(The Center Square) – After Gov. Greg Abbott vetoed SB 3, a bill to ban THC in Texas, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said the governor wants to legalize recreational marijuana using “flawed” arguments.
In a news conference on Monday, Patrick said he was “puzzled” as to “why at the last minute, at about 22 minutes after 11, he decided to veto this bill.”
The veto was one of 26 Abbott announced on the last day allowed by the state constitution to sign or veto bills – 20 days after the regular legislative session ended. Doing so gave the legislature no opportunity to override any veto. Abbott on Monday called a special legislative session for the legislature to consider six bills, including a revised SB 3 to regulate THC.
In a proclamation explaining his veto, he wrote, “to ensure the highest level of safety for minors, as well as for adults, who obtain a product more dangerous than what they expected, Texas must strongly regulate hemp, and it must do so immediately.”
Abbott said SB 3 was “well-intentioned. But it would never go into effect because of valid constitutional challenges.” If it were enacted, “its enforcement would be enjoined for years, leaving existing abuses unaddressed,” he said, adding that “Texas cannot afford to wait.”
He pointed to an Arkansas law that lost its first round in court and pointed to Congress legalizing hemp products in 2018. “That federal law converted hemp and hemp products from contraband to lawful commodities,” Abbott said.
As a former Supreme Court justice and former Texas Attorney General, Abbott said he “knows SB 3 is vulnerable to the same legal attacks” as the Arkansas bill. At worst, it “would be permanently invalidated by the courts; at best, its implementation would be delayed for years as the case winds its way through the legal system,” he said.
The bill would prohibit “anyone from manufacturing, distributing, or possessing consumable hemp products that contain ‘any amount of a cannabinoid other than’ CBD or CBG – regardless of whether those products fall under the federally-mandated THC threshold,” criminalizing what Congress expressly legalized, he argued. It also “invites potential criminal entrapment for Texas farmers” and would “make felons of other innocent Texans, like pharmacists stocking health supplements, veterans treating PTSD, and parents caring for epileptic children with FDA-approved medications,” he said.
The solution, Abbott says, is to regulate marijuana products in a similar way that alcohol is regulated. He also lists 19 examples of potential regulations, including where THC products can be sold, packaging and advertising guidelines, permits, age restrictions, among others.
Patrick expressed alarm, saying that after Congress passed a law in 2018, in 2019 “marijuana was not legal in Texas.” After Texas passed a bill allowing for the sale of hemp products, “bad actors” found a way to circumvent the law. “Make no mistake, what they’re selling is illegal today,” he said.
Patrick said what Abbott is proposing is to legalize marijuana in Texas by regulating it when the best way to protect Texans “is to ban the product. You cannot regulate 8,000 to 9,000 locations. We do not have enough law enforcement to do so. And they’ll continue to sell it, skirting the law.”
He also took issue with Abbott’s reasoning about the Arkansas bill, asking, “Since when did we care who filed a lawsuit when passed a bill?” He expects lawsuits to be filed in response to several new laws, including allowing for the Ten Commandments and prayer in Texas public schools, and the new school choice bill.
“We deal with lawsuits all the time. That shouldn’t be a surprise,” Patrick said, adding that Abbott’s reasoning was unfounded because he doesn’t know if SB 3 would be enjoined for years or that his proposal wouldn’t be.
Patrick also says federal law expressly permits states to impose their own restrictions, including banning THC. He said the Fourth and Seventh circuits have ruled as much and California and Colorado banned THC with no problems.
He said he believes the 8th Circuit will stand with Arkansas. “But even if Arkansas loses, it doesn’t matter,” Patrick said. “Arkansas doesn’t impact Texas.”
Abbott also announced the veto “very late without even giving us the courtesy of a call,” Patrick said. At the end of the day, Abbott “put the legislature in a very bad position.”
“If we don’t pass a bill that regulates hemp and marijuana, the status quo continues. If we pass a bill he recommends, we’re legalizing marijuana,” Patrick said.
The Texas Republican Party platform opposes the legalization of marijuana. Policy issue 136 opposes the legalization and decriminalization of illicit natural or illegal synthetic drugs; supports the exercise of a zero-tolerance policy with maximum penalty for manufacturers and distributors of illegal drugs or their precursors; opposes needle exchange programs and supervised drug consumption sites; issue 137 states that Texas shall retain cannabis as a Schedule I drug.
The legislature and governor may be at an impasse for the special session since Patrick and Republicans who voted for the bill want to ban THC and Abbott is calling to regulate it.
