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The Texas Supreme Court on Tuesday heard oral arguments concerning the state\u2019s ban on manufacturing smokable hemp products\u2014the latest development in a drawn-out legal battle on the policy first proposed and challenged in 2020.<\/p>\n
A lower court determined in August that a proposed ban on the manufacturing and sale of smokable hemp was unconstitutional and imposed a permanent injunction<\/a> that barred the state from prohibiting the full range of hemp activity. Texas officials then raised the in-state manufacturing matter to the state\u2019s highest court.<\/p>\n Hemp products\u2014including those that can be inhaled\u2014have been legal in Texas since Congress federally legalized the crop under the 2018 Farm Bill and the legislature followed suit, so long as the cannabis contains no more than 0.3 percent THC per dry weight. But regulators threw the industry for a loop when the Department of State Health Services proposed a rule prohibiting the manufacturing and sale of smokable hemp products within the state.<\/p>\n Following a lower court ruling last year, the state dropped its ban on selling smokable hemp<\/a>; however, it maintained a rule that those products could only be lawfully sold if they were manufactured and processed out of state. It\u2019s a point that hemp stakeholders and the legal counsel of four cannabis businesses in the state who brought about the original lawsuit have consistently emphasized.<\/p>\n\n \u201cBecause consumption was not banned in the state of Texas, there really is no underlying governmental interest\u201d in banning manufacturing, attorney Chelsie Spencer told Marijuana Moment in a phone interview on Tuesday.<\/p>\n At the state Supreme Court hearing on Tuesday, the primary question from justices was whether officials could prove that there was a \u201crational basis\u201d for the regulation. There were repeated references to a prior court case, Patel vs. the Department of Licensing & Regulation, which found the state had imposed an undue burden on the cosmetology industry with regulations it enacted for commercial eyebrow threading.<\/p>\n Justices asked a wide range of questions around the rationality of the state\u2019s hemp manufacturing regulations.<\/p>\n The state\u2019s deputy solicitor general, Bill Davis, made the argument that there was a rational basis to the rule because smoking hemp is a public health concern and because of law enforcement complications that result from officers struggling to distinguish between flower hemp and marijuana.<\/p>\n With respect to the health claim, counsel for the plaintiffs rejoined that there\u2019s nothing stopping Texans from buying and smoking hemp if they cross the border or buy products online, so that point is moot. Rather, the policy is simply inhibiting in-state businesses from profiting from a popular market and leading many to leave the state.<\/p>\n With respect to the law enforcement argument, Spencer said that \u201cif that was the state\u2019s true interest here in regulating smokable hemp products, they would have banned use and possession by the consumer. As it stands, consumers can simply drive across the border or order from online. All they\u2019ve done is specifically targeted Texas based companies.\u201d<\/p>\n The attorneys said they expect the state Supreme Court to reach a decision on the case this summer.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is about a stupid law,\u201d Matt Zorn, another attorney involved in the case, told Marijuana Moment. He noted that, during Tuesday\u2019s hearing, it was mentioned by a justice that just because a law might be \u201cstupid,\u201d that doesn\u2019t necessarily mean it\u2019s irrational.<\/p>\n \u201cI think he\u2019s correct. But this law is stupid and irrational,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m just hoping that the justices take a really close look at the actual law\u2026and make a judgment as to whether or not this was rational.\u201d<\/p>\n One area of concern that the lawyers flagged concerns remarks from Justice Jimmy Blacklock, who suggested that the businesses behind this legal challenge \u201cshould have been made at a legislative hearing,\u201d rather than in a courtroom.<\/p>\n Spencer said that assessment \u201cflies in the face of 200-plus years of jurisprudence in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Texas\u2019s hemp industry scored a largely unrelated legal victory late last year after a judge ruled that state regulators would be temporarily prohibited from enforcing a ban against the sale of delta-8 THC products<\/a>. While regulators sought to challenge the injunction with the state Supreme Court, justices denied the motion in December, meaning delta-8 can continue to be lawfully produced and sold in Texas.<\/p>\n Beyond hemp, the Republican governor of Texas said in January that he doesn\u2019t believe people should be incarcerated over low-level marijuana possession, effectively endorsing decriminalization<\/a>. He made the remarks on the same day that Austin officials\u00a0certified a ballot initiative to enact the reform<\/a>\u00a0on the local level.<\/p>\n Gov. Greg Abbott (R)\u00a0made similar comments during a debate<\/a> in 2018, saying that \u201cone thing I don\u2019t want to see is jails stockpiled with people who have possession of a small amount of marijuana.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI would be open to talking to the legislature about reducing the penalty for [marijuana] possession of two ounces or less from a Class B misdemeanor to a Class C misdemeanor,\u201d he said at the time.<\/p>\n The\u00a0Texas House went on to approve a cannabis decriminalization bill<\/a>\u00a0in 2019,\u00a0but it did not advance<\/a>\u00a0in the Senate that session and never made it to Abbott\u2019s desk due to the opposition of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R), who controls the chamber\u2019s agenda.<\/p>\n \u2014 The\u00a0Texas Republican Party adopted a platform plank<\/a>\u00a0endorsing decriminalization of marijuana possession in 2018.<\/p>\n Separately, Democrat Beto O\u2019Rourke, a former congressman and El Paso City Council member, is running for governor this year and supports full marijuana legalization<\/a>.<\/p>\n While there\u2019s no statewide ballot process in place for citizen initiatives in Texas, drug policy reform did advance in the state legislature during last year\u2019s session, but not necessarily at the pace that advocates had hoped to see.<\/p>\n A bill to\u00a0expand the state\u2019s medical cannabis program<\/a>\u00a0and another to require a study into\u00a0the therapeutic potential of certain psychedelics<\/a>\u00a0for military veterans were enacted. Abbott signed the former but let the other become enacted without his signature<\/p>\n Advocates remain disappointed, however, that lawmakers were\u00a0unable to pass more expansive cannabis bills<\/a>\u2014including a decriminalization proposal that cleared the House but saw no action in the Senate.<\/p>\n A Texas poll that was released over the summer found that 60 percent of voters in the state\u00a0support making cannabis legal \u201cfor any use.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Pennsylvania Psilocybin Research Bill In Limbo After Key Committee Chair Raises Concern Over Mushroom \u2018Overdose,\u2019 Sponsor Says<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo elements courtesy of rawpixel<\/a> and Philip Steffan<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Texas Supreme Court Hears Case Challenging State\u2019s Smokable Hemp Manufacturing Ban<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The Texas Supreme Court on Tuesday heard oral arguments concerning the state\u2019s ban on manufacturing smokable hemp products\u2014the latest development in a drawn-out legal battle on the policy first proposed and challenged in 2020. A lower court determined in August that a proposed ban on the manufacturing and sale ofContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":53750,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81,126],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53749"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53749"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53749\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53751,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53749\/revisions\/53751"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: Texas Supreme Court Hears Case Challenging State\u2019s Smokable Hemp Manufacturing Ban<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"