Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) this week emphasized a survey result showing that more than half (55 percent) of Texans want the state to rein its largely unregulated market for hemp-derived THC. At the same time, however, he seemed to ignore the survey’s other findings: that even more Texans want the state to legalize and regulate marijuana for both medical and adult use.
“This is a huge polling number on the issue of banning THC,” Patrick said Tuesday on social media, zeroing in on hemp-derived THC products that are widely available across the state. “Texans see these stores everywhere: in their neighborhoods and especially around schools where children have easy access. People simply don’t want them around.”
“Once the facts are out in the open,” he continued, “there is no doubt these public polling numbers will rise as more Texans demand a ban on these dangerous products.”
Rather than an outright ban on THC, however, the broader results of the University of Houston’s Hobby School of Public Affairs survey actually show that Texans want regulation of the psychoactive cannabinoid.
The polling found that nearly 4 in 5 (79 percent) support legalizing the sale and use of medical marijuana with a doctor’s recommendation, while more than 3 in 5 (62 percent) support legalizing and regulating an adult-use cannabis market.
Almost 7 in 10 (69 percent), meanwhile, said they think the state should decriminalize marijuana for personal use.
There is bipartisan support in the survey for each of the reforms.
What Patrick is right about is that most Texans think laws around cannabis need to change: Only 22 percent of those surveyed favored keeping the state’s marijuana laws as they are.
Reform advocates were quick to call out what some described as Patrick’s “cherry-picking” of the results.
“It is beyond clear at this point that Texans want safe, legal access to regulated cannabis products and an end to criminal and civil penalties for responsible adult use,” Morgan Fox, political director for the advocacy group NORML, told Marijuana Moment.
“Ignoring this fact and focusing only on the data that supports regulating currently available cannabinoid products while ignoring the broader public health and criminal justice demands of Texas voters does a disservice to them and will ensure that the Lone Star State continues to fall behind on sensible cannabis policy,” he said.
Heather Fazio, of the Texas Cannabis Policy Center, echoed those sentiments, writing in an email that “now is the time to institute better regulations, rather than sending us back to an era of prohibition.”
“There’s certainly a need for improved regulations, like age restrictions, but this multibillion-dollar industry reflects free enterprise, not exploitation,” Fazio said.
She also called the survey question about banning THC “misleading” for suggesting that hemp products are entirely unregulated. “In fact, consumable products are regulated at the state and federal levels,” she said.
Jeannette McKenzie of the Texas Cannabis Collective called out the lieutenant governor for “cherry picking data without giving the full context,” which she said amounts to “lying with statistics.”
“The lieutenant governor’s ban on THC is trying to convince us to move backwards when the rest of the country is moving forward,” she said. “Texans have made clear what they want and even his misrepresentation of the study can’t hide the truth.”
(Disclosure: Fazio and Texas Cannabis Collective support Marijuana Moment’s work through pledges on Patreon.)
Another Texan—Betty Williams, of Texas NORML—told Marijuana Moment that when customers go into shops to buy hemp-derived THC, “Most of the time, they only read the back of the product, which ain’t made in Texas and has scant few information on it. This results in people not getting the information they want.”
“Texans want to be informed about what they are putting into our bodies,” Williams said. “A regulated marijuana market with oversight and well-trained store [staff] would solve that problem easily.”
Another advocate, Kevin Caldwell, the southeast legislative manager for the group Marijuana Policy Project, said that what Patrick highlighted in his post “was that Texans are suspicious of the unregulated hemp market, and possibly rightfully so.”
“It is ironic that the Lt. Governor would allow his personal anti-cannabis bias to be on display by cherry-picking part of the poll to not reflect the reality that an overwhelming number of Texans want to see cannabis prohibition end,” Caldwell said in an email, adding: “Texas is surrounded by states with some form of access to cannabis products, and Lt. Gov. Patrick has been the main impediment to updating Texas’ antiquated cannabis policies.”
Patrick has targeted hemp-derived THC repeatedly during his time in office, most recently by including legislation that would ban the products in his list of priority bills. He’s endorsed legislation that would ban all forms of consumable THC in the state.
The lieutenant governor also directed a Senate committee last year to examine issues around beverages containing THC and prepare legislation that would ban the sale of intoxicating hemp products.
Other state officials, meanwhile, have called for a more comprehensive approach to cannabis reform.
Earlier this year, Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller (R) wrote an op-ed urging the state to both restrict intoxicating hemp products and expand its existing medical marijuana program to give access to more patients, writing: “Everyone who can benefit from it to help with their legitimate medical condition should have it available to them.”
Miller said that he doesn’t personally support adult-use marijuana legalization but argued it would still be preferable to the current situation.
“Even if the legislature voted to legalize recreational marijuana tomorrow,” he said, “that legislation would create a legal market with rules, guardrails, checks and balances. What we have now is the wild west.”
Photo courtesy of Philip Steffan.
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) this week emphasized a survey result showing that more than half (55 percent) of Texans want the state to rein its largely unregulated market for hemp-derived THC. At the same time, however, he seemed to ignore the survey’s other findings: that even more Texans want the state to legalize Read More
