TEXAS \u2014\u00a0A topic on some voters\u2019 minds when heading to the polls to cast their March primary ballot: THC.<\/p>\n
The policy area has been thrown back and forth since the legislative session last year, one of the major laws being a ban on hemp-based THC\u2014Senate Bill 3\u2014which was ultimately passed by the Legislature but vetoed by the governor.<\/p>\n
This election cycle, for people voting on the Democratic ballot, cannabis appeared on the ticket through a non-binding survey question: \u201cTexas should legalize cannabis for adults and automatically expunge criminal records for past low-level cannabis offenses.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ahead of the results, candidates from several races, ranging from congressional races to the race for lieutenant governor, gathered at Leaf and Legends in Austin to share their approach to THC policy.<\/p>\n
Gigs Hodges, a Democrat running for Texas House District 49, is leaving it to the experts to guide her votes if elected.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have people a part of my campaign that are from the hemp industry and advocates from the hemp industry, and that is something I want to carry into the Legislature,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Others, like Justin Early, touched on the reclassification of cannabis from a Schedule I to a Schedule III substance by President Donald Trump, a process that began back in 2023. Early is running as a Democrat for the 31st Congressional District.<\/p>\n
\u201cCannabis is removed from Schedule I \u2014 that needs to happen immediately,\u201d he said. \u201cSecondly, what that can do is open up [the] Small Business Administration [and] other funds other things to help small businesses create their business around hemp and manufacture of other products within hemp.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some candidates running for Congress touched on the state\u2019s potential move to increase licensing fees for hemp businesses in Texas. The Texas Department of State Health Services is considering increasing annual licensing fees for a business from a couple hundred dollars to at least $20,000, depending on whether a business is a retailer or a manufacturer.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you want small business to expand, don\u2019t start making them pay more money for a piece of paper,\u201d said Dawn Marshall, a Democratic candidate for the 10th Congressional District.<\/p>\n
One of her Republican counterparts running for the same seat, Brandon Hawbaker, also shared the same concern.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the potential solutions for that is to create not a federal law, but a federal standard,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Running for Texas House District 37 is Democrat Stephany Bauer, who says her approach to THC policy involves making voters aware of what is and isn\u2019t true when it comes to cannabis.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about the stigma that this is something that is tainted or something that is dirty,\u201d she said. \u201cWe need to move forward. We need to try to find the science behind it and say, \u2018hey, this is what it\u2019s good for; it helps our elderly, it helps our veterans.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The last candidate at the forum was Republican candidate Timothy Mabry, who is running for lieutenant governor.<\/p>\n
One of his biggest points was similar to the survey question on the Democratic ballot, asking whether voters think cannabis should be legalized and criminal records relating to cannabis violations should be expunged.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s all for the proposal.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou deserve a better shot,\u201d Mabry said. \u201cEspecially for the veterans, the first responders, the people who want to use these products besides pharmaceuticals.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TEXAS \u2014\u00a0A topic on some voters\u2019 minds when heading to the polls to cast their March primary ballot:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48352,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[12926,1657,1658,2160,132,1570,102,6288,138,223,287,82,27,29,28,1569,2053,835],"class_list":{"0":"post-188790","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-andres-rendon","9":"tag-app-latest-local-state-politics-stories","10":"tag-app-local-state-politics","11":"tag-app-top-stories","12":"tag-austin","13":"tag-ctv","14":"tag-dallas","15":"tag-decision-2026","16":"tag-el-paso","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-politics","19":"tag-san-antonio","20":"tag-texas","21":"tag-texas-headlines","22":"tag-texas-news","23":"tag-texas-what-you-need-to-know","24":"tag-top-stories","25":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}