Tag: 88th Legislative Session

Texas Hemp Day at the Capitol

Written by Rachel Nelson on March 18, 2023. Posted in Legislative.

The Texas Hemp Reporter attended the first ever Texas Hemp Day at the Capitol and Rachel was there for a report with activity with lawmakers. Written & Produced by Rachel Nelson.

Texas Hemp Day at the Capitol was a huge success, marking the first time that Texas’ hemp industry came together at the capitol. The event provided an opportunity for members to interact with one another, as well as state representatives and senators. The work accomplished at the capitol is expected to benefit the industry in the current legislative session.

The Texas Hemp Coalition expressed their appreciation to all those who came to Austin to show their support for the coalition and the Texas hemp industry, and looks forward to seeing them again soon.

As the 88th Texas Legislature convened on January 10, 2023, the Texas Hemp Coalition’s tenant of “advocacy” is carried out during this session as they continue to fight for the industry’s prosperity. The final day of the legislative session is May 29, 2023, and the coalition encourages industry supporters to reach out to their State Representatives and Senators to voice their concerns and support for the hemp industry in Texas.

The coalition’s federal and state legislative priorities include protecting all cannabinoids for consumable hemp products, ensuring retailers and manufacturers are protected for future cannabinoid products for the market, advancing regulatory efforts towards legalizing hemp feed as a protein for animals for human consumption, urging the FDA to regulate CBD as a dietary supplement, protecting and fighting for farmers to have a more efficient program, updating legislation to reflect changes from USDA rules, passing a 2023 Farm Bill to reflect a more industry-supported hemp program, and giving agencies the ability to update statute per the 2023 Farm Bill.

In terms of Texas legislative priorities, the coalition is supporting SB 264 by Senator Charles Perry, which relates to the production, sale, distribution, delivery, and regulation of consumable hemp products, and SB 321 by Senator Charles Perry, which relates to the production and regulation of hemp, providing administrative penalties, and creating a criminal offense.

On the federal level, the coalition is supporting H.R. 6645: The Hemp Advancement Act of 2022 by Rep. Chellie Pingree, which aims to make it easier and more profitable for U.S. farmers to grow hemp while ensuring consumers of hemp are protected against unsafe products, the Safe Banking Act by Rep. Ed Perlmutter, which would protect institutions administering financial services to all legal cannabis businesses by preventing any penalization from federal regulators, and the Hemp and Hemp Derived CBD Consumer Protection and Market Stabilization Act of 2021 by Rep. Kurt Schrader, which would ensure that hemp-derived CBD and other non-intoxicating hemp ingredients could be lawfully marketed as dietary supplements.

Overall, the Texas Hemp Coalition’s legislative efforts are focused on supporting the growth and prosperity of the hemp industry in Texas, and they are actively engaging with lawmakers and stakeholders to achieve these goals.

When Will Cannabis Be Recreational in Texas?

Written by shayda Torabi on February 17, 2023. Posted in CBD News & Business.

A popular question that comes up in my retail (RESTART CBD) is when will Texas recreationally legalize cannabis? And with the 88th legislative session currently in session as of January 10th, 2023, a good reminder is that, in Texas, bills become law during legislative session.

PLEASE NOTE: Recreational legalization is also referred to as “Adult Use”.

So now is a really good time to break down the aforementioned question with timing and history in consideration.

Let’s begin by defining the word “legalize”- according to Oxford Languages it is to “make (something that was previously illegal) permissible by law.”

Texas is one of the more slow moving states on Cannabis because of the Conservative Leadership in State Government.

The whole reason we’re advocating for cannabis legalization in Texas is because starting in 1915, El Paso was the first US city to individually restrict cannabis. It would go through further restrictions up until the possession of cannabis was banned statewide in 1931.And until 1973 it would remain classified as a narcotic with the possibility of life sentences imposed for possession of small amounts.

In June 1973, House Bill 447 was signed into law to significantly reduce penalties for cannabis offenses.Prior to its passage Texas had the harshest cannabis laws of any state in the nation, with possession of any amount classified as a felony offense punishable by two years to life in prison.With the passage of the bill, possession of up to two ounces was reduced to a class B misdemeanor, punishable by a $1000 fine and prison sentence of no more than 180 days.

Fast forward to June 2015 when Governor Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 339 – the Texas Compassionate Use Act (TCUP) – to allow the use of low-THC cannabis oil (less than 0.5% THC) for the treatment of epilepsy. (For those of you who may be unaware, TCUP is our states medical marijuana program.)

Then in June 2019 House Bill 1325 was also signed into law by Governor Abbott to legalize the cultivation of industrial hemp (cannabis containing less than 0.3% THC). This bill also legalized possession and sale of hemp-derived CBD products without need for a doctor’s approval as compared to the TCUP program.

Now let’s pause right there, because for the last four years some interesting things have shifted for TCUP and for hemp in Texas. During the 2021 87th legislative session, we saw the TCUP program expand to 1% THC and added conditions including all forms of cancer and PTSD. And in the hemp, the Texas Supreme Court upheld the ban on the manufacturing and processing (but not sale) of smokable hemp in June 2022.

Getting back to the question at hand, when can we expect to see cannabis recreationally legalized in Texas? Personally speaking, I think you have to take into consideration Texas’ timeline. We meet every two years as a state, and TCUP is capped at 1% right now amongst other setbacks the program has. I anticipate the TCUP program will try to expand yet again this legislative session but how much is yet to be determined, so more to come at the end of May when session ends.

I also encourage you to look into the differences between a medical marijuana program (our current version is TCUP) and adult use recreation. Medical marijuana programs require a doctor sign off to essentially to qualify you into the program. Compared to adult use recreational where it is more akin to purchasing alcohol once you are of legal age.

The variations of the program types are what we’re fundamentally discussing, and to see what and when Texas might make her move, we should look to some other states programs for examples of what to expect.

Missouri is a great example of a shorter timeline between medical- which was legalized in 2018, and adult use recreation- which was legalized in 2022, just four years later. Or compare that to Illinois who legalized medical in 2014 and adult use in 2020, so six years later.

Now on the other end, you have states like Arizona who legalized medical in 2010 and it took them a decade to legalize adult use recreation in 2020. Or another Texas neighbor, New Mexico legalized adult use recreation in 2022, and that was after 15 years of medical which was legalized in 2007.

The main takeaway is it is going to take time to go from a mature, key word mature, medical marijuana program to an adult use recreational program. And considering Texas meets every two years, and our current TCUP/Medical marijuana program is capped at 1% and there are other limitations to their program, I anticipate that getting sorted out in the next two to six years in legislation before you begin to see recreational legalization on the horizon.

Another major plot twist to throw into all of this is the fact that during this time, hemp became federally legal and state legal allowing for up to .3% Delta 9 THC on a dry weight basis. Almost all these mature marijuana states like Colorado, California, and Oregon legalized medical, then adult use, then hemp. But in Texas we have a different call to order. We’re slowly expanding medical into a mature program, then hemp became legalized, and we’re still advocating for adult use.

I’m not going to pretend like I know how things are going to go in Texas, but I’m paying attention to the market across our the United States and paying attention to Texas politics. It’s going to be an exciting Texas Legislative session, and I hope you’ll be following along. I’m a part of an organization called the Texas Hemp Coalition, they are going to be leading a lot of advocacy and policy work for the hemp industry this session, so if you want to get more involved please check them out. Otherwise conversations like this can always be found at ToBeBluntpod.com.

The Possible Fate of Delta-8 in Texas

Written by Jesse Williams on January 2, 2023. Posted in CBD News & Business.

Texas advocates and business owners should be prepared at minimum to fight like hell if needed.

Texans turned out to the polls late October and early November to show who they favored to be stewards of Texas for the next two to four years.

The results are a largely unchanged Texas legislative landscape. Republicans still have a majority, a few new faces will appear, and statewide incumbents that ran kept their seats.

Last year, I chimed in on delta-8 in Texas. I noted that in this next legislative session we can expect to see varied interests coming out on all sides, including medical marijuana groups that are going to have input about this, and the hemp industry needs to be ready with answers and be ready to fight for their products. We are all in this together and we all need to push the industry forward together in a healthy and responsible fashion if we want this to work.

I think those words are still true today. With what everyone saw transpire in the 2021 legislative session, people should be ready for a war on the hemp front overall. Delta-8 is not the only thing on the line.

We watched as several bills moved over to the senate, to include one that dealt with penalty reduction measures for concentrates of marijuana. The hemp clean-up bill was involved in the mess that resulted in the death of both bills.

Take a look at the current planks for the Republican Party of Texas and you’ll notice that they mention hemp. That the party wishes to reduce the regulation of hemp in the state. How would that even be done in a state where the state is looking for its program to meet just the minimum federal requirements to stay as open as possible?

The program gets more restrictive is what takes place. How can removing regulation make things more restrictive you may be asking. Currently the state of Texas has a regulation as part of the law for the hemp program that keeps a county from banning hemp as a whole or in part. They cannot ban the transportation through their county, per federal law, but when has that stopped Texas from still arresting for the transportation of hemp and confiscating the plant?

Deregulating in that area would allow places like Montgomery County, Navarro County, and counties across the panhandle to explicitly ban the substance. It could be flower they ban, it could be oils that they ban. Edibles could go away, so could industrial hemp if they so desire. They could just say that hemp as a plant is banned there.

Delta-8 was the obvious target last session. It was setup in a way to cause factions between the hemp industry. Farmers vs shops was the dichotomy that was evident in the end. Both should be on the same team though. The farmers make money from their product currently being sold by shops as the industrial side is still getting set up to process mass product. Ending either side of that equation in the next few years will cripple the Texas hemp market even further.

Federally a court has ruled that delta-8 is a legal item on that level. That if congress intended for it to not be an item of legal availability, the body could have done something about it by now. There is nothing that explicitly states though that a state has to keep a specific isomer.

This should be expected in the upcoming legislative session. And it must be said as a big picture item that hemp bills are not the only place where hemp can get torn apart. The industry will have to pay attention to all of the cannabis bills put forward this session. Delta-8 could face issues in any number of bills.

Pay attention to the advocacy organizations in the state and when they are releasing updates about legislative items. If you’re a consumer, be ready to write letters and show up to hand out information or be available when a mass lobby day is announced. For business owners and consumers alike, be ready to testify at committee hearings that could be scheduled for 8am one morning and not have the bill heard until 9-10pm at night or possibly later.

If you are a business owner in this space, this is part of running your business from the start of the legislative session, until the end of said session in 2023. Your business is on the line, your farm is on the line, your processing facilities are on the line. If you are a consumer, your favorite products are on the line. Do not let this slip away without a massive push to keep it in place at a minimum.