Majority Of Texas Voters Oppose Hemp Product Ban Like The One Vetoed By State’s Governor, Poll Finds

*Republican voters were divided on the issue with 46 percent supporting a
ban and 39 percent opposing it.*

*By Alejandro Serrano, The Texas Tribune*

A majority of Texas voters oppose a comprehensive ban on hemp-derived THC
products like the one recently vetoed by Gov. Greg Abbott (R), according to
a statewide poll released this week.

The survey from the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at
Austin found that 53 percent of Texas voters opposed the ban approved by
the Legislature, Senate Bill 3, during the regular session that ended
earlier this month. Thirty-one percent of voters voiced support for the ban.

Republican voters were divided on the issue with 46 percent supporting a
ban and 39 percent opposing it, according to the poll that was conducted in
early June after the Legislature adjourned but before the governor spiked
SB 3 Sunday night.

Abbott’s veto of SB 3 drew immediate condemnation from Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick
(R), the state’s second-in-command who had championed the ban. Patrick, the
presiding officer of the state Senate, also rejected Abbott’s call for
lawmakers to more strictly regulate the products—in lieu of a ban—during an overtime
legislative session next month.

Throughout the legislative session, @GregAbbott_TX remained totally silent
on Senate Bill 3, the bill that would have banned dangerous THC products in
Texas. His late-night veto, on an issue supported by 105 of 108 Republicans
in the legislature, strongly backed by law…

— Office of the Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick (@LtGovTX) June 23, 2025

“The Legislature looks toward a potentially heated special session,” the
pollsters wrote, noting voters’ divided views on the issue.

SB 3 would have banned consumable hemp products that contained
tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive compound in marijuana known as THC.
Such products have become widely available at gas stations and smoke shops
across the state since lawmakers authorized the sale of consumable hemp in
2019.

Since the last-minute veto, Patrick has blasted Abbott in a rare rift
between the state’s top two elected officials, who have typically been
friendly during the decade they have each served in their respective roles
overseeing Texas’s rightward shift.

“This is a fight that didn’t need to be,” Patrick said Monday. “Where has
he been all session? Where has he been? We get this [veto] proclamation
from him last night after midnight, and he parachutes in at the last moment
with arguments that we do not think are valid.”

As I said yesterday at my press conference, it appeared to my legal team
and me that Arkansas would win this case and be able to ban THC. The 8th
Circuit Court of Appeals had telegraphed that this was going to be their
decision in their oral arguments.

This is the second major…

— Office of the Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick (@LtGovTX) June 24, 2025

On Tuesday, Patrick said, “it won’t be long before 8,000 smoke and vape
shops will be out of business in Texas” after a federal appeals court let a
similar ban resume in Arkansas.

Abbott had cited the Arkansas case in his veto proclamation, where he
argued that SB 3 could not withstand legal scrutiny and would be tied up in
the courts for years. Responding to the Tuesday ruling, Abbott said on
social media that there were key differences between the Texas and Arkansas
THC bans..

“Even though the Arkansas law was not plagued with the same legal defects
as the Texas bill, it still was unenforced for two years and will be
further tied up in court for years to come,” Abbott wrote. “I vetoed the
Texas bill because we do not have time for a protracted legal fight — we
must act now to keep Texas children safe. That process begins next month.”

The governor has not otherwise responded to Patrick’s criticism and
accusations.

To be clear, the Arkansas law differs from S.B. 3 in legally consequential
ways. Unlike the Texas bill, Arkansas’ law did not ban “any amount” of a
cannabinoid, it expressly permitted hemp farming consistent with federal
law, and it carved out interstate transportation. Those are…

— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) June 25, 2025

The divided views among Republican voters on the THC ban reflect their
changing attitudes on the legal status of marijuana, according to Texas
Politics Project polling.

A decade ago, 31 percent of Texas Republicans said marijuana possession
should not be legal under any circumstances. That figure now stands at 21
percent. Meanwhile, the percentage of Republican voters who backed
legalization of small amounts of marijuana for any purpose increased from
23 percent in 2015 to 31 percent in April.

*Disclosure: University of Texas at Austin has been a financial supporter
of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is
funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate
sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism.
Find a complete list of them here.*

*This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at
https://www.texastribune.org/2025/06/25/texas-poll-voters-oppose-thc-ban-sb-3/.*

*The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing
and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at
texastribune.org.*

GOP Congressman Behind Hemp THC Ban Says He’s Not Worried About Potential
Senate Opposition To The Proposal

The post Majority Of Texas Voters Oppose Hemp Product Ban Like The One
Vetoed By State’s Governor, Poll Finds appeared first on Marijuana Moment.