Proposed Texas Ban On Hemp-Derived THC Dies As Lawmakers Fail To Reach A Compromise

*“We looked hard for that common ground and just never could find it. We
just don’t see that we can get anything off the House floor.”*

*By Alex Nguyen and Kayla Guo, The Texas Tribune*

The Texas Legislature ended another legislative overtime round without
banning or further regulating most THC products after a months-long fight
between lawmakers to rein in the exploding hemp industry.

The Texas House gaveled out of the second special session late Wednesday,
leaving behind Senate Bill 6, which would have broadly banned consumable
hemp products with any “detectable amount of any cannabinoid.” Only those
with cannabidiol or cannabigerol, which are both non-psychoactive, would
have stayed legal.

That means most forms of consumable hemp-derived products stay legal in
Texas. There also remains no age limit on who can purchase these goods,
which come in the form of gummies, smokeable flowers and drinks. Yet it is
now illegal to sell—but not possess—THC vape pens under a separate law,
passed earlier this year, that went into effect Monday.

The House’s move followed a last-minute effort earlier in the day between
top Republicans to hash out a compromise, after SB 6 sat without a hearing
for two weeks in a House committee.

Earlier in the night, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) had announced that the
Senate would wrap up the second special session without any new THC
restrictions or ban in a post on X. Patrick said he, Gov. Greg Abbott (R)
and House Speaker Dustin Burrows (R) were not able to reach an agreement
despite “long discussions.”

“My position remains unchanged; the Senate and I are for a total THC ban,”
he said, adding that the Senate will adjourn after finalizing its remaining
flood bills.

After long discussions last night between the Governor, Speaker, and me on
THC, and continued hours of discussion today, we were not able to come to a
resolution. I appreciate the effort by Gov. @GregAbbott_TX to find a
solution. I thank Speaker Dustin @Burrows4TX and Republican…

— Office of the Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick (@LtGovTX) September 4, 2025

The upper chamber ended their special session work early Thursday morning.

It was not immediately clear if Abbott would call another special session
to consider more THC restrictions, after vetoing an outright ban in June
and putting the issue on two special session agendas. His office didn’t
immediately respond to a request for comment. In his veto, Abbott said the
attempted ban would run afoul of federal law. He called for a regulatory
approach instead, including restrictions on potency, age limits,
enforcement mechanisms and a prohibition of synthetically modified hemp
compounds.

But Patrick insisted a ban was necessary to keep Texans safe, arguing that
it would be impossible to properly regulate the more than 8,000 retailers
that make up the state’s fast-expanding hemp market. The Legislature
inadvertently opened the door to Texas’s consumable hemp industry in 2019
when lawmakers, seeking to align the state with federal law, passed a bill
legalizing hemp.

The industry has so far backed Abbott’s position for restrictions instead
of prohibition.

“This ban is wildly unpopular,” said Cynthia Cabrera, president of The
Texas Hemp Business Council. She is also the chief strategy officer for
Hometown Hero, an Austin-based manufacturer of hemp-derived THC products.
“And the fact that the lieutenant governor continues to push something
everybody has essentially said they don’t want speaks volumes about how
disconnected he is to what Texans want, what the governor wants and what
consumers want.”

Still, the industry could also start to see more enforcement of current
laws restricting the drug.

Currently, these products may not contain more than 0.3 percent
concentration of delta-9 THC, the intoxicating part of the cannabis plant,
in dry weight. Enforcing this rule has been a challenge because it is
difficult to test products and cite retailers.

Patrick’s vow to end the Senate’s work without a ban was a whiplash
development after Texas Republicans spent much of the day working on a
compromise, according to five legislative staffers and three lawmakers
familiar with the discussions. But those last-minute talks were also an
unexpected twist: The main legislative proposal—an outright ban on THC
products—had been dormant since August 20. It was not clear earlier
Wednesday what a potential deal would look like.

Other proposals during the second special session included legislation from
Rep. Briscoe Cain, R-Deer Park, that would create the Texas Hemp Council to
study and develop rules for THC products and establish hemp testing and
licensing requirements, among other restrictions. Rep. Charlie Geren,
R-Fort Worth, also proposed a bill barring the sale of THC products to
those under 21.

The split between Abbott and Patrick marked a rare public disagreement
between the men, who have largely aligned over a decade in office together.

A full ban cleared the Senate both special sessions this summer but stalled
in the House, where it became clear that it lacked enough votes to pass.
During the regular session, some House members said they voted for a full
THC prohibition under the impression that their unrelated bills would die
in the Senate if they failed to get in line.

“We looked hard for that common ground and just never could find it,” Rep.
Gary VanDeaver, R-New Boston and the ban’s author, said Tuesday afternoon
before the last-ditch negotiations began. “We just don’t see that we can
get anything off the House floor.”

Kyle Bingham, a farmer in the South Plains who also serves as vice
president of the National Hemp Growers Association, said it has been
frustrating to navigate the legislative uncertainty over the past few
months. Instead of growing hemp, he said he has been focusing on other
crops such as wheat and cotton.

“It’s already difficult to operate in this emerging industry,” he said,
“and this is just one more layer of how difficult it is to do business.”

Still, Bingham and Cabrera said that there could be improved regulations
such as age restrictions—even as they oppose a full ban. In particular,
Cabrera said the Legislature should have focused on the bill raising the
age limit instead and that it was disappointing that lawmakers couldn’t
reach this “simple fix.”

“But it is a sigh of relief,” she said after learning about Patrick’s
announcement.

Katherine Neill Harris, drug policy fellow for Rice University’s Baker
Institute for Public Policy, similarly said it’s worth another session to
address specific issues such as the sale and marketing of THC products
towards minors—separate from a blanket ban.

“If you ban them, they become truly unregulated because they go to the
illicit market,” she said. “And we know that there are no regulations for
illicit drugs.”

*This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at
https://www.texastribune.org/2025/09/03/texas-legislature-thc-deal-ban-hemp/.*

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