A Texas Democrat introduced a bill to legalize marijuana and regulate it for those over 21 years old. Texas lawmakers are currently deciding whether or not they want to criminalize hemp products that contain any amount of THC.
A newly-filed measure would, in the meantime, order officials of state to carry out a study regarding testing for THC.
The legalization bill—HB 195, introduced on Thursday by Rep. Jessica González (D)—would allow possession of up to 2.5 ounces of cannabis, with no more than 15 grams of that amount being in concentrated form. The amount of cannabis that adults can possess is 2.5 ounces, with no more than 15 grams in concentrated form.
The proposal allows adults to keep up to ten ounces of marijuana at home. Any amount above 2.5 ounces must be kept in a lockable container, or restricted location. Home cultivation for personal use is prohibited.
Cannabis consumption in motor vehicles, watercraft, or aircraft would be illegal, just as it would in a public space, unless local governments allow cannabis usage in the area. Owners of property could prohibit their tenants from smoking cannabis on the premises, but they could not forbid consumption by other methods or possession or cannabis or cannabis paraphernalia.
Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation would oversee the commercial cannabis market in Texas. Licenses will be issued to growers and transporters as well as testing and processing facilities. By November 1, 2026, licensing would have to start.
Texas Commission of Licensing and Regulation would establish specific rules for the industry. However, the bill specifies some specifics, such as requiring child-resistant packaging and clearly labeling cannabis products. The packaging could not look like that sold in commercial candy stores.
This commission will also have to set rules for the advertising of cannabis products and their display, safety measures, and product tracking through the supply chain.
The taxes and fees collected by the legal system will pay for the DLR to regulate the program (ten percent), Department of Safety, which is responsible for overseeing marijuana laboratory testing (ten percent), as well as the municipalities or counties where at least one cannabis licensed business has been located (20 percent). The rest would be used to fund the Foundation School Program of California.
The local governments will need to approve the establishment of facilities in their jurisdictions. The local governments could set limitations on business locations and number, as well as operating hours.
Selling or delivering marijuana to a minor would be a Class C misdemeanor under the HB 195—unless the minor provided “apparently valid proof of identification”—with individual company employees subject to criminal liability.
The 28-page bill, unlike many state laws on cannabis, appears to lack any provisions to correct past inequalities, including priority licensing and reinvestment back into communities that have suffered disproportionately from the drug war.
Heather Fazio, director of the Texas Cannabis Policy Center, told MEDCAN24 that advocates welcome HB 195’s introduction for the special session.
Fazio stated, “We appreciate Rep. Gonzalez’s bill that would legalize cannabis for all adults and regulate it across the board. Her bill is very clear: Cannabis should be legalized for adults. There will be no more arrests. There will be no more arrests. No more confusion about policies. Texas cannabis is now legal and safe.
(Disclosure: Fazio supports MEDCAN24’s work via a monthly Patreon pledge.)
Another measure that was introduced on Thursday would require the Department of State Health Services (HB 198) to conduct a “study on establishing scientific standards and testing for determining tetrahydrocannabinol toxicity.”
This study would have to be completed by 2026 and include an analysis of the thresholds of intoxication that are “similar to those standards for blood alcohol content”, as well as recommendations to lawmakers on how to proceed.
The special legislative session that began in the state on Monday is expected to produce more bills related to cannabis and hemp.
This week the Governor of Texas also explained his position on the renewed effort in the Texas legislature to prohibit most hemp-based products. He seemed to depart from the proposal which was advanced by a Senate Committee this week and called for adult access to hemp items with low THC.
Gov. Greg Abbott (R) made headlines last month after vetoing an earlier hemp THC ban bill, SB 3, after which point he convened a special session with a mandate to legislators to take the issue, as well as others, back up. The Senate State Affairs Committee approved SB 5, a new special session measure, from Sen. Charles Perry. It would create the exact same prohibition that the Governor vetoed.
Abbott, when asked Tuesday about this proposal, told FOX4 that he is “in favour of doing everything we can to safeguard the lives of children while protecting their liberty.”
“So the structure of what I’m looking for is this, and that is, we must continue to criminalize marijuana in the state of Texas—no change in the marijuana laws,” he said. He said that THC as well as products made from hemp should be banned for children younger than 21. “We don’t want to expose them to that.”
The governor added that “synthetics that have been laced on hemp products are extremely dangerous.” The governor added that once these safety measures are put into place “we must have a heavily regulated industry for hemp to allow farmers to produce it. We also need hemp products with a low level of THC that can be sold to adults.”
There’s a noticeable rift between the Governor’s description of his preferences and the Senate’s position.
Abbott provided a confusing description of his preferred THC cap for hemp. He stated that he was comfortable with a limit of either “three per cent” or “three micrograms”, which makes a big difference. SB 5, on the other hand, would prohibit products with any quantifiable amount of THC or most other cannabinoids—explicitly exempting CBD and CBG from the ban, but industry stakeholders say that’s logistically unfeasible and would decimate the market.
“To be clear, with regard to adults—again, with minors, no access to it at all. “We want THC levels to be less than 3 percent for adults. Or we are doing it in micrograms. It’s three milligrams THC. And it is called non-intoxicating hemp,” said the governor. It would still be a very regulated system, where everyone involved, from farmers, to wholesalers, to distributors and to retailers would need to pass through checks to ensure they are not involved with any hemp products that have more than three milligrams.
A spokesperson for Governor Abbott released a separate statement which largely echoed what Abbott said in his interview.
Governor Abbott made it clear that Texas should do everything possible to safeguard the safety of children, while also protecting adults’ rights. “Hemp products must be restricted for people under 21, and all synthetics should also be outlawed,” the group said. “Adults must be allowed to use hemp at non-intoxicating, heavily regulated levels. The law should enforce stricter laws for hemp with a total THC content above 3.0 mg per serving.” “The Governor will continue to work with the legislators to establish a structure that achieves those goals.”
In response to senators’ questions during the Senate Committee hearing on Tuesday, many law enforcement officials said that they were in favor of a total ban on all hemp products with any THC, rather than regulating them. Some later added, however, that they felt the state’s limited medical marijuana program, known as the Texas Compassionate Use Program (TCUP), should be expanded to ease access by patients—especially military veterans—who could benefit from therapeutic cannabis.
Notably, 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.
SB 5 is among a small handful of bills introduced for the new special session to address consumable hemp products.
Other proposals include requiring extensive warning labels on products and limiting how hemp-based products are packaged.
Abbott has specifically asked lawmakers to prioritize hemp regulatory issues during the special session that kicked off on Monday. There are two other bills that have been introduced by Rep. Charleneward Johnson (D) as well as SB 39, from Sen. Judith Zaffirini.
The former would require a number of warning labels to be carried on hemp products with any more than trace amounts of THC, cautioning that the products can cause “cannabis poisoning that can be life-threatening to children,” harm brain development in youth, increase “risk of mental disorders like psychosis and schizophrenia” and lead to anxiety, depression and substance abuse disorders.
SB 39 prohibits packaging and marketing of hemp products in a “manner attractive to children”. This would include packaging with human, animal, cartoon, fruit or any other shape “attractive to minors”, as well as packaging similar to the packaging for legal products sold to kids, such as juice or candy. The bill would ban misleading packaging. Infractions are punishable as a class A misdemeanor and can result in up to 12 months of jail time or a fine of $4,000
Separately, last week 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. This bill prevents criminalization for anyone found with a hemp product but later determined to have “a controlled substance” or marijuana.
To be eligible for legal protection, a person would have to purchase the product “from a retailer they reasonably believed had the authority to sell hemp consumable products”.
The governor also said last month that rather than ban consumable hemp products outright, he wants to see lawmakers establish a regulatory framework that treats cannabinoids “similar to the way alcohol is regulated.”
At the hearing on Tuesday, lawmakers said criminalizing possession of marijuana would not begin until a third offence. However, this provision doesn’t appear to be in the current SB 5 version.
Ahead of the governor’s recent veto of SB 3, hemp advocates and stakeholders had delivered more than 100,000 petition signatures asking Abbott to reject the measure. Critics of the bill argued that the industry—which employs an estimated 53,000 people—would be decimated if the measure became law.
Texas lawmakers approved the sale of hemp-based products in 2019. This was after the Farm Bill 2018 passed by the federal government, which had legalized this plant across the country. That led to an explosion of products—including edibles, drinks, vape products and cured flower—now sold by an estimated 8,000 retailers.
Military veterans advocates, including Texas Veterans of Foreign Wars, also called on the governor to veto the hemp ban, saying it “would cause irreversible harm to communities across the state.”
Farmers said the prohibition would devastate a key sector of the state’s agriculture industry.
Following his veto, Abbott proposed an extensive list of policy changes that he said he would support—and which the legislature will have the chance to enact during the special session.
“Texans from both sides of the Senate Bill 3 controversy raise serious concerns. But one thing is clear—to ensure the highest level of safety for minors, as well as for adults, who obtain a product more dangerous than what they expected, Texas must strongly regulate hemp, and it must do so immediately,Abbott said.
His veto included a concern about the possibility of litigation over ‘valid constitutional challenges’ that would be upheld in court. Before the Governor’s veto, several top Texas hemp businesses had filed preemptive suits challenging the law.
Abbott stated in his message of veto that “if I allowed Senate Bill 3 become law, it would take years to enforce, and existing abuses will remain unaddressed.” Texas cannot wait.
Governor said that rather than risking the possible enjoining of the law or its indefinite delay, the state must “enact a framework which will protect public safety while aligning with federal laws, have an enforcement structure fully funded, and be able to take effect immediately.”
Meanwhile, a recent survey from a GOP pollster affiliated with President Donald Trump showed that Texas Democratic and Republican voters are unified in their opposition to the hemp ban bill.
Another poll commissioned the Texas Hemp Business Council (THBC) found that Texas Republican primary voters oppose the proposal.
Last month, the governor signed bill to significantly expand the state’s medical marijuana program with new qualifying conditions additional product forms and more dispensary locations.
Abbott separately signed a bill into law to create a state-backed research consortium to conduct clinical trials on ibogaine as a possible treatment for substance use disorders and other mental health conditions. The project’s goal is the development of ibogaine as a prescription medication that has FDA (Food and Drug Administration) approval. A portion of its profits will be retained by the state.
In addition to chronic pain, TBI and Crohn’s disease, the measure also allows hospice or palliative patients to use cannabis.
Separately in Texas, a House committee approved a Senate-passed bill in May that would prohibit cities from putting any citizen initiative on local ballots that would decriminalize marijuana or other controlled substances—as several localities have already done despite lawsuits from the state attorney general.
Under the proposal, state law would be amended to say that local entities “may not place an item on a ballot, including a municipal charter or charter amendment, that would provide that the local entity will not fully enforce” state drug laws.
While several courts have previously upheld local cannabis decriminalization laws, an appellate court comprised of three conservative justices appointed by the governor has recently pushed back against two of those rulings, siding with the state in its legal challenge to the marijuana policy in Austin and San Marcos.
Despite the ongoing litigation and advancement of the House and Senate bills, Texas activists have their targets set on yet another city, Kyle, where they hope put an initiative before voters to enact local marijuana reform at the ballot this coming November.
A recent poll found that four in five Texas voters want to see marijuana legalized in some form, and most also want to see regulations around cannabis relaxed.
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