On the final day of July, Texas followed through and banned any hemp that contained THC. This includes Delta-8, Delta-10, and THCA. Delta-9, however, is still legal as long as the THC levels don’t cross over 0.3%.
Since then, the hemp industry has fought back.
Last week two retailers and a distributor went after the Texas Department of State Health Services and Attorney General Ken Paxton with a lawsuit that claims their ban goes against federal law in the shape of the 2018 Farm Bill.
The Farm Bill removed hemp from the Controlled Substances Act altogether. However, since then, hemp has come a long way and new strains were found with THC that essentially work in the same psychoactive way as marijuana. At best, the Farm Bill is outdated, but still the law of the land.
This new lawsuit claims the new ban violates the Farm Bill and the definitions in the ban have no delineation between lawful hemp and unlawful marijuana. This essentially creates the same problem as the original Farm Bill, just flipped.
Here’s what their lead counsel says: “For more than seven years, Texans have built a multibillion-dollar hemp industry under laws that define these products as legal hemp. Without any change to those laws, the State now says they’re Schedule I drugs, like heroin.”
Texas created a pretty prosperous market of hemp-derived THC since 2018 when hemp became legal. This ban would be a huge blow to these businesses, of which 14,000 are licensed to sell consumable hemp.
We’ll have to wait and see what the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas decides about the case, but considering it’s Texas, I wouldn’t hold your breath.
Read the original article at The Texas Tribune.
