The Texas smokable hemp ban has hit another roadblock. A hearing on the legality of the ban was initially scheduled for Feb. 1, but on Jan. 5, Judge Lora Livingston of the Travis County District Court postponed the hearing to March.

Susan Hays, an attorney working on the case, said in an email to Hemp Grower that the “trial was postponed to allow more time for pre-trial briefing and perhaps a motion for summary judgment,” noting that it is very common for a first trial setting to get pushed back.

In August 2020, the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) launched its Consumable Hemp Program, which included regulations that prohibited the manufacturing, processing, distribution and retail sale of smokable hemp products in Texas.

The program went into effect on Aug. 2, 2020, but days after, several companies filed a lawsuit to overturn the state’s ban on smokable hemp products. In late August, Judge Livingston temporarily lifted the ban until a later hearing in September 2020.

After the hearing, the temporary restraining order turned into a temporary injunction.

“The appeal of the temporary injunction is fully briefed and pending at the Austin Court of Appeals,” Hays says. 

The temporary injunction prevents the state from enforcing any DSHS bans on smokable hemp products until the case goes to trial in March.

On Jan. 8, a federal court issued a stay of discovery in Apothio LLC’s lawsuit against Kern County, Calif., the Kern County Sheriff’s Office (KCSO), the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) and multiple individuals for allegedly destroying 500 acres of hemp in 2019. The stay of discovery means that both the plaintiff and defendants will stop the process of obtaining evidence to prove their case.

RELATED: Apothio to Open Canadian Headquarters in North Bay While It Continues Legal Battle in Kern County, Calif.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Jennifer Thurston wrote in a Jan. 8 filing for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California that a separate criminal case against Apothio founder and managing partner Trent Jones for related criminal misdemeanor charges “will likely involve an overlap of witnesses and documentary evidence… .” For that reason and other legal factors, she wrote that the discovery process of information-gathering wouldn’t need to be rehashed in both criminal and civil court.

The criminal charge against Jones stems back to that day in 2019 when the defendants allegedly destroyed Apothio’s crop. While Jones says it was hemp, the defendants claim it was marijuana.

In addition, according to Law360, “Judge Thurston noted that a ‘preliminary peek’ at the two pending bids to ax Apothio’s claims made it clear that the motions could be decided without additional discovery, seeming to find it likely both motions will be granted.”

The judge wrote that the seized crop was beyond the legal-hemp THC threshold of 0.3%. “As Defendants assert, law enforcement’s testing found Apothio’s marijuana plants were contraband, and if true, Plaintiff can have no property interest in such contraband,” the order states.