Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick hailed bipartisan support for his controversial THC ban this week, announcing that his once-vetoed Senate Bill 3— now revived as SB 5 — was approved 21-8 in the Texas Senate.
The announcement came hours after Sen. Nathan Johnson, D-Dallas, announced the filing of two bills, SB 53 and SB 54. One would create safety standards for hemp products, including raising the purchasing age to 21, capping the consumable amount to 5 milligrams per serving, mandating child-safe packaging, and redirecting THC tax revenue to support public health and law enforcement.
The other would decriminalize possession of up to 2 ounces of marijuana for personal use. More than 17,000 arrests have been made in Texas this year for marijuana possession of less than 2 ounces, officials said at a July 30 press conference.
Johnson, who is running for Texas attorney general, was joined at his press conference by Sen. Molly Cook, D-Houston, an emergency room nurse, and veterans advocate Shaun Salvaje to announce the “cannabis reform package designed to create a regulatory framework for the safe and responsible production, manufacture, distribution, marketing, sale and consumption of naturally-derived THC products.”
Johnson’s plan is a far cry from the bill preferred by Patrick. Lubbock Sen. Charles Perry’s SB 5, creates a blanket ban on products, including beverages, containing any “detectable amount of cannabinoid, but excluding those with the non-intoxicating CBD or CBG components. This bill would eliminate the majority of hemp products, including those that are legal under the federal definition, according to the Texas Tribune.
SB 5 does not alter the state’s compassionate use program or laws related to the farming of hemp, Patrick said in a press release. Texas Compassionate Use Program started in 2015 to allow patients with epilepsy legal access to low-level THC products for medicinal purposes and has since been expanded to cover a broad range of conditions.
“Since 2019, bad actors have taken advantage of a loophole in Texas agriculture law to sell potent, intoxicating forms of THC that have nothing to do with agriculture,” Patrick said in an emailed statement. “These shops have rapidly spread throughout Texas, endangering the health and safety of children and families across our state, with no accountability.”
“These products, often containing dangerous levels of THC, are marketed directly toward young people with colorful packaging and images, making THC look like candy or sweets,” he added.
In addition to hundreds of Texas farmers who make their living from the $8 billion hemp industry, a THC ban has been widely opposed by veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and those who use THC products for medical purposes. Some have argued that those who use THC to taper off an opioid addiction will be forced to buy drugs on the black market.
“Decriminalization is the top priority,” said Salvaje, veterans affairs director of the Texas Cannabis Collective. “It’s way past time we stop putting people in jail for a plan that people are making millions off of. It is about protecting people’s health and empowering people to make their own healthcare decisions.”
Perry, the author of SB 5l, scoffed at the notion that a ban would harm those who need the product to manage pain or treat illnesses. “Texas has never gotten its medical treatment from gas stations over the counter,” he said earlier this week.
Patrick, in simple terms, threw a fit when the THC ban was vetoed by the governor in June. At the time, the governor said it was flawed and unlikely to withstand legal challenges. Instead, Abbott pushed for regulation, placing it on the special session agenda. The matter was expected to be the centerpiece of the 30-day session that began July 21, with political experts saying a bill in some form would definitely pass.
But many lawmakers have pushed to first address emergency communications and disaster relief in the wake of the July 4 Hill Country floods.
“We should be fixing flooding first, before we talk about any other policies,” Cook said at this week’s press conference. She went on to express her support for Johnson’s THC bills, saying her goal as a public health professional is to make people healthier.
“Does SB 5 help my patients? I cannot in good faith or good conscience, with any integrity that my profession demands, support that bill because it doubles down on a model of prohibition and criminalization,” she said. “Prohibition of cannabis and THC has never really been about science or safety. It’s about control: social and economic.”
“Who really benefits from banning THC?” she added. “Jail vendors, who make money off food tray contracts every time a veteran goes to jail. Pharmaceutical companies that make money when all we prescribe is an opiate instead of CBD from small veteran-owned businesses. Insurance executives who depend on your chronic pain to pay for their fourth house. Vertically-aligned industries that depend on the state gatekeeping access behind medical bureaucracy to create a monopoly.”
Maybe there’s hope that both parties can find a compromise on THC. Johnson thanked Patrick and Rep. Ken King, R- Canadian, for bringing the matter to the forefront and “opening the eyes” of many Texans about the harm caused by unregulated THC products, particularly when sold to children.
“As both the lieutenant governor and the governor have emphasized with appropriate urgency, we do not have the option of doing nothing right now,” Johnson said, adding that current THC laws are inadequate and inconsistent.
The dueling legislation (the Perry bill and the Johnson bills) signals a likely showdown in the House of Representatives, where lawmakers are more inclined to regulate THC than eliminate it. A vote in the House has not been set, and the legislature is adjourned until 10 a.m. Monday.
“If a ban flies off the floor this week and goes over to the House, we’ll see what comes back from the House,” Johnson said. “We’ll see if there’s another special session. I think it’s really important to put this in front of the public, in front of voters, and in front of legislators today, so as this process unfolds, we’ll see if it gets some traction. I certainly hope it does. It’s better policy for the state of Texas.”
Johnson said the policy around THC has been a mess for a long time and disparities in enforcement have been particularly damaging to people of color, who are disproportionately arrested and incarcerated while law enforcement diverts resources away from violent crime.
Texas law has been inconsistent when dealing with similar THC-derived products, hemp and marijuana, he said. “It’s the same molecule,” he said.
“A total ban, in my view, is neither enforceable nor desirable, nor is it respectful of the rights of individual adults to make consumer choices that Texans rightly wish to exercise,” Johnson added.
Abbott recently said through a spokesman that he supports a ban for those under 21, with a full ban on “extraordinarily dangerous synthetic products.”
Several other bills have been filed by Democrats this week including HB 195, making cannabis legal for adults; HB 160; requiring warning labels on hemp products that contain THC, and Senate Bill 39, prohibiting hemp products from being packaged or marketed to children and making any violation a misdemeanor.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2025.
