Texas: Market and regulatory data analysis of the cannabis sector

1st February 2024: US - Texas: Texas attorney general Ken Paxton is suing five municipalities who have passed ordinances to not enforce Texas law as it relates to cannabis possession. The municipalities include Austin, Texas, which has a population of nearly 1m people. Paxton says that the ordinances, many of which were passed by voters, are in direct violation of state law.
29th September 2023: US - Texas: A state appellate court has upheld a temporary junction that allows delta-8 THC sales to continue in Texas while a lawsuit is litigated. A temporary injunction to prevent the Texas Department of State Health Services from enforcing an interpretation of the state's hemp laws that would prohibit hemp-derived delta-8 THC products was originally entered into in November 2011. Because the appellate court has upheld the injunction, sales of delta-8 products may continue in the state at least until the underlying lawsuit is resolved.
12th May 2023: US - Texas: House Bill (HB) 4918 has been passed by the House and now heads to the Senate. The bill would allow, rather than prohibit, a state agency to authorise the manufacture of products containing hemp for smoking. In accordance, it provides the definition of “smoking”, as “burning or igniting a substance and inhaling the smoke or heating a substance and inhaling the resulting vapor or aerosol”. The bill comes after a 2022 Texas Supreme Court ruling that found the state's ban on the manufacturing of smokable hemp products was constitutional. However, because the state did not appeal a lower court ruling that found a ban on the distribution and sale of such products unconstitutional, only smokable hemp products produced in other states can legally be sold in Texas. HB 4918 seeks to rectify this issue.
3rd May 2023: US - Texas: House Bill 2818 has passed the House and now heads to the Senate. It would generally revise hemp production provisions by updating cultivation permits compliance procedures and creating a criminal offence of cultivating hemp without a licence. The bill also provides for hemp shipment or transportation with a certificate or cargo manifest in accordance with state safety control provisions.
27th April 2023: US - Texas: House Bill 218 has been passed by the House and now heads to the Senate. It would reduce criminal penalties for the possession of up to 1 oz of cannabis, moving it from a Class B to Class C misdemeanour, and possession of THC and its isomers from Penalty Group 2 to a newly created Penalty Group 2B. This would not affect legal hemp products, which are not controlled substances. The bill also provides for the expungement of past convictions for cannabis possession.
12th April 2023: US - Texas: House Bill 1805 has passed the House and now heads to the Senate. It would broaden access to the state Compassionate Use Program by adding as a qualifying condition for medical cannabis use “a condition that causes chronic pain, for which a physician would otherwise prescribe an opioid” and allow the Department of State Health Services (DSHS) to add new qualifying medical conditions. Among other provisions, the bill would also change the current 1% cap on THC cannabis oil products by replacing it with a maximum of 10 mg of THC per dosage.
18th July 2022: US - Texas: Agricultural commissioner Sid Miller, who oversees the Texas hemp program, has called on the legislature and governor to expand the state’s medical cannabis programme, which currently only allows medical cannabis with up to 1% THC. “When four out of five Texans support compassionate use, we need to have state law and state policy reflect that desire. I will urge our state legislature and our governor to make that a top priority in the upcoming legislative session,” Miller said.
27th June 2022: US - Texas: The Texas Supreme Court has ruled that the state’s ban on smokable hemp is constitutional, reversing a lower court’s decision. The plaintiffs, producers of smokable hemp products, claimed the ban was unconstitutional because it violated their “due-course rights” to earn a living producing such products. However, the supreme court rejected this argument, essentially on the basis that producing smokable hemp products has never been legal in Texas.
9th May 2022: US - Texas: Voters in Austin, Texas (population approximately 950,000) passed a proposition to decriminalise possession of up to 2 oz of cannabis in the city, press reports. The proposition, which also includes a ban on "no-knock warrants", received more than 85% support.

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