The Texas House passed a bill Wednesday banning products that contain THC, the psychoactive compound found in marijuana. The legislation is headed to Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R-TX) desk.
While products are currently allowed to have trace amounts of Delta 9 THC, the bill would bar them from having any of the substance. In addition, it would ban alternative forms of THC people use to get high, including Delta 8, Delta 10, THCA, THCV, THCP, and THC-O-acetate.
Cannabinoids that are not intoxicating or psychoactive, such as CBD and CBG, are excluded from the ban.
“We are not banning hemp,” said state Rep. Tom Oliverson, who cosponsored the bill. “We are banning high. If it gets you high, it is not legal anymore” under this legislation.
If signed into law, Texas would join a growing number of states, including Colorado, Iowa, Arizona, Hawaii, and Alaska, which have banned or imposed restrictions on THC.
A person found in possession of a THC product could face up to a year in jail.
Texas Republicans are also seeking to drastically expand the state’s medical marijuana program.
The bill’s passage comes just six years after Texas passed a bill that legalized the farming and commercialization of hemp, which was found to have created a loophole allowing retailers to sell Delta 9 THC. The law failed to create any guardrails, such as safety testing, and it removed hemp from the state’s Controlled Substances Act, effectively legalizing its derivatives with few, if any, restrictions on their potency.
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The Texas Hemp Business Council announced it will sue over the bill.
“We are deeply disappointed by the Texas House’s passage of … a bill that dismantles the legal hemp industry and ignores the voices of small businesses, farmers, veterans and consumers across the state who rely on hemp-derived products for their livelihoods and well-being,” a statement from the group reads.
