![\"Medical](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/lhficwjrddb23rlo.jpg\")
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AUSTIN, Texas – The pause on a Texas rule that seeks to block the sale of most smokable hemp in the state has been extended until at least May 1.<\/p>\n
The so-called “Total THC” rule is at the heart of a high-stakes legal battle between the state\u2019s hemp industry and the Department of State Health Services.<\/p>\n
What we know:<\/p>\n
Both parties were supposed to make their case before a Travis County judge Thursday, but that hearing was moved to sometime between April 28 and 30<\/a>.<\/p>\n In the same order, the judge extended the temporary injunction preventing the state\u2019s new rule from going into effect until at least 5 p.m. May 1.<\/p>\n What is the \u2018Total THC\u2019 rule?:<\/p>\n DSHS enacted regulations on consumable hemp-derived products March 31. The rule required child-resistant packaging and testing. It also decreased the legal amount of THC in these types of products to 0.3%, and hiked licensing fees for retailers from about $250 to $10,000 in some cases.<\/p>\n Kaab Malik, owner of iVape ATX, reaches for a strain of smokeable hemp at his shop on Guadalupe Street in Austin, Monday, March 30, 2026. (Mikala Compton\/The Austin American-Statesman \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n The hemp side:<\/p>\n Advocates for the hemp industry say the rules would essentially force them to discard a large amount of inventory, and run them out of business.\u00a0<\/p>\n They also argue that the increased fees essentially amount to an “unconstitutional occupation tax.”<\/p>\n The state’s side:<\/p>\n Attorneys for the state argue that the rule is a public safety necessity. They call THC-A, a non-intoxicating compound found in most smokable hemp products, “marijuana in waiting” since it converts to an intoxicating form of THC called Delta-9 when heated.<\/p>\n The state said it has the right to regulate intoxicating substances regardless of botanical origins.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Source: Information in this story came from court documents and previous FOX Local reporting.<\/p>\n Texas<\/a>Cannabis<\/a>Health<\/a>Crime and Public Safety<\/a>Travis County<\/a>News<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Texas – The pause on a Texas rule that seeks to block the sale of most smokable…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259642,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,26703,1046,584,223,394,216,393],"class_list":{"0":"post-264668","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-austin","8":"tag-austin","9":"tag-austin-headlines","10":"tag-austin-news","11":"tag-cannabis","12":"tag-crime-publicsafety","13":"tag-health","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-travis-county","16":"tag-tx","17":"tag-us"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264668","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=264668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Kaab](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1777053191_13_gettyimages-2269263570.jpg\")
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