Federal government shutdown deal bans almost all THC products in Texas

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — President Donald Trump has signed a law banning nearly all THC products in Texas. Under federal law, marijuana is illegal, but hemp is currently legal, so ABC13 wanted to see what’s really being sold.

The federal hemp bill, which takes effect at the end of next year, was a last-minute addition to the spending bill that reopened the federal government on Wednesday night.

In Texas, where the THC industry has faced little regulation, it will mean big changes.

“It’s just a reality that these things exist, people use them, and now there is a responsibility on the state to ensure that people can use them with relative safety and confidence,” Dr. Katie Harris, a drug policy fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute, said. “Right now, we have over 9,000 stores. There’s no cap on the number of licenses. And a retail license only costs about $155 a year, so it’s a very low barrier to entry.”

By federal law, marijuana is illegal, but hemp is legal, so ABC13 wanted to see what’s really being sold.

First, we bought five different THC products from five different stores across Houston. Then, we bought a plant bud, a pre-rolled joint, and a joint with cannabis concentrate inside. We then bought a gummy that the store clerk promised would get us and keep us high. We even bought a drink infused with THC. Lastly, we sent them off to a lab.

The results showed all three plant products are illegal, with higher than allowed levels of Delta-9, which is the compound most associated with getting you high.

By law, it isn’t hemp, but it’s marijuana. And reports show that it’s extremely potent marijuana.

The gummy and the drink did pass the legal test, which Dr. Harris said isn’t surprising, because the current law only specifies THC percentages, not total amounts.

“The heavier the product, the more THC you can pack in there, then the product still be legal,” she explained.

But, under the new regulations, she said every one of these products we got tested would be considered marijuana.

That’s because the new law considers all THC compounds, not just Delta-9.

And edibles would no longer be able to scrape by, because the new law caps the amount of milligrams of THC allowed.

According to the owner of the lab that tested it, the gummy we sent in, which is currently legal, would be 755 times the limit allowed by the new law.

“Use the refrigerator rule,” Attorney Christopher M. McKinney said. “If you have a doubt, throw it out.”

McKinney represents people who have been arrested on drug charges.

“We get a lot of good people coming to us, thinking they bought a legal product. At the end of the day, it’s not what the box says or what they think the product is, it’s what the lab says it is,” he said. “The consequences are real, and we have good people getting caught up in nets.”

As of now, he said retailers in Texas aren’t required to test or keep track of the THC products they sell.

The new law doesn’t specify how regulations will be enforced, especially given the changing perceptions of a drug that our testing shows is currently widely available in stores.

“We’ve seen poll after poll that shows that the majority of Texans support some kind of access to marijuana, especially medical,” Dr. Harris said. “There’s been a lot said that it’s less harmful than alcohol, reefer madness was overblown, which it certainly was, but now I think we have a lot of public mistrust of government messaging on THC, and we need to get that trust back.”

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