Texas Should Ban Intoxicating Hemp - City Journal

The mess traces back further than people realize. Congress meant to legalize hemp for non-intoxicating uses in the 2018 farm bill, but by exempting hemp from the Controlled Substances Act, it opened a loophole. Texas made things worse in 2019 with House Bill 1325, a law meant to authorize hemp farming and CBD that instead let producers concentrate THC into potent gummies, vapes, and drinks, some sold in packaging that looks made for kids.

Patrick, Perry, and law enforcement have pushed for years to close that gap. Right now, those products sit on shelves in convenience stores and smoke shops across Lubbock with almost no oversight on potency or who buys them.

If Texas follows through on a ban, it changes what's legally available on store shelves everywhere from the Depot District to South Plains Mall. Retailers who built inventory around these products would need to pull them, while parents worried about lollipop-shaped THC candy finally get what they've been asking for. Shop owners lose a revenue stream that state law itself helped create.