Texas Health Officials Adopt Rules To Ban Hemp THC Sales To People Under 21 In Response To Governor’s Executive Order

Texas officials have officially adopted a set of emergency rules meant to prevent the sale of intoxicating hemp products to people under 21.

After similar restrictions were implemented by the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) late last month, the state Department of State Health Services (DSHS) announced on Friday that they’ve moved forward with policies changes that comply with the governor’s recent executive order on hemp.

“The rules define a minor as a person under 21 years of age, require consumable hemp sellers to verify purchasers have a valid ID that shows they are at least 21 years old, and provide for penalties including the revocation of a license or registration for violations,” DSHS said.

The rules are effective for 120 days, with the possibility of a 60-day extension.

“At the same time, DSHS has begun the process of proposing permanent rules to implement the age requirement and other aspects of the Governor’s executive order,” the department said. “As part of that process, the public will have an opportunity to provide comments on proposed rules at a public hearing to be scheduled once those rules are published.”

The reason that two agencies are issuing similar rules is that TABC only regulates retailers that sell alcohol, such as liquor stores and certain convenience and grocery stores, and thus has no jurisdiction over smoke shops and other places that sell hemp products but not alcohol.

Heather Fazio, director of the advocacy group Texas Cannabis Policy Center, told Marijuana Moment on Friday that the “hodgepodge” of regulatory changes under different departments “highlights the government’s reluctance to just accept cannabis as a legal commodity.”

Rather that this “duplicating of efforts and cross-talk” between agencies, it would be “so much more efficient if we had a cannabis regulatory authority in general,” she said.

(Disclosure: Fazio supports Marijuana Moment’s work via monthly Patreon pledges.)

This comes in the background of unsuccessful efforts to impose an outright ban on hemp products with any quantifiable amount of THC.

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Meanwhile this week, the head of the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) pushed back against a GOP senator’s “incorrect assertions” about the state’s regulatory compliance with federal hemp laws. But he also signaled that changes may be coming to measure “total THC” to determine the legality of hemp products in a way that some stakeholders worry could negatively impact the industry.

After the legislature failed to pass a controversial bill to ban hemp products containing THC during two special sessions following the governor’s veto of a similar measure earlier this year, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signed the executive order to impose certain restrictions on the market.

Meanwhile, a recent survey from a GOP pollster affiliated with President Donald Trump found that Texas Democratic and Republican voters are unified in their opposition to the hemp ban proposal.

Image element courtesy of AnonMoos.