So, I guess it was always going to come to this. From the moment Kevin decided he had a life to live, that didn’t involve reporting on his drug habit every other week, and the word came that we were going to continue the column, authored for now by a rotating cast of staff members – I kinda knew I was going to wind up getting tabbed for this first one.
It may seem like stereotyping – let’s get the guy who’s smoking pot out on the porch every day – but it wasn’t supposed to go this way. There were four other people lined up to take turns, and until this morning, just before deadline, no one had suggested that I was going to be needed any time soon. But you know how it goes on the pot beat: One writer hasn’t been seen in days; another did so much “research” that they can’t remember any of it; and the most promising story idea has gone down a rabbit hole that currently involves doing more research into Lord Byron, I believe, and is now on about the same schedule as the I-35 rebuild.
So I wasn’t really surprised when KJ poked her head into my cave this morning, and I was ready to spring into action. And I’ll dedicate this one to the late great John Prine (it was his birthday last week) – I started smoking pot around when his Illegal Smile came out in 1971, and back then his anthem seemed like a declaration of a completely obvious truth: The pot prohibition was pointless, vindictive, outmoded, arbitrarily enforced, and widely ignored. And I would never have believed that 54 years later, that prohibition would still be in place. That’s the way that the world goes ’round, I guess, and to believe in this living is just a hard way to go.
Still, the world does go ’round, and maybe we are living in the future after all, because in spite of ourselves and against all odds, Texas pot smokers are living in a peculiar legal bubble where a wide variety of high-quality cannabis products are legally available in local stores, and they don’t even cost very much. Indeed, we don’t know how lucky we are.
But if we’re up one day, the next we could be down. Things could be worse. We still have a Lieutenant Governor dead set on strict prohibition, public opinion be damned. And despite a whole industry having grown up organically – growers, producers, distributors, and retail businesses – with no apparent negative effects, producing taxes that were otherwise going to Colorado or New Mexico, we are at the whim of a GOP political machine that seems willing to sacrifice all manner of things (as well as its principles) in order to notch wins against its perceived enemies.
On Sept. 10, Gov. Greg Abbott issued his Executive Order GA-56, banning any sales of THC products to minors, with strict ID checks, putting more product categories under scrutiny, explicitly including THC-A, and tasking the Dept. of State Health Services and the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission with developing rules for labeling, potency limits, and other issues.
On Oct. 1, the order went into effect.
And on Oct. 7, Abbott directed the DPS to “increase surveillance and enforcement of any vape and smoke shop violating Texas law.” DPS “will conduct targeted operations to identify vape and smoke shops of concern, then … conduct undercover operations to identify unlawful activity, [and] testing on any seized products from these investigations.” In the end, they’ll “bring charges against employees and shop ownership in violation of Texas law, [and] leverage all federal and local law enforcement partnerships to further these investigations.” Sounds scary.
But the thing is, Austin is blessed at the moment with a very healthy and professional batch of cannabis vendors, selling a variety of products – many of them locally made, pretty much all of them coming from reputable producers, and all of them legal under current regulations. And in my experience, they’ve been scrupulous about checking IDs and observing the other niceties of being in the cannabusiness. (In one hilarious incident during the recent legislative session, Lt. Gov. Patrick tried to run a sting operation on a Happy Cactus store here in Austin, only to be carded and lectured on potency limits.)
So, while I conduct this sort of research on a regular basis, this week I went out with a purpose, visiting three of my favorite local cannabusinesses, and found that – I can’t complain, because actually, everything is just about the same. Shops seem to be humming along, with no effects from the new regs, and an air of optimism for the future after having survived the Lege session. (I won’t mention any stores by name, because there are dozens of reputable shops around town; if you don’t have a favorite, Kevin has written about several in this column, or check the Chronicle’s Cannabusiness Guide.) The only notable change is that vapes are gone, so boo to that (but oddly, they’ll soon be available for medical patients, so yay for that). And if some of the less scrupulous sellers around town have to pull their questionable wares off the market, all the better. And all of that is a good thing … for now.
With Abbott’s orders expiring in 180 days, the TABC and DSHS have until the end of March to come up with the new rules, regulations, enforcement, and taxing mechanisms for the next phase of the Texas pot prohibition, but there’s every reason to believe that those agencies recognize the economic value of quietly acknowledging something that’s been obvious since well before 54 years ago.
And you may see me tonight with an illegal smile
It don’t cost very much, but it lasts a long while
Won’t you please tell the man, I didn’t kill anyone
No, I’m just tryin’ to have me some fun
– “Illegal Smile,” John Prine (1971)
This article appears in October 17 • 2025.
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