{"id":274737,"date":"2026-05-01T16:41:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T16:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/274737\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T16:41:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T16:41:10","slug":"texas-can-criminalize-delta-8-for-now-but-hemp-businesses-can-still-sue-to-stop-it-justices-say-houston-public-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/274737\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas can criminalize delta-8 for now \u2014 but hemp businesses can still sue to stop it, justices say \u2013 Houston Public Media"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\"DeltaDelta 8 THC Nerds Rope gummies and Delta 8 THC Nerds Bites, legal cannabis products sold by Natural Dragonfly Wellness, are viewed at their booth during the Florida Man Games, Saturday, March 1, 2025, in Elkton, Fla. (Phelan M. Ebenhack | AP)<\/p>\n

The Texas Supreme Court ruled Friday a group of hemp retailers can sue the Department of State Health Services for effectively criminalizing delta-8.<\/a><\/p>\n

But the court lifted a temporary injunction granted against the department \u2014 meaning for now, DSHS has the authority to enforce a notice on its website making delta-8 illegal.<\/p>\n

Justices ruled DSHS is protected by sovereign immunity \u2014 a legal principle that protects the state and state agencies from suit \u2014 because Texas law gives the agency\u2019s commissioner the authority to classify delta-8 as a Schedule I controlled substance.<\/p>\n

RELATED: Texas court weighs whether smokeable hemp can stay on shelves after Friday<\/a><\/p>\n

Schedule I substances are defined at the federal and state level as drugs with no accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse, and possessing or distributing them has criminal consequences.<\/p>\n

The court also ruled the website notice isn\u2019t subject to the Texas Administrative Procedure Act, dismissing the plaintiffs\u2019 claim that DSHS didn\u2019t follow the proper rulemaking procedures when it issued the notice.<\/p>\n

This story is developing and will be updated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Delta 8 THC Nerds Rope gummies and Delta 8 THC Nerds Bites, legal cannabis products sold by Natural…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[910,51536,27604,66,3328,223,27,8397,29,28,3298,27605],"class_list":["post-274737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-business","tag-delta-8","tag-hemp","tag-local","tag-marijuana","tag-news","tag-texas","tag-texas-department-of-state-health-services","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-texas-supreme-court","tag-thc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274737","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=274737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}