Texas Senate seeks to ban THC. San Antonio shop owner says it's deadly.
The debate over whether or not marijuana should be legal in Texas has gotten pretty heated over the past few years. Though a misstep by Texas officials back in 2019 rendered many forms of THC legal to sell in Texas, now the Texas Senate’s leader is looking to close that loophole and rid Texas of THC once again – a move which local legal sellers say could be deadly for the Lone Star State.
Back in 2019, Texas legislators passed House Bill 1325, which was drafted by Texas Rep. Tracy King (D-Uvalde). While the intention was to allow farmers to grow marijuana with trace amounts of THC that wouldn’t get people high, the bill, in its specificity, essentially legalized all compounds of THC except Delta-9.
Now, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who has the powerful role of prioritizing bill proposals filed in the Texas Senate, has set his sights on an outright THC ban that would close the loophole.
“Dangerously, retailers exploited the agriculture law to sell life-threatening, unregulated forms of THC to the public and made them easily accessible,” Patrick said in a statement, noting Senate Bill 3 in 2025 would ban all forms of THC in Texas if passed. “These stores not only sold to adults, but they targeted Texas children and exposed them to dangerous levels of THC.”
While there have been health risks associated with cannabis use, including triggered mental health crises, both GoodRX and the National Institute of Drug Abuse say an overdose of cannabis or THC is very unlikely to be deadly.
Patrick correctly points to thousands of stores selling THC that have cropped up around Texas since the 2019 mishap. A quick search for “THC stores” in San Antonio on Google shows more than a dozen places to patronize. However, store owners in town say outlawing all forms of THC again could be deadly for Texans.
Local shop owner says ban could be deadly for Texans.
In Texas, access to medical marijuana is severely limited and held only for those with severe illnesses; the “compassionate use program,” which dictates what illnesses warrant a medical marijuana license, limits legal use of marijuana to patients who suffer from epilepsy, a seizure disorder, multiple sclerosis, spasticity, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, autism, cancer, post-traumatic stress disorder, or an incurable neurodegenerative disease. For many, however, the psychoactive and pain-dulling benefits of marijuana have been beneficial through legal compounds of THC.
“Patients often use Delta-8 along with other medications to help with depression and prevent substance abuse (this can be accomplished by replacing opioids with Delta-8, which has proven to be very effective especially with patients suffering from chronic pain),” the Texas Canibas Clinic said in a statement. “Delta-8 is known as being effective at helping patients ease symptoms not only from chronic pain but also from stress, low appetite, nausea and vomiting (particularly due to chemotherapy treatments) and mental health conditions such as depression and bipolar disorder.”
Emerald Forest CBD Dispensary owner Romish Abdulrashid, who owns and operates several shops around San Antonio which dispense CBD and THC products, said he’s heard numerous personal stories of people who’ve reaped the benefits of the legal compounds. In fact, he says many have made the switch over from buying marijuana on the street to more trusted, lab-tested legal products from stores.
“There’s been a lot of people who went from using just regular cannabis to Delta 8,” Abdulrashid told MySA. “But it’s also been customers that have been using opioids in the past. Let’s say, God forbid, someone gets in a car accident and has lots of back pain. They’ll go to a doctor, and their doctor will prescribe them opioids that have a lot of bad side effects and could also be very addictive. A lot of those people have switched over to Delta-8.”
Beyond just pain management in instances of wrecks or injury, Abdulrashid says these legal compounds are treating ailments like insomnia, sleep paralysis, inflammation, anxiety, and many more. Banning these alternative treatment methods for those seeking help would have a detrimental impact on the qualify of life of Texans, Abdulrashid said.
