Texas shops can again sell smokeable hemp products. A judge blocked a new state rule, offering a temporary reprieve to the industry.
Last Tuesday, a pair of industry organizations, the Texas Hemp Business Council and Hemp Industry Farmers of America, along with several in-state hemp manufacturers and retailers, filed a lawsuit challenging new rules adopted by the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) and the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) governing consumable hemp products.
Those new rules effectively prohibited the sale of smokeable hemp products like flower and concentrate by changing how THC levels are calculated from measuring only delta-9 THC to measuring "total THC," which includes other psychoactive cannabinoids. Those products constitute the vast majority of hemp products sold in the state, according to economists who study the hemp market.
Last Friday, a judge in Travis County granted a temporary restraining order blocking enforcement of that regulation. Judge Maya Guerra Gamble limited the restraining order to two weeks and set a hearing on the injunction for April 23.
She declined, however, to similarly block another part of the DSHS regulations, which introduced sharply higher fees for hemp manufacturers and retailers. Those fees jumped from $250 to $10,000 for each manufacturing facility and from $150 to $5,000 for each retail outlet.
According to the DSHS website, there are nearly 800 companies licensed to manufacture hemp products and more than 13,000 stores registered to sell hemp products.
During a Friday hearing before the judge's ruling came down, plaintiffs' attorney Jason Snell said the new rules were already forcing some shops out of business.
"This is actually irreparable harm that is already occurring and is exponentially multiplying like a wave rolling into a beach that gets bigger," Snell said.
With the temporary restraining order in place, hemp shops across the state began restocking their shelves, and the sense of relief was palpable.
"The fact that we have the flower back today is just crazy, and everybody's so happy," one Dallas-area hemp shop employee told CBS News Texas.
That includes the customer base, which started showing up again within hours of the ruling at shops such as Emerald Organics in Fort Worth.
"I'm just relieved. It has been such a stressful situation for all of us," said employee Lydia Hendricks. "Seeing all of my favorite customers come back… I'm ecstatic."