Texas Democrats are calling out a key Republican official for allegedly working to ban hemp THC products in order to benefit alcohol companies, which happen to be among his substantial campaign contributors.<\/p>\n
During the last legislative session, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R), who oversees the Senate, championed legislation to recriminalize many hemp products. While the bill was ultimately vetoed by Gov. Greg Abbott (R), the governor then issued an executive order on the issue and regulators have since enacted significant restrictions on derivatives from the crop.<\/p>\n
Now, a key county Democratic Party and Patrick\u2019s opponent for reelection this year are calling attention to the the lieutenant governor\u2019s support from the alcohol industry amid his push to hemp ben products.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve seen the lieutenant governor take hundreds of thousands of dollars from the alcohol industry, and that\u2019s what drove the policy around the ban on THC,\u201d Vikki Goodwin, the Democratic lieutenant governor nominee and current state representative, said last week, according to The Beaumont Enterprise.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am in favor of treating THC like alcohol,\u201d she said<\/a>. \u201cA part of my healthcare plan is taxing THC like we do alcohol and cigarettes and use that for healthcare.\u201d<\/p>\n Similarly, the Bexar County Democratic Party said in a post on Facebook this weekend that hemp represents a \u201cmulti-billion dollar industry with over 14K small business owners and more than 50K employees.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd the Texas Republicans just wiped them out,\u201d it said. \u201cWhy? Could it be because Dan Patrick received $275K in donations from beer distributors and alcohol PACs?\u201d<\/p>\n In June Patrick\u2019s campaign committee, Texans for Dan Patrick, reported receiving $275,000 from the alcohol distributor company Silver Eagle Distributors, according to a Texas Ethics Commission filing<\/a>.<\/p>\n Texas Democrats are increasingly using the cannabis issue to bash Republicans as the November elections approach\u2014and are highlighting their opponents\u2019 support from the alcohol industry.<\/p>\n Democratic U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico, for example, wants to legalize marijuana and suggested in a recent interview that that his opponent for the seat, state Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) supports banning cannabis in order to aid his political donors in the alcohol and tobacco industries<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIt doesn\u2019t make any sense until you follow the money and realize that it is big beer and big tobacco that are funding the politicians, like Ken Paxton, who turned around and banned these safe THC products in order to enrich the big beer and a big tobacco lobby,\u201d Talarico, who currently serves as a state representative, said.<\/p>\n In a separate interview, the Democratic candidate said that keeping marijuana illegal while also moving to restrict hemp THC products is an \u201cinsane\u201d<\/a> form of \u201ccorruption.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThink about what industries are most worried about THC products being readily available: Big Beer, Big Tobacco, right? And so they were the ones pushing this THC ban because it hurts their bottom line,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd a lot of research shows that THC\u2014cannabis\u2014these products are safer and less addictive than than beer or tobacco.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd so to me, this is a prime example of what corruption looks like when you\u2019ve got big industries buying politicians and pushing bills that harm people, but benefit them financially,\u201d Talarico said.<\/p>\n The Texas Democratic Party recently called out Paxton for refusing to answer a question about cannabis policy<\/a> after he was recently shown in a video posted to X being asked what his thoughts are on the \u201cstate\u2019s THC ban.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know the details of it, but let\u2019s talk later,\u201d he replied before quickly stepping away.<\/p>\n Paxton, in fact, has sued to overturn local voter-approved marijuana decriminalization laws in several cities across Texas<\/a>.<\/p>\n His office has also defended hemp product restrictions in court against lawsuits from the industry. That includes a recently enacted ban on\u00a0certain hemp-derived THC cannabis products<\/a>, including those containing delta-8 and delta-10 THC. Now classified as Schedule I drugs under state law, possession is treated as a felony, carrying a punishment of 180 days to two years in prison and fines of up to $10,000.<\/p>\n A judge this month declined hemp companies\u2019 request to impose a temporary restraining order on the THC crackdown<\/a> while the overall litigation is considered.<\/p>\n The Texas Democratic Party pounced on Paxton\u2019s inability to answer the cannabis question, saying in a press release that he appeared to be \u201cin a panic\u201d when being pressed about the \u201cincredibly unpopular\u201d THC ban before proceeding to \u201crun away\u201d from the questioner.<\/p>\n \u201cKen Paxton is a coward who runs from questions because he has no answers for his wildly unpopular positions,\u201d Texas Democratic Party Spokesperson Ryan Martin said. \u201cPaxton knows Texans hate this THC ban he has pushed onto people with his nanny-state agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n The party\u2019s press release also noted that podcaster Joe Rogan, who lives in and operates a comedy club in Austin, discussed the issue on an episode of his podcast that was posted on Thursday.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019ve done the THC thing,\u201d he said. \u201cHere\u2019s what Texas doesn\u2019t understand. You will fuck this place up and you will turn the whole thing blue.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cKids will turn on you if you tell them they can\u2019t smoke weed,\u201d Rogan said. \u201cThey know weed\u2019s not killing anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n Voters in Houston will decide on an initiative to make misdemeanor marijuana possession the \u201clowest possible enforcement priority\u201d<\/a>\u00a0for local police on the November ballot.<\/p>\n Image element courtesy of AnonMoos<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Texas Democrats Say GOP Lieutenant Governor Pushed For Hemp THC Product Ban To Benefit His Alcohol Industry Donors<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Texas Democrats are calling out a key Republican official for allegedly working to ban hemp THC products in order to benefit alcohol companies, which happen to be among his substantial campaign contributors. During the last legislative session, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R), who oversees the Senate, championed legislation to recriminalizeContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":459,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86738"}],"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\/459"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86738"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86739,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86738\/revisions\/86739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: Texas Democrats Say GOP Lieutenant Governor Pushed For Hemp THC Product Ban To Benefit His Alcohol Industry Donors<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"