Ban the Good, Fuel the Bad: Texas Doubles Down on Hemp Confusion

05-08-2025

Stone Slade

Original High At 9 News Story

It sure feels like in Texas, the government doesn’t understand cannabis unless it comes pre-packaged in a pharmaceutical bottle with a lobbyist’s business card taped to it.

Here we are again—Senate Bill 3, or SB3, has made its way through the sausage grinder. And even after amendments and supposed “compromises,” it’s still a raw deal for Texas’ hemp industry.

Now to be fair, this isn’t the total ban we were looking at earlier in the session—where lawmakers wanted to outlaw every molecule of THC like it was fentanyl laced with communism. The House made some tweaks, tossed in a few crumbs to appease the outrage. Delta-9 edibles and beverages? Those get to live another day… for now.

But let’s not kid ourselves. This thing still bans smokable flower and vape products—the backbone of the current hemp market. And in doing so, lawmakers are throwing a wrench into thousands of small businesses across the state. The kinds of shops that pay their taxes, follow the rules, and provide safer alternatives to the sketchy gas station garbage this law supposedly wants to get rid of.

And let’s talk about that logic for a second. Lawmakers say they’re worried about “kids getting high.” Sure—that’s a valid concern. But let’s not pretend the problem is 

coming from licensed hemp dispensaries. These shops have been age-gating since day one—long before Texas ever bothered to require it. So what happens when you ban 

legal, regulated products? You don’t kill demand. You just shove it straight into the arms of the illicit market, where no one’s checking IDs and no one’s testing what’s in the 

bag.

You’d think a bunch of folks who love their guns would understand this principle. Banning something doesn’t make it go away. It just takes it out of the hands of law-abiding citizens and puts it in the hands of people who don’t care about the law in the first place. That’s what this bill does. It’s the cannabis equivalent of telling Texans they can’t own guns, while pretending the cartels will just politely turn theirs in.

Meanwhile, the people actually harmed by SB3 aren’t shady characters in back alleys—they’re veterans, cancer patients, working moms with anxiety, and aging folks just trying to sleep through the night without a cocktail of prescription pills. They’re the small business owners you see at the farmers market or running the shop down the street. These are the people who built this industry—an industry that, let’s be honest, only exists because the state dragged its feet on real cannabis reform in the first place.

So let me get this straight… Texas refused to legalize adult-use cannabis. The state won’t decriminalize, even though cities keep trying. And now, with SB3, they’re coming for hemp too?

If you’re in the regulated hemp industry, you’ve been playing the game by the book. You’ve tested your products, registered with the state, and tried to stay on the right side of a constantly shifting legal line. And how does the state reward that? By moving the goalposts and lighting the field on fire.

There’s a word for that. It’s not regulation. It’s sabotage.

At the end of the day, this bill isn’t about protecting Texans. It’s about control. Control over an industry they never wanted in the first place. And if SB3 becomes law, don’t be surprised when the “dangerous” products they’re so worried about are still everywhere—only now, they’ll be cheaper, sketchier, and coming from someone who doesn’t pay taxes or check IDs.

But hey, at least the Capitol can pat itself on the back and say it “did something.”

Too bad that “something” might kill a $8 billion industry and put tens of thousands of Texans out of work.