AUSTIN, Texas – A new poll conducted by Baselice & Associates on behalf of the Hemp Beverage Alliance, U.S. Hemp Roundtable, and Bayou City Hemp Company revealed 68 percent of Texas voters want consumable hemp to remain legal but be strictly regulated. Only 20 percent of poll respondents said they favor an outright ban.
The poll results dropped just as the state senate passed Senate Bill 3, which would outlaw products containing any amount of THC. A competing measure in the Texas House would allow manufacturing and sales to continue but redefine legal consumable hemp products as those containing only CBD, CBG, or delta-9 THC (at concentrations of 0.3 percent or less). Single-serving packages would be limited to containing no more than 10mg THC, and sales would be limited to 10mg THC per transaction.
The House bill also would ban “consumable hemp products that contain any amount of a synthesized cannabinoid;” institute stricter testing for toxins, heavy metals, and residual solvents; require manufacturers to adhere to current Good Manufacturing Practices; tighten age-verification requirements; and prohibit packaging that is “attractive to children.”
Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick has vowed to “protect the people of Texas from THC” by entirely banning consumable hemp, which he called “poison.”
“We’re going to ban your stores before we leave here, for good,” he told Texas’s roughly 8,300 hemp retailers during a press conference. “You might want to voluntarily close your doors, because the investigations are going to continue, and I’m sure the lawsuits are about to come.”
