During the 2025 legislative session, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick stated that he will advocate for a statewide prohibition on the sale of any consumable THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) products.
Patrick designated Senate Bill 3—the THC ban—as one of his main goals for the regular session. Charles Perry (R-Lubbock), the chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, will carry the bill.
The action was taken five years after House Bill 1325, passed by state lawmakers, authorized the sale of certain hemp products. Since then, THC, one of the primary active elements in marijuana, has been sold in thousands of stores around the state.
“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 his statement unveiling SB 3. “These stores not only sold to adults, but they targeted Texas children and exposed them to dangerous levels of THC.”
Patrick expressed his expectation that SB 3 will be passed by the House and that it will have widespread, bipartisan support in the Senate.
“We are not going to allow these retailers to circumvent the law and put Texans’ lives in danger,” Patrick stated.
However, if there is bipartisan support for the policy, there may also be bipartisan opposition. THC has become a multibillion-dollar industry in Texas, with proponents on both sides of the debate, according to Katherine Neill Harris, Alfred C. Glassell, III, Fellow in Drug Policy at Rice University’s Baker Institute.
“The industry is pretty strong and thriving, and they see this as an existential threat, which it very much is,” Harris stated. “I also think that you’re going to see pushback from veterans’ groups, people who have come to rely on some of the products that are in this hemp market, because let’s not forget, on the other side of this, the state has a very limited medical marijuana program.”
According to Harris, it might be nearly impossible to stop the THC market from growing.
“The reason behind the ban is to protect public health,” Harris stated. “That won’t be resolved by the ban. We currently have a market that requires additional control. These products will become even less controlled if we outlaw them. They will be in the illegal market, where people sell narcotics to everyone regardless of their age.
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