Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick talks talks up the evils of THC-containing hemp products in an online video. Credit: X / @DanPatrick

From telling grandparents they should be willing to risk dying from COVID-19 to keep the economy healthy to offering a $1 million bounty to bolster Donald Trump’s phony claims of a stolen election, Patrick regularly displays an appetite for over-the-top rhetoric.

And the Republican state leader and former right-wing talk radio jock has certainly ratcheted up the spectacle to new heights as he wages a one-man war to shut down Texas’ growing, and largely unregulated, hemp industry.

After Patrick championed passage of Senate Bill 3, an outright ban on sales and possession of THC-containing hemp statewide, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott vetoed the measure and called lawmakers back for a special session. The session’s top priority? Creating regulations for the hemp industry, which now generates $8 billion in annual tax revenue and employs 50,000 people, according to one estimate.

Patrick staged a near meltdown over Abbott’s “late-night veto,” calling the governor’s move a slap in the face to police and to families harmed by the wide availability of hemp products such as delta-8 and delta-9.

“Throughout the legislative session, @GregAbbott_TX remained totally silent on Senate Bill 3, the bill that would have banned dangerous THC products in Texas,” Patrick said. “I feel especially bad for those who testified and poured their hearts out on their tragic losses.”

Patrick flung off the gloves in a subsequent press conference. He accused Abbott of wanting to legalize recreational marijuana, something the governor has never called for.

Further, Patrick told reporters he’d never allow Texas to become a recreational cannabis state, a statement that — on its surface, anyway — seemed to put him on a collision path with Abbott, a key conservative ally.

“If people want to vote me out of office for that, so be it,” Patrick declared, appearing to draw a line in the sand. “Not going to do it.”

Digging in further, Patrick even argued that continued sales of delta-8 and delta-9, which have been legal in the state since Texas legalized hemp in 2019, would crater the state’s economy.

“We think we’re going to attract business here if we got a bunch of people high on marijuana at very high levels?” Patrick asked reporters. “Is that who wants to come here and build their plant here, open up a business, move their family here? We’re not Colorado, we’re not Oregon and we’re not Washington State.”

Saving face

While Patrick’s latest bout of theatrics sure make it sound like shutting down THC sales is a hill he’s willing to die on, observers said the claim amounts to a bongload of hot air.

For one, his statement about being willing to be voted out of office is about recreational legalization of cannabis, not regulating the hemp industry.

Even if the lieutenant governor legitimately believes the hemp industry is destroying Texas from the inside, political observers said this summer’s special session is most likely to end with Patrick’s Texas Senate approving new regulations in accordance with Abbott’s wishes.

“I think Patrick feels strongly like he’d like to see a ban,” said Southern Methodist University political scientist Cal Jillson. “But I don’t think he feels strongly enough about it that he’d go to the mat with Abbott. Ultimately, I don’t think he’s going to stand in the way of the Legislature approving some kind of roadmap for how to regulate this industry.”

To be sure, the hemp industry itself has called for regulatory certainty, seeing it both as a way to weed out bad actors (pun intended) and its best alternative to an outright ban.

After signing the veto, Abbott said he wants hemp regulated similarly to the alcohol industry, including age limits to purchase, rules around its potency, testing requirements and prohibitions on opening shops near schools and churches.

Since Patrick has complete control over the Texas Senate’s agenda, he has the power to kill any regulatory bill that calls for anything other than a complete ban on THC, the compound in cannabis that results in a high.

However, Jillson and others said there’s almost zero chance he’ll risk imploding his relationship with the governor by doing so.

Instead, count on Patrick trying to save face by claiming that had he not pushed through SB 3 the industry would have remained unregulated and the Lege would have taken no formal action to rein it in. He’ll likely grouse that the final regulations don’t go far enough but claim victory just the same.

Calculating the risks

Even in the likelihood Patrick ultimately caves on his demand for an outright ban, his game of rhetorical brinksmanship carries some political risk.

After all, Patrick, Abbott and Republican Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows worked in lockstep during the most recent session to get most of the right-wing priorities they wanted. It was a change from prior sessions, when infighting cut those goals short.

Patrick is well aware that becoming too combative with Abbott over hemp regulations could jeopardize the trio’s collaboration moving forward, according to political experts.

Adding to the lieutenant governor’s political risks, his call for a complete ban on THC-containing hemp products such as delta-8 and delta-9 is unpopular, even with many Republicans.

A survey conducted earlier this summer by Trump pollsters Fabrizio, Lee & Associates found that 61% of all registered Texas voters opposed Senate Bill 3. Registered GOP voters opposed the measure by a 44%-31% margin.

Indeed, as SB 3 sat on Abbott’s desk, the governor reportedly received 120,000 letters and signed petitions from veterans, farmers and others asking him to reject the ban and call for legislators to create a new regulatory framework for the industry.

Veterans have said they rely on THC-containing hemp products to combat PTSD and avoid addictive opiates. Meanwhile, some Texas farmers staked their livelihoods on making hemp their primary cash crop after the state voted to deregulate.

Both groups skew Republican.

Patrick began his anti-THC crusade months ago and likely baked those risks into his calculations, observers said. In a clear show of his intentionality, the lieutenant early this spring began staging amateur investigative-style videos of his visits to hemp shops to gin up alarm over the industry.

It seems likely Patrick knew an outright THC ban would be broadly unpopular. To be sure, recent polling suggests that cannabis reform legislation has more bipartisan support from Texans than ever.

In the end, Patrick wagered that any serious challenge to his job in deep-red Texas will come during a Republican primary, not from a Democrat. Primaries tend to attract voters on parties’ most extreme fringe, many of whom the lieutenant governor bet were on his side in the battle to shut down THC and all forms of the demon weed.

Amid all the wild claims Patrick’s made about the evils of hemp — including an unsubstantiated allegation that foreign terrorist organizations and drug cartels may running the state’s dispensaries — one telling statement did sneak into the press conference where he railed against Abbott’s veto.

“We will work through it, hopefully,” Patrick said. “But it’s not the state I want. I don’t want my kids, my grandkids, growing up in a state where everybody’s high.”

Just the same, don’t count out more theatrics from the lieutenant governor along the way.

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