Texas governor pressured to sign — or veto — THC ban

Sign up for The Brief, The Texas Tribune’s daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.

Gov. Greg Abbott is facing intense political pressure over a bill that would ban products containing tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, as hemp industry leaders mount a full-court press urging the governor to veto the measure while Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and his allies urge Abbott to sign it into law.

The issue has sparked backlash from both sides of the aisle, including from conservatives ordinarily supportive of Patrick’s hardline agenda. An April statewide survey by the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin found that 55% of Republicans believe Texas’ marijuana and cannabis laws should be less strict or left as they are now, compared to 40% who said they should be stricter.

Less than one-third of voters of all political persuasions said the state should stiffen its THC laws. Yet, should he break out the veto pen, Abbott would likely incur the wrath of Patrick, the powerful Senate leader who made the ban one of his top priorities, calling THC-infused products — such as gummies, beverages and vapes — a “poison in our public.”

In a sign of the intense fallout since lawmakers approved the ban, Patrick called a news conference last week to renew his criticism of the hemp industry and the products they are pushing, which he said are designed to appeal to children.

Patrick, brandishing a THC-infused lollipop and standing before a table covered in cannabis products, said, “You might go into a store and buy ‘em and not even know that you’re getting your kid high on drugs and hooked for life.”

The hemp industry supported an alternative to the ban that would have restricted THC products to Texans 21 and older, barred sales within a certain distance of schools and outlawed marketing the products in ways that are “attractive to children,” which they said would make people less likely to develop a dependency on the drug.

Asked if he was calling the news conference over concerns about an Abbott veto, Patrick said he was “not worried about the governor.”

“I’m worried about the pressure on the media and the general public to try to keep this going in some way and bring it back,” Patrick said, adding, “I’m not going to speak for the governor. He will do what he is going to do. I have total confidence in the governor.”

Meanwhile, as the Legislature prepared to gavel out for the session on Monday, hemp industry leaders held their own news conference to call for Abbott to veto the bill — underscoring the competing pressures now facing the governor.

Abbott has three options for how to handle the THC ban, known as Senate Bill 3. He has 20 days after the end of the session to sign or veto the measure. If he does neither, it will become law without his signature. An Abbott spokesperson declined Monday to say what he would do, saying only that the governor “will thoughtfully review any legislation sent to his desk.”

On Monday, the Texas Hemp Business Council reported that it delivered 5,000 letters to Abbott’s office, along with a petition signed by some 120,000 people, urging the governor to veto the bill.

The group organized a news conference in which industry leaders, business owners and a sixth-generation Texan farmer — along with a pair of military veterans — blasted lawmakers who pushed the ban, accusing them of putting politics and power above sensible policy.

Dave Walden, a Texas VFW senior vice commander who served multiple combat deployments in more than a decade with the U.S. Army, shared a story about how his life was saved by a veteran-founded company that makes THC gummies. The cannabis helps Walden manage the chronic pain and PTSD that’s plagued him since he returned from service, he said.

“I live with the scars that you can see and the ones that you can’t and like thousands of us, I went through the government’s solution: a never-ending parade of pills,” Walden said. “Those drugs nearly destroyed me.”

Thanks to the legal, hemp-derived consumable products he found, Walden said that he has not touched an opioid since 2018.

“THC gummies brought me back,” he said. “Let’s stop pretending this is about public safety. This is about control and veterans are caught in the crossfire.”

Industry leaders, meanwhile, tried to appeal to Abbott by arguing that a ban would hurt Texas’ business-friendly reputation and weaken its border security by giving rise to a black market in place of legal dispensaries.

State Sen. Charles Perry, the Lubbock Republican who authored the THC ban, said those businesses were “forewarned,” when lawmakers approved 2019 legislation authorizing the sale of consumable hemp, that the measure was only intended to boost agriculture.

“If you’re doing hemp that ultimately ended up as a Delta 8 or a Delta 10 [product], going forward, you’re out of business,” Perry said. “And you should be.”

Disclosure: University of Texas at Austin has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

First round of TribFest speakers announced! Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Maureen Dowd; U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-San Antonio; Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker; U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff, D-California; and U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas are taking the stage Nov. 13–15 in Austin. Get your tickets today!