Is THC in Texas going up in smoke? House OKs ban, averting showdown with Senate

Yahoo

23-05-2025

The Texas House on Wednesday evening, after delays that covered the better part of two days, embraced a ban on the sale and consumption of intoxicating hemp products, avoiding a potential clash with the Senate in the final days of the legislative session.
"We are not banning hemp, we are banning high," said state Rep. Tom Oliverson, a Houston-area Republican lawmaker and physician who essentially rewrote the House's version of Senate Bill 3 on the fly.
"What we're doing here is correcting a problem that was created in 2019 where we essentially created a pathway whereby people could sell drugs in corner stores across our state," Oliverson said.
The Texas Legislature in 2019, hoping to boost agriculture, established the Texas Industrial Hemp Program and authorized the production, manufacture and sale of industrial hemp crops and products, including those with low levels of THC. The bill opened a market for consumable hemp products with up to 0.3% THC.
The Senate, at the urging of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, passed a sweeping ban in March as a way to stop the proliferation of "consumable hemp products and the hemp-derived cannabinoids" contained in snack foods, candies, beverages and smokeable products.
Patrick, the three-term Republican who leads the Senate, made the bill a top priority for the 2025 legislative session and hinted at extending lawmakers' time in Austin if it wasn't passed before the June 2 adjournment.
And that might have come to pass under the original House version of the bill, which took a regulatory approach over an outright ban. That is what came out of the chamber's State Affairs Committee in a rewrite spearheaded by its chairman, Rep. Ken King, R-Canadian.
But once the bill was set for a floor debate Tuesday, Oliverson began circulating an amendment to bring it in line with the goals laid out by Patrick and the Senate. That prompted some behind-the-scenes legislative maneuvering, reportedly including seeking Senate concessions on a separate school-funding bill which was stalled in exchange for the House's willingness to bend on hemp.
But King's approach was not without support, both in the House and among veterans. Dave Walden, the incoming state commander of Texas Veterans of Foreign War, wrote in an op-ed that he and many of his fellow former service members who have served in combat have found that the hemp products targeted by the legislation have proven to be life-savers.
More: What's the status of marijuana in Texas? An explainer on THC, CBD, Delta-8 and more
"Lt. Governor Patrick has called these products 'poison,' but for many veterans, they've been the antidote to a system that was slowly poisoning us with endless prescriptions," wrote Walden, who was deployed to Iraq and other areas of conflict between 2001 and 2012.
"When I hear rhetoric comparing hemp to 'bath salts' or other dangerous street drugs, I cannot reconcile it with my experience or that of my fellow veterans who have found healing through these products," Walden wrote.
Oliverson, an anesthesiologist, said that under his measure, veterans would still have access to approved medications containing THC, the primary psychoactive component in the cannabis plant.
"People are currently self-medicating by getting this THC that is potentially not very well-regulated," he said. "What I'm getting to is ... you have to have a medical professional that's overseeing this program and regulating at what point how many milligrams is the right milligrams for each individual.
"I'm sure this won't shock anybody in the room, but there are no miracle cures out there."
King voted against Oliverson's amendment, likening a ban on THC to the ill-fated prohibition of alcohol a century ago. He ultimately voted for the final bill even after the amendment was added to it by a lopsided House vote. The final vote advancing the bill was 95-34.
State Rep. Gene Wu, a Houston Democrat who leads his party's House caucus, said the amended bill goes too far and might do more harm than good for veterans and others.
"The overwhelming majority of veterans are aggressively supporting legalization, supporting keeping the law in a regulated state," Wu said. "Texans as a whole do not want something that they've had access to for the last five years (to be banned). Something that they have enjoyed recreationally, and that has helped them medically.
"They have told you that loudly and repeatedly. They have called your offices; they have written letters. They have done everything they could," Wu said.
More: As Texas weighs banning consumable hemp containing THC, Austin shop sees 'stock buying'
Republican Rep. David Lowe of North Richland Hills said that as an Amy military police officer who was deployed to Afghanistan he supports the measure as amended by Oliverson.
"Let me be clear, there are benefits to hemp products for some individuals," Lowe said. "But as someone who has lived through the darkness onward and its aftermath, I say sincerely, stop using veterans like me as a vehicle to push your unregulated influence. There's a difference between compassion and exploitation."
Democratic Rep. Rafael Anchia of Dallas warned that a THC ban would only push consumers of the now-legal products to underground sources.
"You're going to be driving people into the black market," Anchia said. "You're going to criminalize veterans. You're going to be criminalizing young people. ... You're going to be criminalizing your neighbor."
On Monday night, just hours before the House originally was set to vote, Patrick posted an 8-minute video on social media aimed at grassroots Republicans to put pressure on members to add teeth to the lower chamber's version of the bill.
"We must ban THC," Patrick said in the video posted to X. "We can't regulate it. We don't have enough police to check every store when there are 8-9,000 of them.
'I've been here for 17 years at the Texas Capitol, 10 years as your lieutenant governor and I've never been more passionate about anything. I'm not going to leave Austin until we get this done.'
Because the House's version, even as amended, differs from what the Senate passed, SB 3 must return to the upper chamber to consider the changes. The Senate can either accept what the House sends or request a conference committee to reconcile the differences.
Staff writer Bayliss Wagner contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas House OKs THC ban, sidestepping potential clash with Senate