Those with high stakes in the Texas hemp THC marketplace appear to have the lives of a cat, as they’ve escaped their third prohibition stab by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Senate Republicans.
The state’s upper chamber passed legislation, Senate Bill 6, via a 22-8 vote on Aug. 18 to ban the manufacture and sale of consumable hemp products containing trace amounts of THC or other intoxicating cannabinoids, making an exception for nonintoxicating CBD and CBG. However, the House failed to take up the measure.
Spearheaded by Patrick, the legislation was the third such attempt to criminalize a marketplace that provides an estimated $10.3 billion economic impact for Texans, including the employment of more than 50,000 workers at thousands of businesses, according to Whitney Economics.
Despite his pursuit of prohibition, Patrick said on Sept. 3 that, as the presiding officer of the state Senate, he failed to reach an agreement with House Speaker Dustin Burrow, R-Lubbock, and Gov. Greg Abbott on a path forward in the second special session.
“After long discussions last night between the Governor, Speaker, and me on THC, and continued hours of discussion today, we were not able to come to a resolution,” Patrick wrote on X. “I appreciate the effort by Gov. @GregAbbott_TX to find a solution. I thank Speaker Dustin @Burrows4TX and Republican House members for joining the Senate in passing a complete THC ban during the regular session. My position remains unchanged; the Senate and I are for a total THC ban.”
On Wednesday evening, the Senate and House adjourned sine die from the second special session without sending hemp legislation to Abbott’s desk. The Legislature did succeed, however, in passing other priorities of the Republican-controlled Congress, including bills related to redistricting, natural disaster preparedness and relief in the aftermath of the state’s July 4th flooding, and abortion restrictions.
While Abbott reserves the power to call a third special session to address unfinished legislative business, that remains to be seen.
Although the full Legislature passed similar legislation to S.B. 6 in the regular session, Abbott vetoed the hemp THC ban attempt in June, stating what he foresaw as a judicial nightmare of legal attacks. Instead, Abbott called for regulating hemp products as a “lawful agricultural commodity” through age-gating, restricting synthetic derivatives like delta-8 THC and limiting potency to 0.3% THC or serving sizes to 3 milligrams of THC.
While the Senate also passed a THC ban in the first special session—defying Abbott’s call for regulation—the legislation never passed the House because Democrats left the state in a quorum-busting walkout to protest the GOP redistricting plan. Abbott immediately called for a second special session following that gimmick.
Now that Texas Republicans have succeeded in their quest to redraw district maps—a move that could add five GOP seats to the U.S. House in the 2026 midterm elections—Abbott may be less enticed to call a third special session to address hemp, especially since Patrick and Senate Republicans have played him for a fool twice now, opting for a ban in defiance of his call for regulation.
With the Texas Legislature only convening in odd-numbered years, it may not be until 2027 that another legislative attempt to ban or regulate intoxicating hemp products ensues.
