Texas 420 Report

26/11/2025

The Surprising Link Between Va**ng and Blood Sugar

You Should Know: We all know by now that smoking isn’t healthy, but va**ng is often perceived as the “better” alternative. New research suggests it may have hidden downsides, including a possible impact on blood sugar.

Going Deeper: A large study from the University of Georgia concluded that people who v**ed were more likely to have prediabetes compared with those who didn’t v**e at all. They also noticed that people with financial worries or chronic health problems seemed a bit more vulnerable. However, those who exercised regularly had a lower chance of developing these problems, so good daily habits might help mitigate the adverse effects of va**ng.

Takeaway: It might seem strange that va**ng and blood sugar could be linked, but different parts of the body are more interconnected than we often realize.

Bottom Line: If you’ve been thinking about quitting va**ng (or smoking for that matter), consider this another nudge. And if you don’t v**e now, it’s probably best not to start.

26/11/2025

https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/thanksgiving-dinner-cousin-walk-smoke-pot-33e0df67?reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

What started as a secret trip to smoke pot before dinner has mushroomed into a full-blown commercial holiday. Behold the ‘cousin walk.’

25/11/2025

Why Congress voted to ban h**p-derived THC in states like Texas

By James Osborne, Staff Writer, Washington Bureau

Last year, executives from some of the world's leading textile companies gathered in Wichita Falls for the opening of what was said to be the largest h**p precessing facility in the Western Hemisphere.

The moment, which came seven years after Congress had overturned an almost century-long ban on h**p production, was part of a plan to turn what had been a niche material into the next big thing in clothing. But there was a problem brewing: thousands of new shops in states like Texas that were beginning to sell "relaxing" candies and "pain relieving" body lotions infused with a variation of the active ingredient in ma*****na.

"Medical h**p has its role, but we need to regulate it because people have found the loopholes and exploited them," said Scott Evans, chief operating officer at Panda Biotech, which operates the Wichita Falls plant. "It gives the industry a bad stigma."

The move by Congress this month to clamp down on h**p-derived THC products was part of a years-long campaign to rein in the booming CBD and THC edibles business, which had made enemies not only of beer, liquor and ma*****na companies, but of many within the h**p industry itself.

When Congress legalized h**p production in 2018, they did so with the notion that it would allow farmers to grow a new cash crop that could be used to make clothes and food products — as had been done for centuries before the mid-20th century when the U.S. government made it illegal to grow the cannabis plant from which h**p and ma*****na are derived.

Among those leading the charge was then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the Republican from Kentucky, where to***co farmers were struggling to stay afloat amid low crop prices and were looking to h**p as a lifeline.

In order to prevent the sativa plants from which h**p is grown to be cultivated into ma*****na, Congress set a limit saying no plant could contain more than 0.3% of delta-9 THC, the primary psychoactive ingredient in ma*****na. What they didn't count on was scientists figuring out there were other psychoactive compounds in h**p plants that could be concentrated to produce a similar effect to ma*****na, spawning a h**p boom across Texas and other states where ma*****na had not been legalized.

"It’s a marketplace no one intended," acknowledged Heather Fazio, director of the Texas Cannabis Policy Center.

Last year, U.S. farmers harvested more than $445 million worth of h**p, almost 90% of which was destined for use in edibles and other cannibinoid products, according to federal agriculture data. The leading states for growing the h**p used in those products were California, Kentucky and Oregon.

The boom in edibles drew the attention of the alcohol industry, which was watching beer, wine and liquor sales hit a wall.

In a survey published by Gallup in August, only 54% of Americans reported drinking alcohol, down from 67% in 2022 and 71% in 1978. It's unclear what's generating that decline — some experts have speculated that it could be due to growing awareness around the health risks of drinking or changes in societal norms — but within the alcohol industry there was concern that the proliferation of CBD and THC products could be hurting their business.

In a letter to Congress in May, lobbyists representing beer, wine and liquor producers made the case that the legalization of h**p in 2018 had been intended to "reintroduce industrial h**p as an agricultural commodity, not to legalize an entirely new industry of highly intoxicating products."

At the same time, large ma*****na companies were voicing their objections, worried h**p-derived edibles were cutting into their business in states where ma*****na was legal, said Jonathan Miller, general counsel to the U.S. H**p Roundtable, which represents h**p companies across the board.

"You had this competition with the the ma*****na multi-state operators and the beer and bourbon folks who see their market share declining and blame it on h**p beverages," he said. "We worked with McConnell on passing the 2018 farm bill, but for a number of reasons, he's decided to turn on the industry."

McConnell, who led the new push to ban THC-derived h**p, said in a statement this month that the ban would "addresses a serious concern regarding the manufacturing and selling of unregulated, intoxicating THC products nationwide."

And he had plenty of support from law enforcement and anti-drug groups who worried about the proliferation of THC products marketed to children and teenagers.

Those were also concerns of many in the h**p industry, like Panda Biotech in Texas. One trade group said it supported the new ban out of concern h**p companies producing grain and fiber were getting a bad reputation.

"Everyone knew h**p was legal, and everyone rushed to bring everything you could do with h**p to market," said Geoff Whaling, chairman of the National H**p Association. "We said if we don't address this ourselves there's going to be problems."

But there is still a lot of uncertainty about what happens next.
The new ban doesn't take effect until late next year. And there is a lobbying effort underway to get Congress to replace the ban with regulation, allowing h**p edibles businesses to operate but under stricter rules on their products and customers — similar to how the alcohol and to***co industries operate.

Many within the industry would like to see the federal government do something similar to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's executive action earlier this year that limited edibles sales to those 21 and older and banned packaging that looks like candy and other children's products.

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz opposes the ban, writing on X this month that "a one-size-fits-all federal standard will undoubtedly create unintended consequences that harm consumers." And U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw signed onto a bipartisan letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson, along with Democratic Reps. Sylvia Garcia and Mark Veasey, arguing the ban stood to disrupt an industry worth more than $28 billion a year.

"By arbitrarily changing the definition of legal h**p rather than responsibly regulating the market, Congress is effectively turning out the lights on America’s legal h**p farmers," they wrote.

17/11/2025

Congress has a year to make unnecessary h**p ban go up in smoke

We urge federal lawmakers to look at bills introduced in the Texas Legislature that sought to provide rational regulations on products derived from h**p.

By SA Express-News Editorial Board, Opinion Staff

As they battled Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s ill-conceived crusade to render their industry a criminal enterprise, little did Texas h**p-based businesses know that after fending off the legislation in this year’s regular and special session, the critical blow would come not from Austin but Kentucky.

While nearly all attention was focused on which Democrats in the U.S. Senate were breaking ranks to pass a bill that ended the record-breaking federal government shutdown, all-but-forgotten Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., was inserting language that bans nearly all THC products.

Advocates for Texas’ h**p industry say the ban, slated to take effect in one year, could lead to farm closures and thousands of lost jobs, while taking away products that people use for medicinal or therapeutic purposes.

Much like Texas, where Gov. Greg Abbott and Patrick took opposing stances on the value or evil of h**p-based products, Kentucky is hardly of one mind.

“I detest the tactics that are being used to try to get this ban enacted into law,” U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., told Politico. “Kentucky benefits from h**p production.”

Massie said he supported a last-minute amendment introduced by U.S. Sen. Rand Paul — that state’s other upper-chamber member, a fellow Republican and an ophthalmologist — to undo McConnell’s maneuver. But it failed in a 76-24 vote.

There is one flickering ray of hope for the h**p industry in Texas and other states: The industry has a little time to press its case for killing the ban or recrafting it as responsible regulation before it takes effect.

We urge federal lawmakers to look at the reasonable bills introduced this year in the Texas Legislature that sought to regulate sales to young people, product testing and labeling; set appropriate standards for maximum content of cannabinoids; and enact other measures to limit risks.

Abbott, who vetoed a bill ushered by Patrick during the regular session, included in his calls for two special legislative sessions a charge to enact comprehensive h**p regulations without a total ban.

And after Patrick defied that instruction by pushing for another bill to enact a ban, Abbott issued an executive order directing state agencies to implement regulatory measures for h**p. We supported this as a sensible approach in the absence of the kind of legislation he envisioned. Key components of Abbott’s executive order were modeled after provisions in bills that didn’t reach his desk.

The question is whether such rational frameworks will resonate with U.S. House and Senate members.

It’s unclear whether that three-fourths majority vote against Paul’s attempt to remove the ban reflects senators' agreement, or whether they were merely too weary from the shutdown to slow the spending bill’s progress.

It’s somewhat encouraging that this doesn’t appear to be a purely partisan issue. Along with the split among Kentucky Republicans, GOP members in the Texas delegation are divided. Sen. John Cornyn supports the h**p ban, while Sen. Ted Cruz voted to strip the ban from the spending bill.

Meanwhile, in the U.S. House, Rep. Dan Crenshaw, a Republican, was aligned with Reps. Sylvia Garcia and Marc Veasey, both Democrats, in pushing for removal of the language regarding h**p.

But just because the matter doesn't appear to be partisan doesn’t mean it can’t become so if President Donald Trump decides to insert himself. It’s unclear where he’d stand.

As a presidential candidate in August 2024, Trump indicated a degree of openness to relaxing federal rules regarding cannabis. In a social media post, he said he would “continue to focus on research to unlock the medical uses of ma*****na to a Schedule 3 drug.”

He also said at the time that he intended to vote “yes” on a statewide ballot measure in Florida to permit selling ma*****na to adults for any reason in that state.

And in August, he said his administration was considering reclassifying ma*****na as a less dangerous drug.

More recently, however, he said he supports the newly enacted h**p ban. But he also recently endorsed Abbott’s bid for a fourth term as governor, and Abbott without fail has backed Trump on key issues and actions.

None were more visible than Abbott’s support for sending Texas National Guard troops to Illinois and directing the Legislature to redraw Texas congressional districts in an effort to gain five additional seats for Republicans in the U.S. House during the 2026 midterm elections.

So to the extent that Trump might feel beholden to Abbott, perhaps there’s reason for the h**p industry to hope the president will side with his governor in arms.

Of course, with Trump, loyalty is often a one-way street.

The h**p industry is hoping traffic flows both ways.

16/11/2025

15/11/2025

Texas veterans plan to push back on federal ban of THC products

By Saul Pink, Staff Writer SA Express News
Staff writer Isaac Yu contributed to this report.

Veterans in Texas plan to lobby against the federal ban on nearly all h**p-derived THC products that was included in the spending deal passed this week by Congress to end the government shutdown.

The restrictions mirror those that passed the Texas Legislature this year before being vetoed by Gov. Greg Abbott. But some advocates warn the federal ban will deal a blow to veterans who use THC products to manage injuries and trauma stemming from their service.

The ban doesn’t take effect for another year.

Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S., or VFW, sent a letter to Congressional leaders on Thursday urging them to keep “supporting solid scientific research” into the use of THC products as an alternative to prescription drugs.

“Every day, doctors hand out strong sedatives and psychoactive meds to help veterans cope. They work for some, but too many end up hooked, numb, or dealing with brutal side effects,” the letter said. “We’ve all watched good men and women get trapped in a cycle of pills that dull the pain but don’t fix the problem.”

Mitch Fuller, the state legislative chairman for VFW in Texas, advocated against the statewide ban of h**p products that lawmakers passed in Austin. He’ll do the same for the federal ban.
“Of course safety is important. Of course not having children having access to this is important,” Fuller told Dallas TV station FOX 4. “But let’s not use a chainsaw approach to this. Let’s use a scalpel approach to it and regulate it.”

The federal legislation caps the amount of allowable THC, the intoxicating compound found in ma*****na and h**p products, at 0.4 milligrams per package. Nearly all currently-available products would have to be removed from shelves, including edibles, beverages, and smokable forms of h**p.

Ma*****na, the higher-THC version of h**p, is still illegal at the federal level, though several states operate medicinal and recreational programs.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick made a statewide ban on these products a priority during the legislative session, saying retailers were exploiting a loophole in federal law to sell intoxicating products to children and adults.

14/11/2025