Patrick Wants to Ban Cannabis Products
GOP Lawmakers Unwittingly Legalized
Capitol Inside
April 11, 2024
Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick ordered a Texas Senate panel to study the possibility of shutting down a cannabis industry that he helped create when he outlined issues that he wants senators to tackle during the interim before the regular session in 2025.
Patrick instructed the State Affairs Committee to explore a prohibition on the hemp products that are marketed as Delta 8 and Delta 9 in cannabis dispensaries that have proliferated in stunning numbers in Austin and other Texas cities in recent months.
GOP leaders and lawmakers planted the seed for the sprouting and rapid spread of an unregulated THC industry from which the state receives little benefit when they legalized hemp in 2019. Patrick and other Republicans apparently didn't realize that they were blessing products that are just as intoxicating or more as those that are made with THC in marijuana.
Patrick has threatened to use his singular power to block the legalization of cannabis from the marijuana plant for recreational purposes in Texas. The pot blockade by Patrick and other conservatives is costing the Texas economy and state government billions of dollars every year. But the Republicans appeared to be asleep at the wheel on the practical impact their work would have with the lifting of the prohibition on hemp and the emerging of Delta 8 and Delta 9 products that can be found here for sale in dispensaries, convenience stores and dope trucks that sell gummies and other edibles and flower for smoking as Delta 8 and THCA.
The ban on marijuana is costing the Texas economy and state government billions of dollars every year as residents flock to states like Colorado, New Mexico and Missouri to purchase the superior product that's prohibited here. Texas has a token medical marijuana program that's too restrictive to help a significant number of people. The states with recreational weed have industries that are heavily regulated and subject to substantial state and local taxes.
Patrick gave the impression that and he other lawmakers didn't know what they were doing with the hemp law they approved five years ago with the bullet item that he included today on the list of interim charges for the State Affairs Committee to tackle in the coming months.
"Banning Delta 8 and 9: Examine the sale of intoxicating hemp products in Texas. Make recommendations to further regulate the sale of these products, and suggest legislation to stop retailers who market these products to children," according to Patrick's assignment.
Governor Greg Abbott was apparently in the dark as much as legislators when he signed the hemp measure into law. Abbott attempted damage control in 2021 when he ordered the Texas Department of Health and Human Services to used administrative authority to ban the cannabis product Delta 8 in the Lone Star State.
A retailer challenged the administrative directive in court and prevailed with a temporary injunction that prevented the state from enforcing the Delta 8 edict. An appeal court upheld the ruling in late 2023 when dispensaries were starting to pop up across the Capital City and beyond.
Patrick used the interim charges to take aim at college faculty politics, federal incompetence, big tech election security threats, ESG, DEI, squatters and social media restrictions for children. Patrick told the Local Government Committee to get preparations under way for another round of cutting property taxes - a biennial exercise during more than 20 years of GOP rule in Austin.
more to come ...
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