{"id":396590,"date":"2026-08-03T17:29:27","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T17:29:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/396590\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T17:29:27","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T17:29:27","slug":"gift-to-the-cartels-talarico-renews-warning-over-texas-thc-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/396590\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Gift to the cartels\u2019 Talarico renews warning over Texas THC ban"},"content":{"rendered":"

Texas state Rep. James Talarico<\/a> said the state’s crackdown on certain THC products<\/a> will benefit drug cartels by pushing consumers back to the black market.<\/p>\n

Talarico, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate who will face Republican nominee and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton<\/a> in the November general election, resurfaced the argument in an X post on Sunday, Aug. 2.<\/a><\/p>\n

The post came days after Texas began enforcing a ban <\/a>on the sale and possession of most synthetically derived hemp THC products, including delta-8 THC. The ban followed a Texas Supreme Court decision that cleared the way for the state to enforce its restrictions on the products.<\/p>\n

Possession of banned THC products can be prosecuted as a state jail felony.<\/p>\n

“This bill is insane,” Talarico said in remarks originally made during a 2025 Texas House debate over Senate Bill 3. <\/a>“Texans aren’t going to stop smoking weed and eating edibles because politicians in Austin say so. Texans will still use THC \u2014 but instead of getting it safely from a local small business, they’ll go back to getting it from the black market. From the drug cartels.”<\/p>\n

“This ban is a gift to the cartels,” he added.<\/p>\n

During the 2025 remarks, Talarico also urged his Republican colleagues to oppose the measure and referenced a previous statement from President Donald Trump<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“I want to leave you with a quote: ‘It is time to end needless arrests and incarcerations of adults for small amounts of marijuana for personal use.’ That wasn’t a Democrat. That was President Donald Trump,” Talarico said.<\/p>\n

“Instead of fully funding our schools, guaranteeing healthcare, or making childcare more affordable \u2014 this Legislature is focused on banning a product that gives people a little peace,” he said.<\/p>\n

USA TODAY reached out to Paxton’s campaign for comment on the THC restrictions but has not received a response.<\/p>\n

Natassia Paloma may be reached at\u00a0npaloma@gannett.com<\/a>, @NatassiaPaloma on X, natassia_paloma on Instagram, and Natassia Paloma on Facebook.<\/p>\n

More: Huffines sworn in as Texas comptroller, touts school voucher enrollment<\/a><\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: ‘Gift to the cartels’ Talarico renews warning over Texas THC ban<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Texas state Rep. James Talarico said the state’s crackdown on certain THC products will benefit drug cartels by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396591,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[54712,64019,2135,1967,131075,139270,4842,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-396590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-democratic-nominee","tag-drug-cartels","tag-james-talarico","tag-ken-paxton","tag-republican-nominee","tag-team-talarico","tag-texans","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396590","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=396590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}