On Sunday, just ahead of the midnight deadline, Gov. Greg Abbott vetoed Texas Senate Bill 3. Authored by Charles Perry, a far-right Republican from Lubbock, SB 3 aimed to destroy Texas’ hemp industry with three categorical punishments aimed specifically at consumables containing the psychoactive compound THC: a Class A misdemeanor (up to a year and jail and a fine up to $4,000) for knowingly possessing hemp products with any amount of THC; a Class B misdemeanor (maximum 180 days in jail, maximum $2,000 fine) for selling a hemp product to a person under 21; and a Class B misdemeanor for selling hemp products within 1,000 feet of a school. For consumers of hemp products, SB 3 was a huge bummer. For most hemp retailers, it spelled certain doom, but after holding their breath for a month, both sides of the cash register can exhale a sigh of relief (and, presumably, a cloud of still-legal-to-buy-in-a-store hemp smoke), at least for the time being.
Abbott has called for a special session in July to pass stricter rules for THC products. Apparently, he is in favor of regulating them like alcoholic beverages, but he also faced a lot of public pressure to veto the bill. A Texas Politics Project poll from May found that 51% support the legal availability of either small (35%) or any amount (16%) of marijuana for recreational purposes. Only 15% of respondents said that marijuana should not be legal under any circumstances. Abbott’s decision has put him at odds with the bill’s biggest champion, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who wants a total ban on any products containing THC, insisting that their unregulated nature makes them a public health hazard.
Abbott asserted that the bill faced “ ‘valid constitutional challenges’ that would have kept it tied up in court for years” and called for the special session. The regulation he seeks would involve age restrictions, lab testing, packaging rules, retailer permits, and law enforcement.
While Karlee Beach is indeed grateful for the reprieve, her optimism is wary at best. The operations manager for Fort Worth-based hemp retailers Thrive Apothecary & Thrive Medical Cannabis said the veto “definitely alleviated a lot of fear and anxiety that we’ve had, and it’s definitely something that we can consider a major victory, not just for us and our business but for the entire industry. But, unfortunately, we are not out of the woods yet when it comes to what the legislature is gonna bring and how it’s going to change the market.”
Beach said that “all of the reputable hemp businesses like Thrive want a certain level of regulation” and that these retailers and manufacturers already self-regulate, selling only to customers 21 and over and using child-resistant packaging. But other restrictions that may apply in the wake of the upcoming special session — in particular licensing permits and limited sale hours — are nearly as deleterious to the industry as a total THC ban. “It’s just the unfortunate reality that a lot of those regulations would potentially price a lot of people out of the market.”
Still, a win is a win. Had Abbott signed SB 3 into law, Thrive and other hemp retailers would have faced the ethical question of flouting the law while it wriggled through the courts, thereby putting its customers at legal risk. All that plus the financial and logistical ordeals of moving their businesses to a hemp-friendly state — or simply just throwing in the towel. The Texas Tribune found that as of April 2024, Texas was home to more than 7,000 registered hemp sellers in an industry projected to employ upward of 50,000 people and generate $7 billion in tax revenue. Putting that many people out of work is a bad look for anyone (just ask Elon Musk), but that’s also a lot of money to not be able to sink into the so-called state “rainy day fund.” As of press time, Republicans are still interested in generating incredible wealth.
So, for another month at least, the Texas hemp industry will be permitted to continue to carry on as normal — Beach said there has been a “huge rush over the last few weeks of people just trying to make sure they stay stocked up if the ban did go into effect” — so at least the will he?/won’t he? drama over SB 3’s passage was good for these businesses’ bottom lines. It’s clear Abbott also absorbed the warning that taking hemp-derived THC away from veterans was at least as bad a look as destroying the livelihoods of thousands, a fact that resonates with Beach.
“At the end of the day,” she said, “we want people to have access to these products because we do believe that they’re extremely beneficial.”
