Texas Just Made Weed More Dangerous Than It Ever Was Under Full Prohibition — And They’re Calling It Regulation

For the past five years, Texas has lived in a strange legal limbo. The 2018 Farm Bill legalized hemp at the federal level, defining it as cannabis with 0.3% or less delta-9 THC by dry weight. Texas, like most states, wrote that definition into its own hemp program. Entrepreneurs took the opening and ran with it, building a multi-billion-dollar industry of delta-8, delta-10, THCA flower, and other hemp-derived cannabinoids that got people high without technically being “marijuana.” The Texas Department of State Health Services tried to shut this down by rule in 2021, reclassifying those cannabinoids as Schedule I controlled substances. A court blocked it with an injunction. For five years, the shops stayed open.