Texas ban on several THC products emerges as potential wedge issue in Senate race – Houston Public Media

A recent Texas state ban on several forms of tetrahydrocannabinol or THC, the main intoxicating component in cannabis, is already becoming an issue in this year’s U.S. Senate election.

The ban took effect Friday. State Rep. James Talarico, the Democratic Senate nominee, called the ban “a gift to the cartels” in a Monday statement and said the state is “going back to the days of prohibition” seven years after the Texas Legislature legalized hemp.

The new ban applies to all synthetically created THC forms, including delta-8, delta-10, THCA flower and THCP. Still legal are delta-9 products with less than 0.3% THC by dry weight.

The ban is a result of a Texas Supreme Court ruling earlier this year that permits the state’s Department of State Health Services (DSHS) to reclassify most types of hemp-derived THC as a schedule I drug, making it illegal to sell and possess in the state. DSHS had been blocked from making the reclassification by a court injunction issued in 2021. Since then, different kinds of THC could be sold by businesses in the state.

“Yes, we should keep these products out of the hands of minors,” Talarico said. “Yes, we should end deceptive marketing practices. Yes, we should keep smoke shops away from schools. But this draconian ban doesn’t do any of that.”

Instead, Talarico argued, the ban would simply close legal small businesses and drive the trade back to the black market.

RELATED: Gov. Greg Abbott cleared the way for the hemp industry in 2019. Now businesses are being pushed out

“This is the nanny state at its worst,” Talarico said. “This is big government at its worst.”

Houston Public Media reached out to the Republican Senate nominee, Attorney General Ken Paxton, for comment but had yet to receive a response before publication. As state attorney general, Paxton has publicly taken a strong stance against decriminalization of cannabis and has sued numerous municipalities for what he has described as policies aimed at preventing the enforcement of state drug laws.

But last fall, before Congress passed spending legislation that as of 2027 will dramatically lower the amount of THC allowed in hemp-derived products sold across the country, Paxton was not part of a bipartisan coalition of 39 state attorneys general that asked lawmakers to “clarify the federal definition of hemp and prevent the continued sale of unregulated, intoxicating THC products.”