Ask anyone who knows me and they’ll tell you that I’m a card-carrying rescheduler. I love canceled plans, rain checks, and even an occasional Irish Goodbye. When Todd Harris, co-owner of Happy Cactus, had to reschedule our interview a couple times, I was simply curious: What was keeping him so busy?
Harris sat down in his OMG Squee T-shirt looking a little frazzled. As it turns out, both Todd Harris and his brother and co-owner Mickey have been pulling many extra hours to fill in the gaps after having to let go of half their staff due to (you guessed it) Texas’ smokable hemp ban. Back in March, when the ban was initiated, the Harris brothers were able to hold on to their staff and continue to pay them while they waited for things to turn around. While an injunction issued in the lawsuit challenging the Texas Department of State Health Services briefly paused the ban, the ban is back on now as the case slowly makes its way through the courts.
Harris told me that he runs the retail committee for the Texas Hemp Business Council, which has over a hundred members. He serves as a liaison between the members and DSHS, or “Dishes” as he calls it, trying to get answers on legal questions while he and other business owners try to figure out how to pivot after losing sometimes over half their sales because of the ban, which now includes THCA, an element that is non-psychoactive until it is converted through smoking. Lawmakers are now calling this a loophole, Harris said, even though they are the ones who enabled the industry to get started eight years ago with the farm bill. “Now they’re all backtracking because they’re getting money from alcohol and prisons and whoever else wants to stop the hemp industry, which is a lot of people.”
I pointed out that a lot of businesses still have smokable products on their shelves. I was able to purchase a preroll just the other day. “It’s very confusing right now,” he told me, “because DSHS has told multiple retailers that I’ve talked to and myself that they’re not actually going to actually come out and do inspections and enforce these new rules. They’re saying that, but they’re not going to challenge the policy, and DPS and TABC can still enforce it, so it feels a little sketchy to us.” Harris doesn’t trust the nudge-nudge, wink-wink method of running a business. But if you’re seeing a lot of shops still selling smokable products, now you know why.
Happy Cactus is still able to sell Delta-8 products. Some shops are moving into THCP, but Harris said that they have no plans to do that. Both components are naturally occurring in the plant, but Delta-8 is more accessible and THCP has to pretty much be synthesized in a lab, Harris explained. Happy Cactus prefers THCA flower, which doesn’t require any altering, just the plant in its pure form.
I asked Harris what it was like to come to the decision to let five out of their nine employees go. He gave me two reasons: First, Happy Cactus can’t sustain their full staff anymore after losing half of their sales. Even the employees that they retained are being kept on for fewer hours and a slightly lower rate. He described everyone as being understanding. “We built a family here,” he said. “They know it’s not a decision that we take lightly at all. We thought through every possibility.” Secondly, the federal ban is still looming over everyone in November. “We thought that was going to be cleared up by now,” he continued, “but we’re halfway through the year and no one has any clear vision of what’s going to happen.” Their plan right now is to consolidate the business and make as much as they can over the next few months to help them figure out how to pivot.
“This is all very depressing,” he admitted. “We’ve been doing this for six years now. Me and my brother… we didn’t have investors in the beginning; it’s just been blood, sweat, and tears.” Even Harris’ wife, who came on as their project manager, is now having to get another job. Last year, they were looking at expanding. Now, the future is uncertain.
Amidst these dark times, we turned back to the lighter subject of the Happy Cactus origin story. Harris was in a band for 15 years, touring around the country. He still looks every bit the part with waves of red hair and a beard to match. In 2020, both Harris brothers left their day jobs due to COVID-19 safety concerns. “We weren’t really hanging out with people,” he said. “We were stuck at home in our heads.” They met once a week for a whole year to start planning their business. They would go on bike rides, chill at Mickey’s apartment, look at products, find samples, and figure out what they wanted to sell. “We wanted to be very curated and educational since it was a new market here. … We really wanted to take care of the community and make sure we have safe products.”
The Harris brothers launched a website at the end of 2020, but quickly realized that it’s very difficult to promote cannabis and CBD online while also educating people. So a few months into 2021 they bought a friend’s old taco truck and converted it into their signature pink truck, where they sold for two years in South Austin. In 2022, they established a second truck in East Austin. Finally, they rented a small brick-and-mortar store. “I was excited to have a bathroom and AC for our staff and ourselves,” Harris laughed. Eventually, they opened a second brick-and-mortar store. Until recently, they were thinking about a third. “Our business has grown every month since we started until this year,” he told me.
Harris has had darker thoughts about selling the business. He still has some “doom and gloom,” he admitted, but is trying to find the energy to continue fighting this, especially having the responsibility of running the retail committee for THBC. His smile started to come back while retelling the Happy Cactus origin story. “Thinking back on those days helps me want to fight more,” he said. “I think we could still get it back, even if we lose everything this year.”
I asked Harris what people can do if they want to help. “Support your local head shops during this. If there’s somewhere close to your house you can go to buy gummies and drinks, please do that. We’re all definitely going to be struggling this next month trying to figure out how to deal without our biggest seller.” He added that he hopes the public will keep researching the rules and cannabis in general and staying aware of what’s happening.
“They want us to give up,” he said. But perhaps, like its namesake plant, Happy Cactus will continue to find a way to thrive even in harsh, unwelcoming conditions.
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This article appears in June 26 • 2026.
