Texas Officials Invite Comment On New Hemp Rules Covering Age Limits, Licensing Fees, Labeling And More

Texas hemp rules are getting a hard reboot. Not a cosmetic tweak, not another wink-and-nod memo, but a full, late-night kitchen clean where the lights are too bright and the knives go back on the magnet. The Department of State Health Services rolled out a proposal that would reshape the Texas hemp market: a 21-plus age gate, steeper licensing fees, stricter testing and labeling, child-resistant packaging, and the big one — a shift to a total THC standard. The state is inviting public comment through January 26, with a public hearing on January 9. For a market built on the razor-thin line between hemp and marijuana, this is the moment when the house band stops mid-song and everyone looks up.

The total THC standard sounds technical because it is. Right now, Texas caps delta-9 THC in hemp products. Under the new regime, it is the sum of all THC variants — delta-8, delta-9, THCa once decarboxylated — that counts. That math could make some popular consumables vanish from legitimate shelves, especially hemp flower that rides close to the legal edge but stays within delta-9 limits. Advocates warn that cutting off regulated access does not kill demand; it just sends customers down the alley to the unregulated side door, where nobody checks IDs and nobody tests for contaminants. Operators see another hit coming in the form of higher fees and compliance costs, including age-verification tech. Even the state’s own bean counters concede the industry will absorb new costs in the first five years, an accounting of pain that lands hardest on small and rural retailers.

Follow the money and the picture sharpens. Officials estimate the new hemp rules could bring roughly 202 million dollars in additional state revenue over five years. The promise is public health: tighter standards for product testing, firmer recall protocols, and retail shelves that keep anything above 0.3 percent THC out of the processing pipeline and out of minors’ hands. Labels can’t play coy about cannabinoids or suggest medical intent, and packaging must be tamper-evident, child-resistant, and — in a turn of phrase only a regulator could love — non-attractive to children. It is part moral hygiene, part market correction, and part political armor for a state that wants to say it is tough on intoxicating hemp while expanding medical access on its own terms. Nationally, voters have drifted in a different direction, with support for marijuana legalization now a bipartisan, broad-shouldered majority — a trend captured in Bipartisan Majority Of American Voters Support Marijuana Legalization, New Poll Finds After Trump Orders Rescheduling.

Texas, of course, does not regulate in a vacuum. The map is a patchwork quilt of panic, pragmatism, and political theater. In Ohio, reformers are already in the streets and on the courthouse steps, fighting to hold the line voters drew for legal cannabis and a workable hemp space — see Ohio Activists Submit Signatures For Referendum To Block Lawmakers’ Move To Roll Back Marijuana Legalization And Restrict Hemp. Across the country, backlash is part of the rhythm. Arizona has a ballot drive angling to roll back legalization — the kind of policy whiplash that makes operators flinch and consumers go numb — as outlined in Arizona Ballot Measure Seeks To Roll Back Marijuana Legalization. And in Virginia, the conversation is more transactional: legalization is on the table, but only if the final bill answers the governor’s checklist on safety, enforcement, and revenue, a dynamic summed up in Virginia’s Incoming Governor Lists Priorities She Wants In Marijuana Sales Legalization Bill If She’s Going To Sign It. The message to Texas is simple: whatever you write into law, write it for the real world people live in.

Meanwhile, the Lone Star State is not just tightening hemp; it is quietly widening medical cannabis. The Department of Public Safety has conditionally approved nine new medical marijuana licenses, with three more expected by April 2026 — a sea change in a program that until now had only three dispensaries. Regulators also finalized rules letting physicians recommend new qualifying conditions and set standards for low-THC inhalation devices. Layer that onto TABC’s move to cement the 21-plus rule for hemp sales, and you can see the direction of travel: narrow the gray zone, grow the medical lane, and dare the intoxicating hemp market to keep pace with compliance. The next few weeks are the crucible — public hearing January 9, comments due by January 26 — after which Texas will decide how much risk it wants on the shelf and how much responsibility it demands from those who stock it; if you want to navigate what comes next with products that respect the rules and the craft, take a look at our shop at https://thcaorder.com/shop/.