Texas Hemp Flower and Pre-Roll Ban Delayed Yet Again

Texas hemp product retailers can continue selling smokable hemp products until July 27, the next trial date in an ongoing lawsuit challenging the state’s new regulations, KUT News reports.

Filed by the Texas Hemp Business Council, Hemp Industry & Farmers of America, and multiple hemp industry retailers, manufacturers, and farmers, the lawsuit argues that the Department of State Health Services (DSHS) is not authorized to change the definition of hemp products under state law. Rather, the suit argues the change would need to be implemented via the Legislature.

Hemp flower and pre-rolls containing less delta-9 THC than the federal limit of 0.3% have become popular in Texas, where adult-use cannabis remains strictly prohibited.

But the new DSHS language targets the state’s smokable hemp products by including the cannabinoid THCA in a product’s total THC content. While THCA itself is non-intoxicating, the cannabinoid converts to delta-9 THC when it is decarboxylated, which occurs when heating or burning the flower.

The ban was scheduled to take effect on March 31, but a judge’s order temporarily delayed it as the case went to trial, and it was delayed again several weeks later as the trial continued.

Last week, Judge DeSeta Lyttle delayed the ban’s implementation yet again, this time granting about two months’ reprieve to the industry, with the next trial date scheduled for July 27.

Attorney Jason Snell, who represents the plaintiffs, said in the report that the businesses are “excited” about the judge’s ruling because it “prohibits what we believe are illegal rules from going into effect, which would cripple the hemp industry statewide and deprive consumers and everyday Texans from access to legal products.”

The injunction applies to the state’s entire hemp industry. In addition to the changes regarding THCA, the injunction also blocks the state from charging the new regulatory regime’s significantly increased licensing fees.