Lawmakers are struggling to balance demands for medicinal cannabis products with a wildly growing market that is outpacing meaningful regulation.
When Texas state Sen. Charles Perry sat down this week in a packed room at the state Capitol to hear testimony on whether to ban some psychoactive hemp products from being sold in the state, he already knew what was coming.
The Lubbock Republican’s 2019 agricultural hemp legislation — a bipartisan, farmer-friendly bill — had opened up the state’s hemp industry and, in doing so, touched off a massive new consumable hemp market in Texas as well.
So there are a ton of businesses that would be affected by this. Not that I’m a regular consumer of any of these, but for a state that constantly touts how “pro business” they are, this is going to destroy many small business owners who have invested in selling a legal product.