Gov. Greg Abbott has vetoed a bill that would have banned the sale in Texas of most products containing THC, the compound in cannabis that gets people high.
In announcing the veto just before a midnight deadline, the governor said he would call a special session July 21 to debate the legislation further.
Senate Bill 3 would have unraveled Texas’ $8 billion hemp industry and cost an estimated 50,000 people their jobs. Under the bill, all cannabis shops and many hemp farms would have been forced to close. People selling or manufacturing hemp products with any cannabinoid other than CBD or CBG would have been charged with a third-degree felony.
SB 3 was championed by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who argued the bill would save "an entire generation from being hooked on drugs."
In a statement on X late Sunday, Patrick said the veto leaves supporters of the bill feeling "abandoned" and that he felt "especially bad for those who testified and poured their hearts out on their tragic losses."
Supporters had argued the state’s unregulated THC market poses a threat to children. (Patrick tried to demonstrate this risk earlier this year when he visited Austin cannabis shop Happy Cactus and asked how many children buy its products. He was carded.)
Patrick and others also pointed to an uptick in marijuana-related calls to poison control since the THC industry boom began in 2019, and anecdotes from people who saw their loved ones suffer from cannabis-induced psychosis.
Patrick said he'd hold a news conference in Austin on Monday.
While the bill waited in limbo, more than 150,000 THC advocates sent petitions and handwritten letters to Abbott pleading for him to veto the bill.
Farmers and small-business owners said a THC ban would likely cost far more than 50,000 people their jobs when taking into account design and packaging companies and security personnel. Veterans warned taking away easily accessible THC products would lead them to turn to opioids or alcohol to manage PTSD and other mental health issues.
At a news conference earlier this month, Mitch Fuller, the national and state legislative chairman for Texas Veterans of Foreign Wars, said the ban could lead to an uptick in veteran suicides.
“Please don’t take something away from us that works,” he said.
The governor on Saturday, meanwhile, signed House Bill 46, which expands the state's medical marijuana program. The new law adds chronic pain, traumatic brain injury and Crohn's disease to the list of conditions for which doctors can prescribe low-THC cannabis. It also allows patients in palliative or hospice care to use marijuana.
