‘It should not be up to the government': Tyler smoke shop urges people to veto THC ban bill
Co-owner of Dragon's Breath in North Tyler said a full THC ban will do more harm than good.
'We were disgusted' Civil Rights activists call for Tyler Police resignations
When the House and Senate passed the bill, co-owner, Lauren Gilmore made all THC products 25 percent off and she believes SB-3 becoming law would be harmful to Texans.
'Honestly, just putting people's lives at risk and making ordinarily law-abiding citizens into criminals,' Dragon's Breath co-owner, Lauren Gilmore said.
The bill was spearheaded by Lieutenant Governor, Dan Patrick.
AG Commissioner, Sid Miller, has supported the bill and said taking away THC will protect kids.
'You have seventh grader to walk in a convenience store buy a bag of gummies. You know Delta-9 gummies which is full strength marijuana and take those back to junior high and pass them around. That wasn't illegal. We never intended for that to happen,' AG Commissioner Sid Miller said. 'The GOP is split on it. There's a lot of them would like to keep it the status as is, or at least legalize some form of legal use of THC outside of medicinal use. There's a portion of the Republican Party that is dead set against it. He's kind of between a rock and a hard place.'
'I think people should be able to be trusted with what they're putting into their body. It's all up to them. It should not be up to the government. This should not be a nanny state,' Gilmore said.
Dragon's Breath strictly follows the 21 or older law when selling in Gilmore's store.
THC sales is 30% of their business at Dragon's Breath. Nearly 6000 shops around the state will be affected by the bill.
'It's unfortunate that they're going to be affected negatively economically, but that was a risk they took and they knew that going in doesn't make it any better,' Miller said.
If SB-3 becomes law, Gilmore is worried for the wellbeing of her customers.
'Some people are using it, you know, just for aches and pains from joint muscles, arthritis, lots of anxiety and depression,' Gilmore said.
She believes people will find cannabis on the streets and their lives may be in danger.
'I had a friend who actually OD'd from laced fentanyl cannabis on the streets, which is to me is way more dangerous getting it on the street than inside a shop where all of these products have been tested by a lab,' Gilmore said.
Dragon's Breath will remain open and Gilmore will try to keep all of her staff.
If signed by Abbott, the law will take effect in September and stores in Texas will have until January to be in full compliance with the law.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Business Insider
4 hours ago
- Business Insider
Rigetti Stock Falls 7% on Weak Earnings, While New 36-Qubit System Points to 2025 Growth
Rigetti Computing (RGTI), a pure-play quantum company, shares closed Friday's session down more than 7%, falling to $16.65. The drop came after the company's second-quarter earnings call, where results showed revenue of $1.8 million against operating expenses of $20.4 million. The net loss widened to $39.7 million, with nearly $23 million tied to non-cash losses from complex financial instruments. Investors likely saw the steep gap between costs and revenue as a cause for concern, even though Rigetti holds a cash reserve of about $571.6 million following a recent $350 million equity raise. Elevate Your Investing Strategy: Take advantage of TipRanks Premium at 50% off! Unlock powerful investing tools, advanced data, and expert analyst insights to help you invest with confidence. Rigetti Announces Cepheus-1-36Q At the same time, Rigetti pointed to significant progress on its quantum roadmap, highlighting the release of its newest system called Cepheus-1-36Q. This system marks the company's most advanced step yet, with 36 qubits connected through a multi-chip design. Importantly, Cepheus-1-36Q achieves a two-fold reduction in error rates compared to its earlier Ankaa-3 machine. In practical terms, that means more reliable results in complex quantum tasks. The new system is already available on Rigetti's Quantum Cloud Services platform and will also be hosted on Microsoft Azure (MSFT) in the future. What makes Cepheus-1-36Q stand out is its use of a chiplet-based approach. Rigetti first showed this modular design in 2021, and the current machine now integrates the largest number of chiplets in one system. The company also improved its intermodule coupler and sped up two-qubit gate operations, all of which push performance closer to fault tolerance. Median two-qubit gate fidelity now stands at 99%, a level never before reached by a multi-chip quantum system. Looking forward, Rigetti plans to scale this design further. The company expects to release a 100-plus qubit system before the end of 2025, targeting an even higher median fidelity of 99.5%. In short, while Friday's selloff reflected unease with quarterly losses, Rigetti also saw meaningful progress on the technology side. Cepheus-1-36Q demonstrates advances in performance and sets the stage for the next leap to a 100-qubit machine. For investors, the company's near-term story remains a mix of financial strain and technological progress, but its cash strength and product pipeline offer the foundation for longer-term growth. Is RGTI Stock a Buy or a Sell? average RGTI stock price target stands at $18.71, implying a 12.37% upside from the current price.
Business Insider
4 hours ago
- Business Insider
Sam Altman says there was a big reason OpenAI released its open-weight models
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said China's open-source models drove the company to release its open-weight models earlier this month. "It was clear that if we didn't do it, the world was gonna be mostly built on Chinese open-source models," Altman said during a media briefing CNBC reported on Monday. "That was a factor in our decision, for sure. Wasn't the only one, but that loomed large," he added. OpenAI did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider. OpenAI released two open-weight models, gpt-oss-120b and gpt-oss-20b, on August 5. The former is designed for high-end computers, while the latter is meant to be run on "most desktops and laptops." The launch marked the first time OpenAI published an open-weight model since the release of GPT-2 in 2019. Unlike "closed" models, users can run and fine-tune an "open-weight" model locally. GPT-3, GPT-4, and the brand new GPT-5 are all closed models. Altman said in an X post on August 5 that OpenAI believes gpt-oss to be the "best and most usable open model in the world." The OpenAI CEO said that releasing the models aligned with OpenAI's mission "to ensure AGI that benefits all of humanity." AGI, or artificial general intelligence, refers to a theoretical form of AI that can think and reason like humans. "To that end, we are excited for the world to be building on an open AI stack created in the United States, based on democratic values, available for free to all and for wide benefit," he wrote in his X post. To be sure, OpenAI isn't the only American tech company that has made its models open. Social media giant Meta's Llama models are also open-weight, though its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, wrote in an essay last month that Meta will need to be "careful about what we choose to open source." In January, Chinese AI startup DeepSeek stunned the world with its high-performing but relatively cheaper R1 model. R1 is an open-source and open-weight model. President Donald Trump told GOP lawmakers then that he saw DeepSeek's success as a "positive" and a "wake-up call" for American tech companies. During a Reddit AMA in January, Altman said that OpenAI would follow DeepSeek's lead and release its model weights as well. "I personally think we have been on the wrong side of history here and need to figure out a different open source strategy," he said.
The Hill
5 hours ago
- The Hill
Democratic-aligned nonprofit, civil rights groups ready to sue over Texas congressional map
Several Democratic-aligned and civil rights groups are readying to sue over a proposed set of new congressional lines in Texas as lawmakers in the Lone Star State look to advance a GOP-friendly map ahead of 2026. Several groups including the National Redistricting Foundation, the National Democratic Redistricting Committee's nonprofit arm; Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) and League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) filed a motion on Monday asking a federal court in Texas to set aside time for a hearing once the groups file a preliminary injunction that looks to block the Texas House map from taking effect. The filing also asks the court to 'vacate, as to the state legislative challenges, its August 11, 2025, order suspending the deadline for submitting proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law.' 'The map is egregiously unconstitutional, and its implementation must be immediately enjoined,' the filing said. 'Plaintiffs intend to expeditiously supplement their complaints and move for a preliminary injunction on account of the new map's blatant constitutional violations.' The Hill has reached out to spokespeople for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) for comment. Texas Republicans are looking to pass a new House map ahead of 2026 amid pressure from the White House, with a goal of picking up a handful of new seats next year. Texas Democrats fled the state during the first special session to deny Republicans the minimum number of lawmakers needed to conduct business. But they finally returned to the state this week during Republicans' second special session, paving the way for the GOP to pass a new gerrymandered map. In response, Democrats in California are moving forward to pass their own gerrymandered map; the new map is expected to go before voters for a vote this November. The map in California is looking to neutralize the gains Texas Republicans expect to make with their new map. Proposed congressional lines have so far only advanced in Texas House and Texas Senate committees, but the motion from the groups underscores opponents getting ready to quickly challenge proposed maps in court. 'Despite bipartisan opposition among Texans, the Texas Legislature is pushing forward a congressional map that includes even fewer minority opportunity districts than the current discriminatory map, which is already being challenged in court for violating Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act,' said Marina Jenkins, executive director of the National Redistricting Foundation, in a statement. 'Should Governor Abbott sign the new gerrymander into law, the NRF will quickly challenge that map in federal court, and the court must be prepared to act swiftly to intervene and protect the rights of Texans,' she added.
