Elevated<\/a>, a hemp shop with three locations in the Bryan-College Station area, says his store is keeping THCA flower on shelves until they hear more from the state.<\/p>\n\u201cIn that notice, there\u2019s not a mention of THCA. So that\u2019s where the gray area kind of still falls into place,\u201d Gurka said.<\/p>\n
The consequences are serious. Possession of Delta-8 or any other newly banned synthetic THC compound is now a felony in Texas.<\/p>\n
\u201cDelta-8 is being sold over the counter at convenience stores and vape shops all over Texas, all over Brazos County. And as of tomorrow, it\u2019s a felony to possess it. Get rid of it,\u201d Phelps said.<\/p>\n
For Gurka and his business partner Alex, this is not the first time they have had to adapt. Since opening Elevated in Bryan in January 2020, they have navigated court rulings, injunctions and ban after ban.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s emotional because we have 15 employees. We have five stores going. We have three leases that we\u2019re tied to by four or five years. Yes, financially, we need the business to keep going for those reasons. But it\u2019s also, we feed families. People\u2019s lives are better. They\u2019re happier,\u201d Gurka said.<\/p>\n
Elevated says it is already stocking more Delta-9 and THCA-compliant products and is in the process of moving its online operation out of state, citing federal interstate commerce protections that would allow them to continue shipping products back to Texas customers.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust know, Alex and I are going to follow the rules to the T. If we can sell stuff here legally, we will,\u201d Gurka said.<\/p>\n
KBTX legal advisor Shane Phelps says this may not be the last major change for the hemp industry in Texas. With a new legislative session on the horizon, he expects another push to ban all THC products statewide.<\/p>\n
\u201cI expect that there will be legislation with a very good chance of passing and being signed by the governor that will outlaw all of these products,\u201d Phelps said.<\/p>\n
There are approximately 14,000 retail stores statewide licensed to sell consumable hemp, according to DSHS.<\/p>\n
For a full list of which products are affected, visit the Texas Department of State Health Services website at dshs.texas.gov.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 KBTX. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) – Starting Friday, several hemp-derived THC products will be pulled from shelves across Texas,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393352,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28,43595],"class_list":["post-393351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-thc-ban"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393351","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=393351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}