Texas Turns Its Back on Hemp: SB3 Passes,and Small Business Gets Burned Again

Stone Slade

Original High At 9 News Story

05-22-2025

If you felt the tremors last night, that wasn’t an

earthquake. It was just Texas lawmakers once again

fumbling the bag on cannabis policy. Senate Bill 3, the so-

called “solution” to intoxicating hemp products, passed

the Texas House in a 95 to 44 vote and is now sitting on

Governor Abbott’s desk like a flaming bag of political

cowardice.

Let me remind you, this bill doesn’t just tweak a

regulation here or there. It bans all consumable hemp

products with any trace of THC. Delta-8, Delta-9,

Delta-10, you name it. Never mind that these are federally

legal under the 2018 Farm Bill. Never mind that Texas

small businesses built an eight billion dollar industry

around them. And definitely don’t mind the 50,000

Texans who rely on that industry to pay rent and put food

on the table.

Instead, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, in all his boot-stomping

glory, declared this bill a “priority” and refused to leave

Austin until it passed. You’d think we were trying to fix

the power grid or something.

Even more insulting? While Patrick screamed “what

about the kids” to push this hemp ban, he’s been holding

up a bill that would raise teacher pay. Literally holding

education hostage until he got his way on THC. So the

kids can’t have access to vetted hemp shops, but they can

keep learning in underfunded classrooms with

overworked teachers. Priorities, right?

Here’s what this bill really does. It turns the Texas

Department of State Health Services into a de facto

cannabis police force and adds criminal penalties for

retailers and manufacturers. Possession of a legal hemp

product could now carry more jail time than possessing

small amounts of it’s evil cannabis cousin.

Now look, I get the whole “we gotta protect the kids”

argument. But licensed hemp shops in Texas have been

ID-checking and age-gating since day one, without even

being required to. Meanwhile, this bill punishes

compliant, tax-paying businesses and hands a victory to

the actual problem: the illicit market.

It’s prohibition déjà vu. And it’s being driven not by

evidence or public health concerns, but by politicians and

lobbyists who either don’t understand the plant, or worse,

do understand it and want to crush the competition for

their friends in Private Prisons, Big Pharma, Big Alcohol,

and Big Marijuana.

This isn’t just an attack on hemp. It’s an attack on

freedom of choice, on small business, and on Texans who

consume these products for anxiety, chronic pain, PTSD,

you name it.

Lukas Gilkey of Hometown Hero is talking lawsuits

against the state. Veteran groups, wellness advocates, and

the Texas Hemp Business Council are all calling for a

veto. Will Governor Abbott listen? Hard to say. He’s been

a wildcard on cannabis. Sometimes talking common

sense, other times letting Dan Patrick lead him around

like a show pony at a Baptist fair.

Closing Shot

If you’re in the Texas hemp business, now’s the time to

flip the flag upside down. Because this isn’t just a policy

shift. It’s a distress signal. One that screams, we legalize

it, we build it, and then we burn it all down.

Welcome to Texas. Now hold your breath.