A poll shows that four in five Texas voters want hemp products to be regulated, not banned, as the THC prohibition bill stalls.

As a Texas Senate-passed bill to ban consumable hemp products with any amount of THC sits in limbo in the House, a new poll shows likely voters in the state across the political spectrum aren’t on board with the policy change—with an overwhelming majority saying they support regulation over prohibition of cannabinoids.

Senate hemp legislation is stalled during a special meeting, because Democratic lawmakers have withdrawn from the state in protest at a proposed redistricting plan. However, on Monday a GOP legislator filed an alternative bill that would limit the sale of hemp-based products for consumption to 21+ adults.

The survey from McLaughlin & Associates, meanwhile, found that 79 percent of likely voters in the Lone Star State back regulating the hemp THC market, while just 13 percent said they opposed that policy.

82 per cent of Democrats, independents, and 75 per cent of Republicans said they did not want hemp products to be outright prohibited.

Also, respondents said that they were more likely to support a candidate who supported the creation of a regulated hemp consumable market.

“This has become a bipartisan issue of personal liberty that all Texans are rallying behind, and any legislator who ignores voters does so at their own political peril,” Brian Swensen, executive director of the Hemp Industry & Farmers of America that commissioned the poll, said, according to Brietbart, which first reported the result.

He said that Abbott understood this and he rejected a similar bill that was passed in the regular session of this year. This is why Governor Abbott vetoed SB3, and called on legislators to put forth common-sense regulations for children, not another ban with a different bill number,” he said, referring to a bill passed during this year’s regular session that the governor rejected.

Swensen, referring to the THC prohibition bill in the special session, said that voting for SB 5/HB5 would violate Texans’ rights to engage in agricultural enterprises and go against the traditional strong stance of the state on limited government.

According to the poll, 62 percent would prefer candidates who supported hemp regulations and 56 percent said they’d vote against politicians who support prohibition.

This study involved 600 interviewees who were likely Texas electors from July 24-27. There was a margin of +/-4,0 percentage points.

Charlie Geren, a Republican, introduced legislation Monday to provide basic regulations for cannabinoids that are intoxicating, limiting their purchase to adults over 21.

The law would create new penalties that businesses will face if they sell cannabis products to minors under the age of 21. They also have to penalize those who attempt to do this.

The special session is ending soon due to the controversial hemp prohibition bill introduced by Sen. Charles Perry, R. Gov. Greg Abbott (R), who vetoed a previous version of this controversial bill, recently explained what he would like to see in the revised version.

The special session was opened on the 21st of July. According to the constitution of California, special sessions are limited to 30 days. This means that a quorum must be restored before August 20, if bills were to pass. The governor can call another special meeting once the deadline has passed.

At a press conference last month, a group of Democratic state senators introduced two new cannabis-related bills, including one that would regulate the hemp market, allowing adults 21 and older to purchase hemp products containing no more than 5 mg of THC per serving.

Second new bill will effectively legalize marijuana for adults by eliminating criminal penalties for possessing up to 2 ounces on an individual and 10 ounces within a household, if they are hidden and secure. The cultivation of six plants would be allowed, but only half could mature.

While opposing a complete ban on hemp products, Governor Brown, who vetoed SB 3 during this year’s state legislative regular session, has backed the idea to limit the THC concentration and prevent sales to minors.

Under the current Senate-passed proposal, consumable hemp products with any amount of THC—or any other cannabinoid besides CBD and CBG—would be illegal. Just the mere possession of hemp products would result in a Class A misdemeanor punishable with up to 180 jail days and a fine of $2,000, or even worse.

Some advocates are hopeful that either SB 5 or its House counterpart could see revisions as they make their way through the legislative process—either to affirmatively regulate the hemp market or to at least ease some of the criminal penalties on individuals found in possession of the affected products.

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Meanwhile, Abbott in June signed a bill into law that expanded the state’s list of medical cannabis qualifying conditions, adding chronic pain, traumatic brain injury (TBI), Crohn’s disease and other inflammatory bowel diseases, while also allowing end-of-life patients in palliative or hospice care to use marijuana.

Separately, Rep. Nicole Collier (D) introduced a one-page bill, HB 42, designed to protect consumers in the state from criminal charges if what they believed was a legal hemp product turned out to contain excessive amounts of THC, making it illegal marijuana. The bill would protect consumers from criminal charges if they are found to be in possession of hemp-based products that contain excessive amounts of THC, making them illegal marijuana.

For the purchaser to be entitled to legal protection the hemp-based product must have been bought “from an authorized retailer that the buyer reasonably believed to be authorized to sell consumable hemp products.”

Another bill—HB 195, introduced by Rep. Jessica González (D)—would legalize marijuana for people 21 and older, allowing possession of up to 2.5 ounces of cannabis, with no more than 15 grams of that amount being in concentrated form.

Another proposal calls for state officials to carry out a study of THC testing.

As for what Texans themselves want to see from their representatives, proponents of reining in the largely unregulated intoxicating hemp industry in Texas shared new polling data indicating that majorities of respondents from both major political parties support outlawing synthetic cannabinoids, such as delta-8 THC.

In the same survey, it was found that respondents preferred to purchase therapeutic cannabis products from state-licensed medical programs than from “smoke shops selling hemp untested and unregulated.”

Ahead of the governor’s veto in June of SB 3—the earlier hemp product ban—advocates and stakeholders had delivered more than 100,000 petition signatures asking Abbott to reject the measure. Critics argued that the industry—which employs an estimated 53,000 people—would be decimated if the measure became law.