The Austin Chronic: A Rundown of Cannabis Bills at the Texas Capitol
The legislative “sesh” has its papers
By Kevin Curtin, Fri., March 7, 2025
I’ve recently found that there is no more potent a conversation ender then when someone asks you what you’ve been up to and you say “reading state legislation proposals about cannabis.”
This week, a particularly generous friend replied, “Well I hope you’re being kind to yourself and using some kind of AI.” And I’m not. Thus far, I haven’t knowingly interacted with AI. I guess I have a personal protest going, spurred by my worry that artificial intelligence may decrease the value humans can get out of self-expression and we’ll lose our spark. I do believe I’ll someday relent and employ AI software to total my monthly bills or to put data into a spreadsheet, but I promise I’ll never use it for journalism or even research.
So, for what it’s worth: This rundown of cannabis-related legislative filings – of which there are over dozens – was researched by a very stoned human being.
Bills are brain-numbing documents. They’re written in legalese and you have to constantly be referring back to the code they are amending. The most annoying part, though, is all of Texas’ state laws spell marijuana “marihuana” like it’s the 1800s. God bless the cannabis advocacy groups, like the Texas Cannabis Policy Center, who read these filings and do education, both with the public and politicians.
This is a big session for cannabis legislation. A large consumable hemp industry hangs in the balance with proposals to completely ban all forms of THC (including THCa), and Texas’ medical program needs continued expansion. And the stakes are always slighter higher here because Texas is one of only four states without an annual legislative session – meaning the phrase “there’s always next year” isn’t said much in the Capitol. We are now 50 days into a 140-day gathering of lawmakers, which means we’re in the exciting stage: Most of the cannabis bills have been filed, but none of them have even been referred to committee. Here’s where things sit.
THC Ban Bills
The specific text in Lubbock Sen. Charles Perry’s bill to ban all THC has been anticipated since the plan was rolled out by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick in December. Upon filing in late February, Senate Bill 3 came into clear focus: hemp containing any amount of any cannabinoid other than CBD or CBG is off the market. The Senate bill proposed a third-degree penalty for manufacturing for selling hemp products with THC or any other cannabinoid. That means two to 10 years of imprisonment for products that are federally legal. Simply possessing consumable hemp would be a class A misdemeanor.
An unexpected victim in the bill is the cannabinoid CBN, since it’s not psychoactive and it’s used in products to help people sleep. Most of the language in SB 3 eliminates products with even trace amounts of THC, but another instance in the rules section of the doc deems a hemp product legal if the THC is less than .0001 of its dry weight. Presumably, that opens a loophole where someone could sell a 10mg gummy that’s the size of a waffle.
The legislation, which was authored by the same senator whose 2019 Hemp Bill accidentally created Texas’ psychoactive hemp industry, goes beyond fixing the holes in his previous work. Perry’s bill, to his credit, also does something hemp advocates actually asked for: making regulations against packaging that’s appealing to children. Cartoons, images of candy or fruit, or celebrity likenesses are out for hemp products.
A Republican from the other chamber, Rep. Matt Shaheen, filed a bill with similar intent. House Bill 2155 calls for the prohibition of consumable hemp products, but with a much lesser penalty for someone selling them: a class B misdemeanor.
The passage of either bill would likely devastate the 7,000 hemp dispensaries in Texas and the many businesses that produce hemp products. The clear winner of such a ban would be people who sell weed products on the black market, who would now have an $8 billion industry to absorb.
Medical Expansion
Texas’ limited medical cannabis program is the subject of a dozen bills filed in the House and Senate thus far. HB 1146, filed by Penny Morales Shaw, would expand access to the Compassionate Use Program by allowing it for “a condition that causes chronic pain, for which a physician would otherwise prescribe an opiate” and “debilitating medical conditions.” Morales Shaw’s bill would also change the current allowance of 0.3% THC in a medical product to the more commonsensical 10mg of THC per dose. Harris County Sen. Carol Alvarado’s SB 259 would increase medical access even more by giving doctors the ability to prescribe medical cannabis for any medical situation they deem necessary.
With SB 170, José Menéndez, a reliable source of reasonable cannabis legislation in the Texas Senate, looks to replace the low-THC cannabis products that doctors can currently prescribe with actual “medical cannabis.” The senator from San Antonio also filed an extensive plan to create a Medical Cannabis Research Program with an advisory board made up of varied medical industry positions and also establish cannabis research licenses.
Charles Perry, architect of the THC ban, has also authored his own medical bill. The bad news: It would limit medical cannabis to a 5mg threshold. The good news: SB 1505 would allow doctors to “prescribe pulmonary inhalation of an aerosol or vapor as a means of administration of low-THC cannabis” ... which seemingly opens the door to the medical program having vapes for the first time.
Dank Legislation
HB 1750, one of two cannabis bills from Cypress/Katy Rep. Jon Rosenthal, amends the law to allow Texans to manufacture a product containing hemp for smoking. Currently, laws banning “manufacturing” mean that hemp growers have to send their hemp flower out of state to be turned into preroll joints. This could allow them to save money by rolling their own.
Our Travis County Sen. Sarah Eckhardt’s SB 335 proposes proper cannabis legalization, allowing Texas to grow, buy, and possess weed. With certain restrictions, it permits the use, possession, and transport of 2.5 ounces of cannabis, as well as cultivation and processing of up to 12 plants for personal use. Dallas Rep. Jessica Gonzalez has a similar bill in the house with HB 1208 – as does fellow Democrat John Bucy with HB 2975.
Rep. Joe Moody of El Paso is reprising legislation that would make all personal cannabis possession charges under one ounce a nonarrestable class C misdemeanor, which cannot include jail time. The decriminalization bill actually passed in the House last session but died in committee after it went to the Senate. Moody also filed a bill that would bring small amounts of marijuana concentrates down to a class B offense.
