Judge rules stores can still sell smokable hemp

TRAVIS COUNTY (TEXAS TRIBUNE) – For the time being, a Travis County district judge has permitted the sale of naturally smokeable hemp products like rolled joints and flower buds.

The ban that was granted earlier this month is still on hold as a result of Judge Daniella DeSeta Lyttle’s Friday decision. The Texas Hemp Business Council, Hemp Industry & Farmers of America, and a number of dispensaries and manufacturers in Texas were granted a temporary injunction by Lyttle against new testing regulations that establish a 0.3% total THC threshold, thereby prohibiting the sale of natural smokeable hemp products. Additionally, a 3,000% increase in hemp retailers’ licensing fees is temporarily halted by the ruling.

The ban will be temporarily suspended until the next hearing, which is currently set for July 27. However, if the state appeals the most recent decision and the court consents to hear the appeal, the suspension may end sooner. The state’s regulations will resume once the court grants the appeal, necessitating the removal of smokeable hemp from store shelves.

Attorneys representing the hemp industry contended during a three-day hearing this week that the Texas Department of State Health Services had overreached its constitutional authority by amending the statutory definitions of hemp that were created by legislators in 2019.

State attorneys contended in court that Texas law permits the health agency to enact new hemp regulations by requiring them to give Texans’ welfare top priority when making rules. The judge disagreed, claiming that the regulations were causing the industry irreversible harm.