Texas Smokable Hemp Hearing Set for December

Texas hemp industry representatives will appear in court on December 8 in their case challenging the state’s ban on smokable hemp products, WFAA reports.

The smokable hemp product ban took effect on March 31. Hemp advocates filed a legal challenge, arguing that regulators had overstepped their legal authority. The ban was temporarily overturned, but the state appealed, and the Fifteenth Court of Appeals rescinded a lower court’s emergency injunction, leaving the ban in place while the plaintiffs await trial.

The rule change also dramatically increased hemp industry licensing fees, hiking the cost of hemp retailer licenses from $150 per year to $5,000 per location, and manufacturer license fees from $250 per year to $10,000.

Meanwhile, multiple hemp product retailers have filed lawsuits challenging other rules implemented this year by the Texas Department of State Health Services. Those rules prohibit the sale of hemp-derived THC except for delta-9 THC, which is only allowed in products with a dry weight THC content of less than 0.3%.