Dallas Smoke Shops Respond To Texas THC Ban

The Texas House is expected to pass Senate Bill 3, a blanket ban on all hemp-derived Tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, products, torpedoing an $8 billion industry and threatening thousands of business owners across the state.

In 2019, Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill that legalized the sale of products with less than 0.3% THC. In just five years, the industry exploded, with more than 8,500 hemp manufacturing and distribution license-holding businesses in the state.

But the legalization of hemp-derived THC products has been massively scrutinized by lawmakers and law enforcement alike, alleging that dangerously high-concentration products have slipped through the cracks and landed on store shelves. The claim isn’t completely unfounded. Following a series of smoke shop raids, the Allen Police Department seized products with potencies far beyond the legal limit more than once.

Instead of introducing more regulations and allowing for the industry to continue under tighter control, Texas lawmakers have elected to ban THC products entirely.

“This is really sickening,” said a spokesperson for Dallas Hemp Co., a local luxury hemp-based retailer.

The bill hasn’t officially passed, and would still have to be signed by Abbott before it becomes enforceable. But according to the spokesperson, Dallas Hemp Co. and similar businesses will have to strongly consider leaving the state.

“If we’re not able to sell our product as a legally compliant company, we might be going away,” they said.

The vote, which concluded after 9 p.m. Wednesday night, was postponed several times. Hayden Meek, owner of Delta 8 Denton, drove to Austin for the bill's original reading the day before it was pushed.

“We were up at the Capitol the day before, hoping they were going to vote for it, but it kept getting delayed to the point where we all had to go home,” said Meek.

Meek headed back to Denton and livestreamed the vote.

“I was on the edge of my seat… whenever it came through, it was really disappointing,” he said.

Streaming from a hotel in Alabama, where a similar crackdown on THC products is taking place, Jim Higdon, co-founder of Cornbread Hemp, a THC gummy company, was similarly disappointed. Cornbread Hemp, based out of Kentucky, has a strong market in Texas, one that it could soon lose.

“It's unclear to me this morning what impact the ban is going to have on direct consumer sales into Texas,” said Higdon. “We're ripping something that we've taken for granted away from hundreds of thousands of Texans. How that's going to affect business and Texans’ daily lives is more important to me right now than how that's going to affect [Cornbread Hemp].”

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick cannot call a special session, but as the overseer of the Senate, he can hold one of Abbott’s priority bills hostage until a special session is enacted.

“It was gutting, gut-wrenching, really awful that Texas was taking a step backward at the demand of the lieutenant governor,” said Higdon.

According to Higdon and Meek, there is a rumor on the street that Patrick is gunning for a bill that would increase teacher salaries.

“What we've been hearing from representatives and lobbyists is they were holding the school funding program hostage, essentially, and saying, ‘If you don't vote to ban THC, then we're not going to fund teacher raises,” said Meek. “That was probably the nastiest exposure I've ever had to politics. That was gut-wrenching to see.”

Meek isn’t nailing boards over his store doors yet, and says a large coalition of hemp industry businesses in Texas are already in communication with a strong legal team hoping to defend the Texans reliant on the sale of THC products.

“There's a huge coalition of people that I've been lucky to speak [with for] nearly a year at this point,” he said. “We've all been talking and collaborating. It's a huge coalition that represents probably at least 80% of the hemp industry in Texas.”

The battle against THC has been going on for months, and Higdon and Meek both felt betrayed by lawmakers who swayed in alliance with Patrick.

“There were the representatives that fought tooth and nail to keep small businesses open,” said Meek. “Their names will forever be seared in my brain, and I am so very thankful to them. Some of the representatives, I understand their back was against a wall, but I would have liked to see them represent us better. I'm not bitter. I'm disappointed.”