Hemp advocates, many wearing green ribbons on their shirts, blazers and jackets, along with a few opponents of the industry at large, showed up on Monday, April 7, to have their voices heard at a public hearing with the Texas House Committee on State Affairs regarding House Bill 28 and Senate Bill 3.
While the hearing is still ongoing, the first several hours of testimony have been rather eye-opening, with one hemp industry professional pleading with the committee “to represent your Texan constituents.”
Monday’s hearing started with comments on HB 28. Unlike past hearings on SB 3, which looks to ban all forms of THC and adds criminal penalties for possession of cannabis products like delta-9 gummies or THC drinks that are currently legal, most, if not all, testifying on HB 28 opposed the bill during Monday’s hearing. Rather than banning all forms of THC, HB 28 would allow the sale of delta-9 along with CBD and CBG, and would put caps on milligrams of THC per serving.
Not only that, but it would ban smokable hemp products, such as THCa flower and THCa vape pens, making possession of such a class A misdemeanor. HB 28 also sets minimum age requirements (must be 21 or older to purchase hemp edibles with THC), makes marketing to minors by including packaging or products that resemble “a human, animal, fruit or cartoon or in another shape that is attractive to children” a felony offense and transfers regulatory authority from the Department of State Health Services (DSHS) to the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC).
The Texas House Committee on State Affairs, which held the public hearing, is led by HB 28’s author, Rep. Ken King, R-Canadian. The reasons foes of consumable hemp products with less than 0.3% delta-9 THC oppose the bill differ from the reasons cited by those who support the products the state is trying to ban.
After nearly 7 hours of testimony on HB 28, the committee took a recess. The hearing resumed around 4:30 p.m., with the committee continuing to hear testimony on HB 28. Several members of the Texas House Committee on State Affairs were notably missing after picking things back up.
Below are examples of testimony on HB 28 by business owners, parents, consumers, attorneys, healthcare professionals and more heard before the first recess, and the reasoning for their stance.
Hemp advocates against HB 28
“By only allowing isolates, you’re (adding) more manufacturing and chemical alteration to strip out all these other healthy things that are in a natural extract,” said Susan Hays, an advocate and cannabis lawyer. She also said the “harsh criminalization” of smokable hemp and vapes was “unfair” for minors or anyone who isn’t getting “consumer education” on consumable hemp products. She later added, “To effectively regulate … you have to be able to regulate in the first place … you’re never, ever, ever going to get rid of it all by banning it.”Katy Frazier, the founder of a CBD shop in Austin called Plant Lady ATX, told the committee that while HB 28 “may appear more reasonable,” she believes it “remains deeply harmful” as it would still ban certain products that are federally legal. “That’s not regulation, that’s slow-motion prohibition,” Frazier said of HB 28. “You don’t clean up a room by setting it on fire.” Karen Reeves, the founder of CenTex Community Outreach, said she’s been using cannabis for over 50 years and opposes HB 28. “In my worst nightmare, I never believed that I would be here testifying against a bill that would ban THC,” she told the committee before blasting Texas lawmakers. “All our advocacy here at the Capitol… and still our legislatures act like they don’t know what’s going on,” Reeves said. “What will happen to me if my house is raided? What will happen to my family if we’re arrested because I choose a safer alternative for (the) harmful pharmaceuticals I took for 20 years?”Regarding the talking point of several Texas lawmakers and hemp opponents that the state’s hemp industry exploits a loophole in the 2018 federal Farm Bill, Andrea Steel, an attorney who serves as the Vice Chair of the American Bar Association’s Cannabis Law and Policy Committee, said, “This is not a loophole, the intent (of the farm bill) was to explore the consumable hemp market.” Steel opposes HB 28.Robin Goldstein, a cannabis economist at the University of California, Davis, is against HB 28. He said legalizing or illegalizing cannabis or hemp does not have an impact on abuse rates, but it does impact the safety of the products on the market. He told the Texas House committee that his studies have found legal, regulated drug markets are safer than unregulated drug markets. Piper Lindeen, whose son is a patient with the state’s medical marijuana program to treat his epilepsy, opposes HB 28. She said her son doesn’t have access to the products he needs in the state’s low-THC medical program to help with his seizures, noting “cannabis is complex.” Jim Higdon, the co-founder of Cornbread Hemp out of Louisville, Kentucky, first acknowledged that he was not a resident, saying, “I understand that I’m an outsider (but) I’m not here to mess with Texas.” He then explained that he was testifying on behalf of his Texas-based customers “who don’t want to be treated like criminals for ordering products online that are legal under federal law and tested by third-party labs.” He said many of their customers were middle-aged women living in the suburbs of cities like Austin and Houston, as well as people in rural parts of the Lone Star State. “Adults have turned to our products, not to get high but to manage pain, anxiety and sleep issues – problems that affect us all, especially as we age,” said Higdon. Stephen Gurka III, who is a disabled Marine veteran and the co-owner of Elevated CBD and Smoke in College Station, opposes HB 28 and called the bill “ludicrous.” He argued that Texas DSHS, which currently regulates the consumable hemp program in Texas, “Is not putting in force these regulations that they wrote in 2019.” He stressed that cannabis businesses in the state have been asking the Texas Legislature to add age restrictions to the law for six years. “Texas gave permission to sell to underage children. We didn’t decide that, y’all made that rule,” Gurka III said. “We followed the rule and were like, ‘Wait a sec, that rule, that doesn’t make any sense, let’s put an (age restriction) when you walk in our shops and have to show IDs.‘”Lukas Gilkey, the CEO of cannabis business Hometown Hero, opposes HB 28 and countered past claims made by Texas DSHS regarding a lack of available money to fully enforce the standards they outlined when creating the consumable hemp program in the state. “There are continuous claims of no enforcement, yet DSHS has collected close to $2 million in 2024 alone in licenses issued … which indicates there is money, but it is obviously not being used for enforcement.” He acknowledged that Texas lawmakers are likely under a “massive amount of political pressure” to get rid of the state’s hemp industry, but ended his testimony by saying, “I plead you to represent your Texan constituents and help us figure out a way to properly regulate this.”
Hemp opponents against HB 28
A handful of people testifying in opposition to HB 28 did so because they want to see all forms of THC banned in the state. Some parents claimed their adult children ages 22 and older experienced psychosis after ingesting THC gummies. Others claimed their adult children were addicted to THC and argued it should be banned because of this.
Aubree Adams, who was testifying on behalf of the grassroots organization Citizens for a Safe and Healthy Texas, which looks to educate on substance abuse and “keep the marijuana messes from expanding in Texas,” per its website, opposed HB 28, saying the bill is “the war for drugs.” She later added, “THC is THC is THC … it’s harmful (and) it’s addictive,” saying it would be “insane” to sell THC products next to alcoholic beverages at stores.
Tune into the livestream of the public hearing with the Texas House Committee on State Affairs here.
The Texas House Committee on State Affairs continues to hear public testimony on House Bill 28, which would shake up the state’s hemp industry. Here are the takeaways from the first several hours. Read More
