SENATE BILL WOULD STILL BAN THC CONSUMABLES
(AUSTIN) — The Senate State Affairs Committee on Tuesday took up a bill that would permit and regulate the sale of certain hemp consumables like CBD and CBG supplements and some hemp-derived products like oil, seeds, and protein powder. It would also effectively end the intoxicating hemp consumables industry targeted in SB 3, the regular session bill that Governor Greg Abbott vetoed in June. Like that bill, the measure considered before the committee would ban the sale of any cannabis-derived consumable that contains any amount of any form of THC, the psychoactive chemical in cannabis.
In his veto statement on SB 3, Abbott said that such bans, if not carefully implemented, could lead to lengthy and costly litigation that could keep the law off the books for years. He pointed to a case in Arkansas, where plaintiffs obtained an injunction against enforcement by arguing that the 2018 federal farm bill which legalized the cultivation of industrialized hemp pre-empts state prohibitions. He said he worried the Texas bill would meet a similar fate. “At worst SB 3 would be permanently invalidated by the courts; at best, its implementation would be delayed for years as the case winds its way through the legal system,” wrote Abbott. “We can do better.” Two days after the veto, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the state of Arkansas and vacated the temporary injunction against enforcement.
Abbott’s statement included a roadmap for a regulatory system that he’d support. This includes limits on potency, age restrictions against purchase for anyone under 21 years of age, and strict oversight on production, labelling, marketing, and packaging. Such a program, he said, would be “strict, fair, and legally sustainable.”
The veto came as a surprise to many at the Capitol, including Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, who championed the full THC consumables ban that passed both chambers in the regular session. At a press conference held the day after the veto, Patrick said Abbott’s decision puzzled him. “I know he gave the reasons in his proclamation, but our team simply doesn’t agree with those reasons,” he said. Patrick said the plan laid out in Abbott’s veto statement amounted to de facto legalization of cannabis. When the Senate returned for the July special session, said Patrick, they’d take up and consider another ban on THC consumables derived from hemp. “I will not sign a bill that legalizes marijuana in Texas,” he said. “I will not gavel it down.”
Senator Charles Perry of Lubbock, who passed the 2019 bill intended to create a robust agricultural hemp industry in the state, carried the ban bill during the regular session and is carrying SB 5 for the special. It includes rules for cannabinoid concentrations, defines which products are illegal and legal, and a panoply of other restrictions and regulations, but Perry distilled the effects of the bill into a single sentence. “If you get high from the product, it is illegal,” he said. Non-intoxicating consumables, such as those containing the cannabinoids CBD and CBG, will still be allowed, though purchase would be restricted to those aged 21 and up. Producers would also be under stricter oversight, not only for products but for marketing, labeling, and packaging.
After several hours of testimony, the committee unanimously advanced the measure to the full Senate. House legislation on the issue has yet to be filed, but during the regular session, that chamber advanced a bill that would create a regulatory framework more in line with what the governor put forward in his SB 3 veto statement. It was amended on the floor, however, to closely match the Senate legislation banning any THC consumables in Texas. It remains to be seen how the House will respond to Abbott’s veto, and should they again pass a THC ban, if Abbott would once again veto the measure and bring lawmakers back for another special session on the issue.
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