In a store, selling hemp products outside Houston, Texas, a panel informs customers that state legislature could prohibit most consumables containing THC.
Public media Andrew Schneider / Houston
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Public media Andrew Schneider / Houston
Houston – Six years old, only after Texas legalized hemp products, the state may be about to ban most of them, because the main legislators say that sales have led to abuse and security problems.
The Texas Senate adopted a bill last month which would prohibit almost all hemp products consumable with THC, the main intoxicating element of cannabis, and it is now under the study of the State House.
“This is a poison in our audience and we, as a legislature, our number one responsibility is the questions of life and death,” said Lieutenant Républicain Dan Patrick, who directs the effort to prohibit Consumable hemp products.
The 2018 agricultural bill adopted by the US Congress has enabled the States to reduce the restrictions on hemp. When the Texas Legislative Assembly did it a few months later, it laid the foundations – some people say inadvertently – for an industry of several billion dollars for consumable hemp products such as gammies, vapes, chips and drinks. Patrick said products are marketed with children and young adults and fueling a public health crisis.
Texas always has stricter laws than most states
The Senate bill Past last month In a vote of 26 to 5, but some opponents said that industry just needed more regulation, not a ban. The senator of the Democratic State José Menéndez de San Antonio was one of those who voted no, the seat of sales which are more regulated. There is currently no age requirement to buy consumables.
“I am one of those who believe that this should be extremely regulated, more than 1,000 feet from schools or churches. Do it as we do alcohol stores and this kind of thing, where it is very difficult to obtain, that only people who consent adults agree to use it,” said Mennend.
Texas always has relatively strict laws on cannabis. He did not legalize marijuana Like half of the States have – except for limited medical uses. A new ban would mark a reversal in what has become a major market.
Melanne Carpenter and her husband direct a store that sells hemp consumables in a suburb of Houston, TX.
Public media Andrew Schneider / Houston
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Public media Andrew Schneider / Houston
The legislators who supported the decision to legalize the hemp in years ago that it was intended to create an industry for unused hemp products, such as Rope, but that the law was used to build a consumable hemp industry with sales in thousands of stores and service stations.
Medical studies connect a potential health variety Problems to certain THC strainsIncluding respiratory problems, convulsions, schizophrenia and psychosis.
Many business could be at stake
According to Patrick’s estimate, the market for these consumables in Texas has increased to $ 8 billion per year. A recent report by Whitney Economics, a consulting company in the cannabis industry, puts the figure to more than $ 5.5 billion in sales, generating $ 268 million in tax revenue. For supporters of the ban, this turnover is out of words.
“The profit of people is never an excuse to ignore the people,” said the senator of the republican state Charles Perry of Lubbock, the author of the Senate ban. “The taxes we collect do not cover the behavioral health problems created (by) dependence that state budgets must cover.”
During a recent audience before a committee of the Texas Chamber, Alexandra Hess of Houston, resident of Houston, spoke in favor of the prohibition and opposed a version that would exempt drinks with THC. She told the story of her brother, Joshua Jimenez, who died in 2021.
“After consuming intoxicating levels of THC products, my brother underwent repeated psychotic breaks and turned into a mental health crisis that no one was equipped to manage,” said Hess. “I want Joshua to be there to tell you his first -hand story. Unfortunately, he did not survive his last psychotic break.” The family said Jimenez called them, saying he could walk in front of a train, then was killed by a train.
The resident of Houston, Alexandra Hess, speaks to a committee of the Texas legislature on the mental health crisis of her late brother and the use of THC.
Andrew Schneider / screenshot by Houston Public Media
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Andrew Schneider / screenshot by Houston Public Media
Thc products donors include certain convalescence veterans
Others at the hearing opposed the ban, saying that legal hemp products were crucial for their survival. Some of them were veterans.
“After being injured in service, I found an overwhelming pain and I was prescribed heavy opioids,” said Terence Jones of Victoria, Texas, who lost both legs and part of an arm against an anti -personnel mine in Afghanistan. “Like too many veterans, I became dependent.
Supporters of a ban on THC products, including Patrick, say they promote the expansion of the close exemption from the State for medical cannabis. But Jones and others who testified against the measures declared that a ban would put their suppliers from Texas to bankruptcy.
Melanne Carpenter is one of these suppliers. She exploited her dispensary, Serenity Organics, in Missouri City, southwest of Houston, for about five years.
“My clients are 40 to 60 years old, so I would probably say that 75 to 80% is medicinal – pain, anxiety, sleep,” said Carpenter.
Carpenter opposes sales of such products to anyone under the age of 21. But she said that the solution was regulation, not the ban. “I would have to close,” said Carpenter.
She said that a ban would prevent Texans from buying products in places outside Texas.
“The $ 8 billion is still there,” said Carpenter. “It’s just that will get it, the cartels in Mexico or other states. I mean, that’s what will happen. But we are not going to see cannabis consumption.”
Andrew Schneider Policy and government reports for Houston’s public media