On Thursday, the governor said he needed more information on Texas legislators’ path forward for THC-related regulation.
By Faith Bugenhagen | Houston Chronicle | March 7, 2025
Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick may not be seeing eye-to-eye on Patrick’s priority push to prohibit all THC products in the Lone Star State.
Abbott signaled at a press conference on Thursday that he needed more information on the move to take back control of what Patrick and other Texas lawmakers see as a widely unregulated market.
The governor said Texas lawmakers were evaluating the “pros and cons” of a prohibition on all consumable THC products, notably the potential effects it could have on the thousands of licensed retailers, growers and manufacturers across the state.
“It’s the kind of thing that we’re looking into,” Abbott noted on Thursday. “We need to see more information about what the legislators agree is the correct pathway forward.”
Senate Bill 3, Patrick’s proposal, would outright ban all consumable “intoxicating” forms of THC that lawmakers claim exceed the legal threshold (commercialized hemp products cannot legally contain an amount of THC that exceeds 0.3 percent). Lubbock Republican state senator Charles Perry authored the bill.
Earlier this week, a Texas Senate Committee reviewed testimony on SB 3 and Senate Bill 1505. SB 1505, introduced by Perry, seeks to expand the state’s Compassionate Use Program (a program that permits certain physicians to prescribe low levels of THC cannabis for medical purposes.)
Most testifiers spoke out against the prohibition of such products. The testimony got a bit heated, and law enforcement officers escorted those in support of putting SB 3 on the chopping block out of the gallery due to several outbursts.
In the past, Abbott has endorsed limited marijuana decriminalization efforts, saying “small possession of marijuana” is not the type of violation that Texas lawmakers want to overcrowd the state’s jails with.