Texas GOP Lieutenant Governor’s Push To Ban THC Hemp Products Spurs Rare Backlash From The Right

*“We have a mad king surrounded by courtiers and yes men afraid to tell him
he’s making a fool of himself.”*

*By Alejandro Serrano, The Texas Tribune*

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) was clear from the start.

Weeks before this year’s legislative session began, and before he announced
any other priorities, the Republican Senate leader said he wanted lawmakers
to ban, at any cost, products that contain the psychoactive compound in
weed. His target was the multibillion-dollar hemp industry that had
sprouted up thanks to a loophole in a 2019 state law that legalized
products providing a similar high to marijuana.

Patrick justified his conviction by contending that retailers had abused
that loophole to sell products with dangerous amounts of
tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC. He accused the retailers of preying on the
state’s young people with shops posted near schools and marketing aimed at
children.

“I couldn’t, in good conscience, leave here knowing if we don’t do
something about it in the next two years—how many kids get sick?” Patrick said
in March, talking about his willingness to force a special legislative
session by blocking must-pass legislation from making it through the Texas
Senate.

And ultimately, Patrick got his way—and an explosion of backlash.

As pressure mounts on the governor to veto a THC ban sent to his desk,
Patrick finds himself in the unfamiliar position of taking flak from
conservative activists and media personalities outside the Capitol, many of
whom typically march in political lockstep with a man who has long been a
darling of the right and done more than perhaps any other elected official
to drive Texas rightward.

After spearheading the THC ban, Patrick has been accused by some on the
right of creating a nanny state and giving Mexican drug cartels a business
opportunity to fill demand in the black market. He has been labeled a booze
lobby shill for beer distributors who stand to benefit. A hardline
conservative state lawmaker who voted against the ban said it contradicted
“the Texas mantra of being pro-business, pro-farmer and pro-veteran.”

STATE REPRESENTATIVE BRISCOE CAIN STATEMENT ON VOTING NO ON SB 3
pic.twitter.com/rjkfHKtBi3

— State Representative Briscoe Cain (@RepBriscoeCain) May 23, 2025

A Patrick spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.

“This is stupid,” Dana Loesch, the former National Rifle Association
spokesperson who is now the host of a nationally syndicated conservative
talk radio show, wrote on social media in response to Patrick’s argument
that the ban would keep THC away from children. “It’s like the gun ban
argument with a different variable. Kids aren’t buying it anymore than any
other controlled product (alcohol, cigarettes, et al [*sic*]) and if they
are, do your job as a parent and parent instead of idiotically expanding
government.”

Before the blowback erupted from inside his house, Patrick courted
Republicans in both chambers of the Legislature to pass Senate Bill 3. The
law bans products containing THC—and would eradicate the state’s $8 billion
hemp industry and its estimated 50,000 jobs if it survives Gov. Greg
Abbott’s veto pen and expected legal challenges.

Abbott, whose office has been inundated with calls to veto SB 3, has not
revealed his intentions for the proposed law. The governor could sign SB 3
into law, veto it or do nothing and let it become law without his signature.

This is stupid. It's like the gun ban argument with a different variable.
Kids aren't buying it anymore than any other controlled product (alcohol,
cigarettes, et al) and if they are, do your job as a parent and parent
instead of idiotically expanding government. https://t.co/48BrU448gh

— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) May 29, 2025

Proponents of the ban have argued it is needed to rein in a wild west
industry that’s selling products with dangerously high levels of THC and
without proper oversight. Patrick has argued it would be unrealistic to
regulate the industry under tighter guardrails—as hemp business leaders and
others proposed—because doing so would require an impossible amount of
manpower.

Lawmakers also passed a bill to expand the state’s medical marijuana
program by offering more products and adding more qualifying conditions, an
olive branch extension to vets and THC users with chronic conditions who
opposed the retail ban.

Patrick said the medical expansion “will help those in true need of
relief.” But he and his allies have remained steadfast behind the THC ban,
even amid pushback from the right.

Rep. @TomOliverson and I have come to an agreement to add chronic pain as a
qualifying medical condition to TCUP (compassionate use program) for those
who suffer chronic pain as currently defined by the Texas Medical Board
rules. Dr. Oliverson and I have spoken with the author of…

— Office of the Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick (@LtGovTX) May 26, 2025

“Retailers across Texas have exploited a state agriculture law to sell
life-threatening, unregulated forms of tetrahydrocannabinol to Texans,”
said Sen. Charles Perry, the Lubbock Republican who carried SB 3, when the
upper chamber approved the bill. “These rogue retailers are selling THC
products containing several times more THC content than marijuana purchased
from a drug dealer off the street. These dangerous products must not be
allowed to permeate our communities and endanger Texas children.”

Criticism on the right has come from veterans who say they use the products
as alternatives to opioid painkillers to help with a variety of ails,
industry leaders who say the Republican-controlled state is turning its
back on small businesses, and conservative politicos who have no shortage
of arrows they have been aiming at Patrick.

“What lives were destroyed by low grade THC shops, Dan? Can you name one?”
Kenny Webster, a Houston conservative talk radio host, posted on social
media. “Just one. Go ahead.”

What lives were destroyed by low grade THC shops, Dan? Can you name one?
Just one. Go ahead. https://t.co/QlwpOuKUTP

— Kenny Webster (@KennethRWebster) May 25, 2025

Some recent scrutiny was driven by a news conference Patrick called to push
back on criticism of the ban, even after it had already cleared both
chambers and was on its way to Abbott’s desk. Flanked by senators and law
enforcement officials, Patrick stood in front of a variety of THC products
laid out on a table and made his case.

The lieutenant governor said he wanted to encourage the news media to write
about the dangers of THC. He also said he had “total confidence in the
governor.… I’m not worried about the governor understanding it. I’m worried
about you all understanding it.”

At one point Patrick lobbed a bag of edibles at a reporter. He later asked
another reporter if he was “crazy” for inquiring about the move to limit
adults’ access to the products.

“If he was trying to make a case for a THC ban, I can’t think of a more
bizarre and counterproductive spectacle than yesterday’s press conference,” said
Rolando Garcia, a member of the State Republican Executive Committee who
routinely criticizes GOP lawmakers for perceived breaches of conservative
orthodoxy. “We have a mad king surrounded by courtiers and yes men afraid
to tell him he’s making a fool of himself.”

Some opponents of the total ban have vowed retribution against Patrick, who
is running for reelection in 2026 armed with an endorsement from President
Donald Trump and more than $33 million in his campaign coffers. Those
factors—and Patrick’s long history of promoting policies that most primary
voters see as higher priorities than preserving THC access—mean it is
unlikely the blowback will cost Patrick much, according to political
observers.

“It’s hard to imagine given Patrick’s position and where he is now that
somehow this is going to be in and of itself the source of some fundamental
political threat,” said Jim Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project
at the University of Texas at Austin. “Honestly I think we’re not used to
seeing Dan Patrick criticized very much from within his own party and so
it’s really sticking out, and that’s fair.”

Meanwhile, another member of the SREC, Morgan Eakin, on social media
questioned Patrick’s conservative bona fides by pointing to when Patrick
came under fire from his own party over gun rights.

Anybody remember how @DanPatrick was pro gun control and requiring permits
and government lists to the degree he would ensure constitution carry
wouldn’t pass in the senate….and @DadePhelan was more *pro* 2nd Amendment
and it passed the House?

We have to ask ourselves how so… pic.twitter.com/CKMaKF7MHJ

— Morgan Eakin (@Morganisms7) June 8, 2025

As the Legislature in 2021 contemplated letting most Texans carry a handgun
without a license or training, Patrick at first said the Senate did not
have the votes to pass the measure.

Lawmakers ultimately passed the bill, often referred to by Republicans as
constitutional carry because of their belief that it is an American’s
constitutional right to pack heat without involving the government.

“We have to ask ourselves how so many were gaslit into believing the Senate
and Dan Patrick were consistently more in line with basic constitutional
principles and that [former House Speaker Dade Phelan] and the House were
unequivocally liberal,” Eakin wrote.

Phelan, a Beaumont Republican who clashed with Patrick during his time as
speaker, weighed in on SB 3 Monday, writing on social media that “Texans do
not want a total ban.”

Texans do not want a total ban. They do want a reasonable, regulated hemp
market free of dangerous products – especially those advertised and sold to
minors. The gas station garbage must go while Texans enjoy the freedom they
expect from conservative governance. #txlege #SB3 https://t.co/5YeOQgh9A4

— Dade Phelan (@DadePhelan) June 9, 2025

“They do want a reasonable, regulated hemp market free of dangerous
products—especially those advertised and sold to minors,” wrote Phelan, who
ultimately voted for SB 3 but earlier opposed an amendment that changed it
from a regulatory bill to a full-on ban. “The gas station garbage must go
while Texans enjoy the freedom they expect from conservative governance.”

Despite the blowback, Patrick remains a champion of conservative policies
and key player in GOP victories. This session alone, state lawmakers passed stiffer
bail laws, required that most sheriffs work with federal immigration
authorities and approved measures allowing time for prayer in public
schools and requiring classrooms to display the Ten Commandments.

Patrick has rarely taken much heat from his own party. One notable instance
was also related to guns after a pair of mass shootings.

In 2019, a gunman wanting to quell an “invasion” of Hispanic immigrants
went to a Walmart in El Paso, where he opened fire and murdered 23 people
and wounded 22 others. Shortly after that attack, a gunman terrorized
Midland and Odessa with a shooting spree that resulted in the deaths of
eight people.

Patrick said it was high time the state required background checks on gun
sales between strangers.

“Someone in the Republican Party has to take the lead on this,” he said at
the time, adding that he was “willing to take an arrow” for the stance.

The backlash, once again, was swift. His conservatism was called into
question and some on the right even painted him as a bigger threat to guns
than Democrat Beto O’Rourke, who had infamously said during a presidential
debate the same year, “Hell yes, we are going to take your AR-15.”

Patrick withstood the pushback. And lawmakers never approved legislation he
called for regulating private stranger-to-stranger gun sales. Since
allowing permitless carry in 2021, lawmakers have expanded access to
firearms, including with a bill this year to legalize sawed-off shotguns,
among other victories for gun rights advocates.

The lack of fallout from Patrick’s push to regulate private gun sales may
offer a clue about how the SB 3 situation will shake out. Patrick received
77 percent of the 2022 GOP primary vote against only token opposition, and
he was easily reelected in November.

*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/2025/06/10/dan-patrick-texas-thc-ban-republican-gop-backlash/.*

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

Texas Governor Refuses To Say Whether He’ll Sign Or Veto Hemp Ban Bill Amid
Intense Pushback

*Photo courtesy of Brendan Cleak.*

The post Texas GOP Lieutenant Governor’s Push To Ban THC Hemp Products
Spurs Rare Backlash From The Right appeared first on Marijuana Moment.