The El Paso Police Department is looking to ask City Council to raise its budget by $72,000 next year to allow the department to test marijuana cases at a lab."Marijuana and hemp are very much so identical one of the only characteristics that differs hemp from marijuana is the amount of THC," said Sgt. Robert Gomez, an EPPD spokesman. The difference between marijuana and hemp products is the level of THC in them. In Texas, the legal quantity for THC is 0.3% anything more and it gets qualified as illegal. The major problem not only for EPPD - but also for other police departments across the state - is distinguishing illegal marijuana from legal hemp, and only a lab can make that determination.

More than six months after Texas legalized hemp, marijuana prosecution cases fell dramatically, with prosecutors filing fewer criminal charges while unleashing a struggle for police departments who now need to test substances in private labs, in order to prove illegal marijuana possession.

Since Gov. Greg Abbott signed the legalization of hemp at the beginning of June, focusing on agricultural practices and regulations, the number of misdemeanor marijuana possession cases dropped nearly two-thirds across Texas.

In 2018, Texas prosecutors filed about 5,900 new misdemeanor marijuana possession cases a month, as reported by the Texas Tribune, the first five months of 2019 saw an average of more than 5,600 new cases filed a month.

Civil rights group Mano Amiga, based out of San Marcos, is pushing to decriminalize marijuana in Hays County and its plan of action is to include it as part of a ballot measure next year.

Their goal is to match the same cannabis policy that exists in Travis County and end the disproportionate effects of cannabis arrests.

Kyle resident Joe Negrete has had two run-ins with law enforcement related to marijuana possession.

AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller is known as a big booster of hemp production in the state, cheering legalization of the crop in 2019 and even planting a few acres himself since then on land near Stephenville.

That’s why an assertion Miller is making has caught fellow advocates for the fledgling Texas hemp industry by surprise — he contends some growers are "probably" using hemp fields licensed by his office as fronts to cultivate marijuana, which is identical to hemp in appearance but illegal.

"It is highly probable," Miller said in a recent interview with the American-Statesman, although he acknowledged he has no proof.

Texas, one of the most conservative states in the U.S. seems to be moving one step forward and two steps back when it comes to civil liberties; in this case, marijuana and abortion.

On the one hand, the state is loosening its policies regarding cannabis, starting with changes to state law allowing more eligible patients to request a prescription for medical cannabis.

In addition, a Texas court declared unconstitutional a law prohibiting the smoking of hemp.( As originally seen on Benzinga by Franca Quarneti)

Despite these more progressive policies, a law banning abortion after six weeks went into effect statewide on Wednesday.

More patients in Texas will soon be eligible for medical marijuana.

The changes to state law that take effect Wednesday will allow patients with any cancer to pursue a prescription for low-THC cannabis. Before, that was limited to people with terminal cancer.

The amended law also makes eligible patients battling post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD.

“We’re just excited to be able to help Texans, particularly with the PTSD and our veterans,” said Dr. Francisco Daniel Medrano, co-owner and medical director of CannaMedRx.

CannaMedRx is a medical cannabis clinic in Houston. The clinic said its first patient scheduled for Wednesday is a veteran of the war in Iraq.

Generation Hemp, Inc., a Dallas/Fort Worth based midstream hemp company (OTCQB: GENH) and its wholly-owned subsidiary, GENH Halcyon Acquisition, LLC (collectively the “Company”), today announced that its Chairman and CEO, Gary C. Evans, plans to speak at The Southern Hemp Expo located in Raleigh, NC on September 2, 2021 regarding the financial wellness for hemp companies. Also announced today is the Company’s plan to implement green policies wherever possible for its existing operations of drying, cleaning, stripping, and located in western Kentucky.

Texans will have the ability to legally manufacture smokable hemp products after all. A judge in the Travis County District Court in Texas ruled that a ban on smokable hemp in the state is unconstitutional—siding with several hemp companies that filed a lawsuit, challenging the 2019 ban on smokable hemp products passed by Texas lawmakers.

Last year, four hemp businesses filed the lawsuit in a Travis County District Court against the Texas Department of State Health Services and its commissioner—John Hellerstedt. In the end, they prevailed. This follows a ruling last week that allows smokable hemp to be sold in Texas. With the latest ruling, smokable hemp products can also be manufactured in the state.