Delta 8 And Delta 9 Hemp Products Could Soon Be Illegal In Texas

In 2018, the federal Farm Bill made the production of hemp products legal by removing them from the Controlled Substances Act.

And with that came products like Delta-8 and Delta-9. Unlike hemp-derived CBD, which has been touted for its health benefits like controlling anxiety and helping alleviate chronic pain and insomnia, Delta-8/9 does get the user high.

Sometimes extremely high, if the user ingests more than they should. There have been incidents of people seeking medical intervention because they got dizzy, began to hallucinate, etc.

Now, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is making it a priority to make these products once again illegal in Texas. It's listed in his goals for the 2025 legislative session. This isn't the first time Texas has sought to remove the product off Texas shelves.

In 2021 the Texas Department of State Health Services tried to ban Delta products but faced an injunction that halted its momentum.

So is Patrick right to make this move? What are the consequences?

If (and this is a big "if") Patrick is able to make Delta products illegal in Texas, it will affect thousands of businesses from hemp growers, to Delta manufacturers (it IS a manufactured process) to stores that sell the product. It will come at a big economic cost.

Delta manufacture can be a dirty process, as some less scrupulous suppliers may use unhealthy chemicals to extract the compound from the hemp plant. Delta-8/9 exists in small quantities in the plant, so to make it strong enough to get a user high, it has to go through chemical processes.

So what's the solution? How do we save these growers' and businesses' livelihoods, while helping folks avoid a product that may be unhealthy due to its manufacturing process?

I feel the answer is painfully obvious: legalize real weed. But I doubt that's the solution Texas will take unless there is a major change of leadership.