On December 26, the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) published a far-reaching set of proposed rules in the Texas Register (starting on page 71) that would significantly reshape how consumable hemp products are regulated in Texas. A public hearing is scheduled for January 9, and public comments are open for 31 days following publication.
These proposed changes represent a broad overhaul of Texas’s hemp regulatory framework, introducing some long-overdue consumer protections, while also raising serious concerns about affordability, access, and whether the rules will ultimately make Texans safer or less so.
At their best, the proposed rules finally establish regulatory tools that have been missing from Texas’s hemp framework since its inception. Most notably, DSHS would require manufacturers to implement formal recall procedures and maintain consumer complaint documentation. Businesses would be required to track adverse effects, investigate safety complaints, document corrective actions, and notify retailers and the public when products pose a risk.
These requirements matter. Recalls and complaint tracking are foundational to consumer protection. They allow regulators to identify patterns of harm, remove dangerous products from the market, and hold bad actors accountable.
The proposed rules also establish a clear 21-and-over age restriction, requiring retailers to verify age using valid government-issued identification. Preventing youth access is a legitimate and widely supported policy objective that we fully support.
The rules also expand inspection authority by requiring businesses to provide written consent allowing DSHS, DPS, and the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) to enter licensed or registered premises for inspections. This change reflects a coordinated, multi-agency approach to oversight, aligning hemp enforcement with existing inspection models used for other age-restricted products. Under the proposal, refusal to allow entry, inspection, sampling, photography, or access to records would constitute a violation.
This expanded oversight is paired with extensive new testing, recordkeeping, and traceability requirements. Manufacturers would be required to maintain master production records, batch-level documentation, ingredient sourcing and traceability logs, recall records, and complaint files, standards that closely resemble those used in other regulated consumer-product industries.
We support efforts to improve transparency and accountability, but dramatic fee increases are alarming and problematic. Manufacturer licenses would jump from $250 to $25,000 per facility per year, while retail registrations would increase from $150 to $20,000 per location annually. Fees are non-refundable, non-prorated, and subject to steep delinquency penalties. DSHS acknowledges that these changes will have an adverse economic impact on small businesses, micro-businesses, and rural communities, affecting nearly 10,000 businesses statewide.
DSHS’s own fiscal analysis highlights how disproportionate these fees are. The agency projects that the proposed rules will generate more than $200 million in new revenue every year, while increasing agency expenses by less than $70,000 in the first year and only a few thousand dollars annually thereafter. These fees do not seem to be tied to the actual cost of administering or enforcing the program. When licensing fees so vastly exceed regulatory expenses, they function less as cost recovery and more as a revenue mechanism, raising serious concerns about unnecessary economic pressure on a single, highly regulated industry.
Most concerning, however, is the proposal’s shift to regulating hemp products based on total THC, rather than delta-9 THC alone. This change would effectively eliminate hemp flower from the legal Texas market, despite it being the most widely used, least processed, and most familiar form of hemp for consumers.
Hemp flower is popular precisely because it is minimally processed and transparent in composition. Eliminating regulated access to hemp flower does not eliminate demand — it redirects consumers to unregulated markets, where there are no testing standards, no age verification, no recall mechanisms, and no systems for consumer complaints or accountability.
Consumers are safest when hemp flower with normal, naturally occurring levels of THC is legal, regulated, tested, and sold through licensed channels subject to inspection and enforcement. Removing it from the regulated market undermines the very consumer-protection goals these rules aim to advance.
Texas has an opportunity to build a regulatory framework that genuinely protects public health, prevents youth access, and promotes accountability. Parts of this proposal — particularly recall requirements, complaint documentation, age restrictions, and coordinated inspections — move in that direction. Other elements risk undermining those gains by pricing out compliant businesses and restricting access to widely used products without clear public-health benefit.
These rules are not final. DSHS will hold a public hearing on January 9 and accept written public comments through the end of the comment period. Thoughtful, evidence-based input now is critical to ensure Texas adopts regulations that improve safety without pushing consumers and businesses into unregulated and unsafe markets.
Public Comment: The Department of State Health Services (DSHS) welcomes public comments pertaining to topics above. Members of the public who would like to provide public comment may choose from the following options:
- Oral comments provided virtually: Members of the public must pre-register to provide oral comments virtually during the meeting by completing a Public Comment Registration form at https://texashhsmeetings.org/CHRPH_PCReg_JAN2026 no later than 5:00 p.m. Wednesday, January 7, 2026. Please mark the correct box on the Public Comment Registration form and provide your name, either the organization you are representing or that you are speaking as a private citizen, and your direct phone number. If you have completed the Public Comment Registration form, you will receive an email the day before the meeting with instructions for providing virtual public comment. Public comment is limited to two minutes. Each speaker providing oral public comments virtually must ensure their face is visible and their voice audible to the other participants while they are speaking. Each speaker must state their name and on whose behalf they are speaking (if anyone). If you pre-register to speak and wish to provide a handout before the meeting, please submit an electronic copy in accessible PDF format that will be distributed to the appropriate DSHS staff. Handouts are limited to two pages (paper size: 8.5” by 11”, one side only). Handouts must be emailed to dshshempprogram@dshs.texas.gov immediately after pre-registering, but no later than 5:00 p.m. Wednesday, January 7, 2026., and include the name of the person who will be commenting. Do not include health or other confidential information in your comments or handouts. Staff will not read handouts aloud during the meeting, but handouts will be provided to the appropriate DSHS staff.
- Written comments: Members of the public may provide written public comments by completing a Public Comment Registration form at https://texashhsmeetings.org/CHRPH_PCReg_JAN2026. A member of the public who wishes to provide written public comments must email the comments to HHSRulesCoordinationOffice@hhs.texas.gov no later than 5:00 p.m. Wednesday, January 7, 2026. Please include your name and the organization you are representing or that you are speaking as a private citizen. Written comments are limited to two pages (paper size: 8.5” by 11”, one side only). Do not include health or other confidential information in your comments. Staff will not read written comments aloud during the meeting, but comments will be provided to the appropriate DSHS staff.
- Oral comments provided in-person at the meeting location: Members of the public may provide oral public comment during the meeting in person at the meeting location either by pre-registering using the form above or without pre-registering by completing a form at the entrance to the meeting room. Do not include health or other confidential information in your comments. Public comment is limited to two minutes