Texas Hemp on the Line: 17 Hours at the Capitol, One Voice at a Time

By Stone Slade

04-10-2025

Original High At 9 News Story

I showed up to the Texas Capitol at 8 a.m. Monday

morning, signed up to speak on Senate Bill 3, and didn’t

end up delivering my testimony until just after 1 a.m. the

next day. Sixteen hours, two bills, and hundreds of

passionate Texans later.

The hearing kicked off with House Bill 28—and let me

tell you, that one took all day. Literally. Testimony after

testimony. The House took a break at one point to handle

business on the floor, and then they came right back and

kept going with HB 28 before even touching SB 3.

Hundreds of Texans came out. Business owners fighting

to save their livelihoods. Veterans sharing how cannabis

and hemp saved their lives. Parents and patients who

found relief where nothing else worked. And yes, there

were also the “Reefer Madness” crowd—mostly moms

and dads convinced THC causes psychosis because of

something that happened to their adult child. A lot of them

weren’t talking about legal, regulated cannabis, but

synthetic THC. Still, they’re pushing for an outright ban

on everything. That’s like banning broccoli because

someone got food poisoning from a can of expired soup.

It’s important to say this: synthetic THC isn’t the same as

the natural plant. A lot of what’s gone wrong in this

market—like the rise of Delta-8—is because of

prohibition in the first place. You limit access to regulated

products, and people will find workarounds. It’s basic

economics. Prohibition created the problem, and now

we’re blaming the plant.

When I finally got to testify, it was well past midnight. I

shared my story—how I used high-THC oil to get off

OxyContin after major back surgery last fall. And I

reminded lawmakers that not one person in recorded

history has ever died from cannabis. Meanwhile,

thousands of products sit on store shelves right now that a

kid could actually overdose on. Cannabis isn’t one of

them.

Chair Representative Ken King complimented my

remarks, saying, “That was very clear and concise—I

think you rehearsed.” I’ll take that as a win at 1 a.m.

Here’s what you need to know: both HB 28 and SB 3 are

a serious threat to the hemp industry as they’re currently

written. Together, they put over 50,000 Texas jobs at risk.

They would gut a growing, regulated market and hand it

over to street sellers and online operators with no

oversight. No ID checks. No testing. No accountability.

The bills haven’t moved forward yet. For now, they’re

paused. But we’re going to have to head back to the

Capitol when lawmakers resume talks—and when we do,

we need to shift focus and support HB 4242.

HB 4242 takes a smarter approach. It doesn’t blow

everything up just to look tough. It proposes real

regulation, licensing, age restrictions, and testing—all the

things people say they want when they talk about safety.

It could still use work, but it’s a bill we can fix, not one

we have to fight to the ground.

And I can’t end this without giving a huge shoutout to

Lukas Gilkey, CEO and cofounder of Hometown Hero.

He’s been leading the charge to defend Texas hemp from

the start. Lukas made sure that nobody who showed up

for the hearing went hungry or without a charged phone.

He literally fed and supported hundreds of people who

came out to testify—many of whom were small business

owners and veterans. That’s the kind of leadership we

need more of in this industry.

So the fight’s not over. We’re still here. We’re still

watching. And we’ll be back at the Capitol the second

these bills come back to life.