Earlier this month, the Texas Department of State Health Services released regulations on consumable hemp-derived THC products that will go into effect on March 31. These new regulations include child-resistant packaging, a significant increase in licensing fees, new labeling, testing, and bookkeeping requirements. The rules also codify the legal purchasing age to 21, which went into effect last year as an emergency directive.
However, hemp retailers say the regulation that decreases the amount of total THC in products they sell to 0.3% will eliminate popular smokeable hemp products, such as rolled joints and smokeable flower buds, which make up more than 50% of some stores’ inventories.
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The rules also increase licensing fees for manufacturers of hemp-derived THC from $258 to $10,000 per facility and retail registrations from $155 to $5,000, which industry leaders say will fulfill the ban by forcing businesses to close.
I know a lot of people who were growers, pushers, or just users back in the grey market days and none of them seem too pressed about going back if they had to. Some of them desperately want the governments nose out of it all together. I know it’s not the ideal for the average person, but I hope that type of tenacity from parts of the marijuana community can help keep it strong for all the people who never had to or never could use less than legal means. No one not holding stock in the companies wants to go back to heavy pharmaceutical solutions when there’s a plant right there.