Fans of smokable hemp may want to burn one in celebration.
Texas’ hemp industry can continue selling cannabis flower, pre-rolled joints and concentrates after a Travis County judge blocked key parts of the state’s new hemp regulations. The ruling, which remains in place until July 27, is intended to avoid irreparable harm to the businesses while a lawsuit questioning the regulations’ legality plays out.
Judge Daniella DeSeta Lyttle issued the temporary injunction Friday, blocking Texas health officials from enforcing testing requirements that create a 0.3% total THC threshold that would effectively crush the sale of smokable hemp items. THC is the compound in cannabis that gets people high.
Lyttle also blocked state rules meant to hinder the transport of smokable hemp along with greatly increased licensing and registration fees state regulators placed on the hemp industry. The Texas Department of State Health Services created the rules at the order of Gov. Greg Abbott, who asked the agency to set up a new regulatory framework for the industry.
In their lawsuit challenging the rules, hemp industry groups argue DSHS overstepped its constitutional authority by rewriting definitions of hemp lawmakers created in 2019.
Industry officials also maintain the state restrictions would cripple or kill businesses statewide.
In testimony during this week’s proceeding, retailers told the court their revenue has fallen by half since Texas imposed the new rules, according to the Texas Tribune. Manufacturers and farmers are also suffering severe damage because the state had essentially made hemp flower worthless, they also argued.
In the end, Lyttle agreed with industry officials, ruling that Texas regulators are doing irreparable harm to the hemp businesses and that the most damaging rules shouldn’t be enforced until the lawsuit is resolved.
“The Court finds that the purpose of a temporary injunction is to preserve the last, actual, peaceable, non-contested status that preceded the controversy,” the judge said, according to the Texas Tribune.
Lyttle’s injunction doesn’t block all of Texas’ new hemp regulations, however. She allowed unchallenged rules such as child-resistant safety packaging and 21-and-up age verification to remain in place.
Even so, Texas is widely expected to appeal the judge’s injunction.
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