To understand our state\u2019s current thicket of hemp regulations and\u00a0resulting lawsuits, you need a\u00a0scorecard\u00a0and several strong cups of coffee with no unusual ingredients.\u00a0\u00a0Hemp laws are a confusing mess, and the situation\u00a0continues to\u00a0grow\u00a0more complicated.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Last week, the\u00a0Texas Supreme Court<\/a> upheld the state health department\u2019s authority to ban delta-8 THC, an intoxicating, hemp-derived compound. The new ruling reversed a previous, lower court decision that had blocked the regulations. Parents, police and legislators wanted stronger rules because of news reports that minors were able to easily buy delta-8 products at gas stations and convenience stores.<\/p>\n (Delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol, the main psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, is already illegal\u00a0except in\u00a0trace amounts\u00a0or for medical uses.)<\/p>\n However, the same day the Texas Supreme Court ruled in the state\u2019s favor, a Travis County judge ruled against it in a different hemp-related case. That court agreed that the Department of State Health Services probably did not have the power to exponentially raise license fees for hemp shops and manufacturers and granted a temporary injunction. The state health agency had argued previously it had raised the fees from the low $100s, to $5,000 and $10,000 to cover the costs of administration and inspections.\u00a0<\/p>\n Those new rules,<\/a>\u00a0which included a ban on smokable hemp, had been announced in late March but were on hold because a group of hemp companies appealed to the court.\u00a0<\/p>\n Are you sober but confused? We are, too.<\/p>\n For readers who do not partake, here\u2019s a primer: Hemp and marijuana belong to the same plant genus, Cannabis. The key distinction between them is that hemp contains only minuscule amounts of delta-9 THC, which is why some hemp products are legal. Marijuana has more delta-9.\u00a0<\/p>\n Both\u00a0hemp and marijuana\u00a0contain\u00a0cannabidiol (CBD), which is not intoxicating, but hemp has it in higher amounts. Laboratories process hemp-derived CBD into the intoxicant, delta-8 THC, which Congress unintentionally legalized years ago by not explicitly outlawing it in a farm bill.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Texas lawmakers tried to tighten hemp regulations last year but Gov. Greg Abbott vetoed the bill. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick<\/a> had argued for an outright ban on all THC products; Abbott wanted stricter rules\u00a0but not\u00a0a\u00a0complete prohibition,\u00a0a position this Editorial Board supported.\u00a0After legislation failed,\u00a0Abbott\u00a0issued\u00a0an\u00a0executive order<\/a>\u00a0that bars\u00a0sales\u00a0to minors,\u00a0requires\u00a0more\u00a0rigorous\u00a0testing\u00a0and\u00a0accurate\u00a0product labeling and stronger enforcement.<\/p>\n Texans need consistency and clarity in state hemp laws; what we have now is confusion. That makes it easy for people with dubious intentions, whether they\u2019re rebellious teenagers or greedy criminals, to circumvent existing rules. They can credibly claim they didn\u2019t realize they were violating a statute.\u00a0<\/p>\n Likewise, those who are trying diligently to follow or enforce the\u00a0laws\u00a0struggle\u00a0because of\u00a0the\u00a0ever-growing layers of\u00a0rules, orders,\u00a0court\u00a0decisions\u00a0and lawsuits.\u00a0Legislators must\u00a0tackle hemp regulation\u00a0again\u00a0next\u00a0year.<\/p>\n Have thoughts about this?\u00a0Send a\u00a0letter\u00a0to the editor\u00a0using our\u00a0letters\u00a0form<\/a>\u00a0or email\u00a0letters@dallasnews.com<\/a>.\u00a0Letters\u00a0should be no more than 200 words and include the first and last name of the writer and city of residence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To understand our state\u2019s current thicket of hemp regulations and\u00a0resulting lawsuits, you need a\u00a0scorecard\u00a0and several strong cups of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279386,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-279385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279385","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=279385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}