You can’t control it. You’ve gotta take it out… You’re never going to be able to regulate it.”
The Texas Tribune: Jasper Scherer, Kayla Gui
Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick (R) said he will move to force an overtime session of the Legislature if lawmakers fail to ban THC or tighten Texas’s bail laws—two of his top priorities—before the current session ends in early June.
It is the governor’s power to summon lawmakers back to Austin. Greg Abbott, a Republican governor of Texas, is the one who sets the agenda for these overtime sessions. Patrick’s role as president of the Texas Senate allows him to block bills from becoming law, giving his leverage in forcing special sessions.
Patrick did this in 2017 when he thwarted passage of the “sunset’ bill, which would have allowed several state agencies to continue to exist, such as the Texas Medical Board. This was after the House had refused to pass measures that reduced property tax and required transgender persons to use the public toilets according to their “biological gender” rather than identity.
In an interview, Patrick affirmed that he would go a similar route this session if the House declines to get on board with his priority bill to clamp down on the state’s exploding hemp market by banning products that contain tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC.
Patrick, speaking to The Texas Tribune Wednesday said: “There’s not many things that you do it for. But the lives and health of other people are one.” “I couldn’t, in good conscience, leave here knowing if we don’t do something about it in the next two years—how many kids get sick?”
Patrick and Senate lawmakers are taking aim at the roughly 8,300 Texas retailers that sell a range of hemp products—from gummies to beverages to flower buds—under a 2019 state law that authorized the sale of consumable hemp. Patrick and Charles Perry, the Lubbock Republican senator who authored the 2019 law say that the hemp sector has taken advantage of a loophole within a bill intended to promote agriculture, allowing products with small quantities of delta-9-THC.
While hemp products are not allowed to contain more than a 0.3 percent concentration of THC—anything higher is classified as marijuana—Patrick and Perry contend that the industry has endangered public health by putting products on the shelf with dangerously high levels of THC well beyond the 0.3 percent threshold.
Perry’s proposed Senate Bill 3 this session would shut down the hemp industry, by prohibiting the possession or manufacturing of products that contain THC outside of the limited medical marijuana program.
There’s no need to ban THC. It has been passed by the Senate. However, it is still awaiting action from the House.
Patrick stated that he was prepared to use his nuclear option and force a session special if the ban were not outright.
You can’t control it. Patrick replied, “You have to remove it.” Patrick said, “You will never be able control it.”
Patrick has not said which bills he will use to force Abbott’s return of lawmakers, but there are a variety of options he can take as hostage. The only bill that the Legislature has to vote on each session is the state’s budget for the next two years. Patrick suggested that the state budget could be held hostage by the Legislature in 2017. However, it was actually the sunset legislation which led to the special session.
A few other key agencies also face sunset review in this year. That means they’ll cease to exist without legislation from lawmakers extending the life of these agencies until their next periodic review. These agencies include the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and the Department of Information Resources, as well as four regional water authority, who distribute water throughout the state and maintain key infrastructure.
Patrick said that in an interview if the Legislature did not amend its bail laws, he would force a overtime session to hold certain criminal defendants behind bars while they waited for the outcome of their case.
The bail system is causing people to die, he stated.
Republicans have attempted to strengthen the Texas Constitution bail law, which grants defendants the right of pretrial release, except under certain circumstances like capital murder. The House has repeatedly rejected proposals to allow judges to have more discretion in denying bail. This is because they failed to get the two-thirds vote needed to amend the Texas constitution.
Senate has passed 2 measures that will amend Texas Constitution. Judges can deny bail in cases of murder or aggravated kidnapping. They also have the power to restrict whether bail is offered by judges for undocumented aliens who are charged with felonies. Each measure must be supported by at least 12 Democrats in order to pass through the House. This assumes that all 88 Republicans are present and voting for the amendments.
Patrick said, “Those issues are ones that we need to be vocal about.” “There are lots of policy issues that we can argue that’s good or bad, but putting killers and rapists and child sex offenders behind bars…shouldn’t be that big an issue.”
House Democrats submitted their own amendment expanding the number of cases when judges may deny bail. This proposal is more “narrowly targeted” and applies to fewer instances than the Senate’s version, with an intention of focusing only on the “most violent offenders,” according to Rep. Ann Johnson of Houston, who authored this measure.
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In the House, a panel of criminal law experts discussed proposals in last week’s meeting but has left them to be considered by committee.
Pretrial detainees make up about 70 percent (or more) of Texas jail inmates. This means that they have not been found guilty of the offense for which they’re locked away, and are therefore presumed innocent. The number of pretrial inmates has increased by more than two-thirds over the last quarter century, pushing many county jails beyond their capacities and forcing some to send their detainees into private prisons located in other states.
Critics of Senate’s Bail measures claim that increasing pre-trial detention could strain overcrowded, understaffed jails without improving public security. Democrats are concerned about the legislation, saying that refusing bail because of an individual’s immigration status may be unconstitutional.
Patrick isn’t the only one who has threatened to call a Special Session over the priority bills he wants passed. The possibility was left open by Patrick in the closing days of the session in 2021. In 2023 he threatened to repeat the same thing, stating, “I don’t have the power to call a Special Session, but I could create one if a crucial bill is not passed.” Abbott called special sessions in both instances without Patrick’s prodding.
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2025/03/27/texas-legislature-thc-ban-dan-patrick-special-session/.
The Texas Tribune, a nonpartisan and member-supported newsroom that informs and engages Texans about state politics and policies. Find out more on texastribune.org.
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