him from standing. The court ruled his time as president from 2015-2016 counted as a full term and said he had, therefore, served the maximum length of two terms. Lungu alleged there was political interference in the court ruling. His wife and other family members have faced corruption allegations. Lungu claimed last year that his movements were being monitored by police and he had effectively been placed under house arrest to restrict his return to politics. Police said it was standard to monitor former presidents for their safety. ___ AP Africa news:
San Francisco Chronicle
23 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Supreme Court makes it easier to claim 'reverse discrimination' in employment, in a case from Ohio
WASHINGTON (AP) — A unanimous Supreme Court made it easier Thursday to bring lawsuits over so-called reverse discrimination, siding with an Ohio woman who claims she didn't get a job and then was demoted because she is straight. The justices' decision affects lawsuits in 20 states and the District of Columbia where, until now, courts had set a higher bar when members of a majority group, including those who are white and heterosexual, sue for discrimination under federal law. The court ruled in an appeal from Marlean Ames, who has worked for the Ohio Department of Youth Services for more than 20 years. Ames contends she was passed over for a promotion and then demoted because she is heterosexual. Both the job she sought and the one she had held were given to LGBTQ people. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 bars sex discrimination in the workplace. A trial court and the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Ames. The 6th circuit is among the courts that had required an additional requirement for people like Ames, showing 'background circumstances' that might include that LGBTQ people made the decisions affecting Ames or statistical evidence of a pattern of discrimination against members of the majority group.
Yahoo
30 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump's ‘big, beautiful bill' losing momentum in Senate
The sprawling bill to enact President Trump's 'big, beautiful' agenda is losing momentum in the Senate in the face of blistering attacks from Elon Musk and outspoken opposition from conservatives. Senate Finance Committee Chair Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) warned colleagues at a special conference meeting Wednesday afternoon that there are two likely 'no' votes against the bill within the Senate GOP conference, which means just one more defection would derail the legislation, according to a senator who attended the meeting. 'Crapo just said, 'I think [there] are two of us who are pretty definite no's,' which means we can't lose anybody else,' the source said. Crapo did not name names, but colleagues assumed he was talking about conservative Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.). Paul says he will vote against the bill because it includes language to raise the debt ceiling by $4 trillion, extending the federal government's borrowing authority past the 2026 midterm election. Johnson, meanwhile, has called for Senate GOP colleagues to scrap the House-passed bill and move a smaller measure that would focus on extending the 2017 Trump tax cuts, securing the border and banking on the spending cuts identified by House committee chairs. 'What I am rock-solid on is that I can't accept this as the new normal,' he said of projections that the annual federal deficit will reach $2.2 trillion in 2025 and grow to $2.7 trillion by 2035. 'We have our chance to reverse this,' he said of growing deficits. 'I will not be responsible for continuing this.' Paul and Johnson are stepping up their criticism of the bill just as Musk is urging lawmakers to 'KILL' the legislation, warning it will blow up the deficit. 'Call your Senator, Call your Congressman, Bankrupting America is NOT ok! KILL the BILL,' Musk posted on his social platform X. The Congressional Budget Office projected Wednesday that the 1,116-page bill passed by the House will add $2.4 trillion to the deficit over the next decade. Trump has set a July 4 deadline for Congress to get the bill to his desk. But some GOP lawmakers say that's looking increasingly unlikely because of a battle between Republican senators over cuts to Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the repeal of renewable energy tax incentives. 'It won't happen,' Johnson said. 'The sooner President Trump recognizes the reality of the situation, the sooner we can work on a smaller version of the bill, do the things that have to be done: Extend current tax law, increase the debt ceiling, provide border funding,' he said. He said the package could include spending cuts already passed by the House, such as a proposal to reduce federal subsidies to Medicaid by $698 billion and reduce SNAP spending by $267 billion. The expectation that Paul and Johnson will vote against the bill could give more leverage to Republicans who want to make other changes, further delaying the effort. Those moderates include Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), who are warning against Medicaid spending cuts that would affect benefits. Senate Republicans control 53 seats, which means they could only afford three defections and still pass the bill. Collins, Murkowski, Hawley and Moran say they are closely following the proposed reforms to Medicaid. 'I am evaluating those provisions,' Collins said of the changes to Medicaid. She said it's difficult to fully assess the bill until the Senate parliamentarian weighs in on what policy changes can remain in the legislation and which need to be stripped out for it to qualify for fast-track consideration on the floor. She said some of the most controversial provisions 'may fall out.' 'We still don't know exactly what we're looking at,' she said. Collins, who is up for reelection in a state that former Vice President Kamala Harris carried in the 2024 election, said she's concerned about changes to the SNAP program that would require Maine to shoulder more of its costs. She said the bill 'switches a lot of the administrative costs' for SNAP 'onto the state.' Murkowski said it will be 'hard' to meet Trump's deadline of passing the bill by July 4, noting that even after Republican senators reach a deal, many of the provisions will need to be vetted by the Senate parliamentarian. Moran said he's 'waiting for where we end up in the Ag [Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry] Committee' on reforms to SNAP. 'What we do will be different from the House. I'm analyzing and participating in the discussion,' he said. He said the negotiations over the nutrition program for low-income Americans are 'taking time.' Republicans at a special meeting Wednesday afternoon discussed expanding their search for savings to Medicaid, despite Trump's warning to House lawmakers last month not to 'f‑‑‑ with Medicaid.' And, notably, they raised the possibility of changes to Medicare. 'There's a legitimate debate about, 'Can we do more with Medicaid? Are we doing too much with Medicaid? How much waste, fraud and abuse is there in Medicare? Why don't we go after that?' I think we should,' Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) said after meeting with colleagues to discuss the bill. Cramer said senators talked about also examining waste, fraud and abuse in Medicare to further reduce future deficits. 'There was a lot of presentation and then debate, people throwing out other ideas, like, 'What about waste, fraud and abuse in Medicare?'' he said. But tackling waste, fraud and abuse in Medicare would be a time-consuming task and likely generate a lot of anxiety among GOP senators who are balking at cuts to Medicaid that they worry could impact benefits. 'Some people are making that case, other people are wringing their hands,' Cramer said of the internal debate. Updated at 8:37 a.m. EDT Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
