{"id":392992,"date":"2026-07-31T03:57:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T03:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/392992\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T03:57:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T03:57:08","slug":"texas-supreme-court-allows-delta-8-thc-ban-the-daily-texan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/392992\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas Supreme Court allows Delta-8 THC ban \u2013 The Daily Texan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Texas Supreme Court allowed a ban on delta-8 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), classifying the substance as Schedule I, meaning it will be controlled in the same category as LSD and heroin. The ban will go into effect Friday, limiting the inventory for local businesses and options for customers.<\/p>\n<p>The Court ruled against businesses, which argued legislation legalized the sale of delta-8 in 2019. A ruling on this case, Sky Marketing Corp v. Texas Department of State Health Services, by lower courts allowed delta-8 sales starting in 2019. However, in May 2026, the Texas Supreme Court reversed the court order that initially allowed the sales of delta-8 to continue, according to a notice issued by the DSHS earlier this month.<\/p>\n<p>The Texas Hemp Business Council urged hemp businesses to sell all or take off any products containing delta-8, delta-10, delta-6 and THCP from the shelves in their legislative update on July 15. The council also wrote in the update that a public statement by the DSHS regarding the ban has not been made.<\/p>\n<p>THBC President Cynthia Cabrera said there are conflicting regulations and unclear instructions from DSHS on what vendors need to do.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEnforcement on the existing rules has been somewhat spotty, so I don\u2019t know what enforcement on this will look like,\u201d Cabrera said. \u201cWhat we\u2019re advocating for smaller retailers and smaller businesses is clarity from (the DSHS).\u201d<a href=\"https:\/\/otter.ai\/u\/YaOmCfAcKT5nQRZDIjT0q03D6Js?utm_source=copy_url&amp;tab=chat&amp;view=transcript\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Lt. Governor Dan Patrick has been vocal on THC regulation. During the last legislative session, he advocated for a total ban of THC products in the state. In a September 2025 press release, Patrick said many \u201cdangerous\u201d THC products are being sold \u201cmislabeled with ingredients unknown to the buyer.\u201d He said the initial age restriction of those 21 and up does not protect people\u2019s safety.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA ban is the only way to truly protect kids from accessing these products,\u201d Patrick wrote in the release. \u201cWe have age limits on alcohol and cigarettes, but we know that does not stop kids from getting them either.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Texas Senate Committee on Health and Human Services <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2026\/07\/07\/texas-senate-committee-continues-thc-ban-push\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">held a public hearing<\/a> on July 7 to discuss and collect information to inform future legislation. The legislature may look to restrict or ban THC further in the next legislative session, which begins January 2027.<\/p>\n<p>Some local THC businesses have reported a smaller inventory of products they can sell, and staffing downsizes as new regulations come into place. Todd Harris, co-owner of hemp shop The Happy Cactus, said he had to let go of about half of their staff last month. He said the business will lose about 15% of the products they sell after Friday\u2019s ban, in addition to an estimated 70% of business they have already lost due to past regulations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019re putting these products (as a Schedule I) that we\u2019ve helped 75-year-old retired teachers with,\u201d Harris said. \u201cThey\u2019re now going to compare it to, or having the same schedule as coke (and) meth.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Harris said the products lawmakers are \u201ccoming after\u201d are some of the safest products that his business and others sell, making it feel confusing and daunting for them.<a href=\"https:\/\/otter.ai\/u\/XKxh7VMk2mL30JjQ_YGOvyNlC5k?utm_source=copy_url&amp;tab=chat&amp;view=transcript\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are some bad actors out there that aren\u2019t following the rules, that don\u2019t have licenses,\u201d Harris said. \u201cBut that\u2019s who should be inspected and should be gone after. Not all the ones like us that have been doing it right this whole time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The ban of delta-8 and other forms of THC won\u2019t be more beneficial for people\u2019s safety either, said Brayan Lares, an accounting senior and a customer of The Glassmith, a smoke shop in West Campus. He said he is confused about the products being banned, considering that other products are still on the market.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt poses more danger because, at least for me, I\u2019m probably going to find (delta-8) somewhere else,\u201d Lares said. \u201cSo that\u2019s probably more dangerous than being able to just buy it (in) the smoke shop.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While Cabrera says the future of hemp businesses is unclear, she says people like her are lobbying and reaching out to DSHS regarding the matters during a non-session year for the Texas Legislature.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe fact of the matter is that today they\u2019re going after the hemp industry,\u201d Cabrera said. \u201cBut who are they going to go after tomorrow?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00a0 The Texas Supreme Court allowed a ban on delta-8 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), classifying the substance as Schedule I,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":392993,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-392992","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\/392992","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=392992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/392993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=392992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=392992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=392992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}