Texas has set today, April 5th, as the date effective that hemp will be removed from the Texas Schedules of Controlled Substances – Drug Manufacturers and Distributors list.
But what exactly does that mean?
No, it does not make CBD products legal in the state just yet. But removal from the schedule would be a necessary step for hemp to be grown industrially. Industrial hemp covers the plant and the products made from it to include seed oil, CBD oil, fibers and paper. State legislators would have to modify the current criminal penalties for buying and selling hemp to align fully with federal law.
The farm bill as it stands allows for states and tribal governments to create their own laws and regulations on industrial hemp as long as it includes:
- a practice to record and describe land on which hemp is grown;
- a procedure for testing THC concentration;
- a procedure for non-compliant product disposal; and
- a procedure for enforcing regulations
Texas does however have criminal penalties associated with possession and selling of hemp products. Those would need to be changed in order for both retailers and buyers to fully stay out of trouble with law enforcement in the state. The TCUP program is currently the only clear way for one to obtain low-THC CBD products legally and one must have intractable epilepsy and two neurologists on the state TCUP register prescribe it for the patient.
Just because the federal government removed hemp and its products from the controlled substances act of being Schedule I, does not automatically make it legal. Retailers are telling people that their CBD oil has zero THC in it which is what is illegal. That is not true for several reasons. One being that the product is not legal in Texas because CBD has not been made legal for sale or consumption outside of the TCUP, and second being that there is no way to fully extract all of the THC out of the final product.
Just because the federal government has opened the door does not mean that the states cannot be stricter in this concept, at least yet. The farm bill did not explicitly say that states had to make it legal. States can still exercise states rights in restricting its use unfortunately. Texas removed it from its schedule because the regulation for Texas states that it’s controlled substance schedule must match that of the Federal Schedule within 30 days of it changing. And until Texas changes is legislative portion of the law, TCUP is still the only legal avenue despite what the local pharmacy and retailer has told you.
Their goal is to make money off your sickness and confusion during this time of the law being rather hazy for most people. They may have good intention and I wish that they do, but understand that if you get pulled over and the cops ask what you have, telling them CBD or any other hemp product is more than likely going to result in your arrest and facing a felony charge for having processed concentrates if you have oil.
This is why it is important to contact your representative and tell them that you want them to support reforming the law in Texas. If you have a specific bill you would like to support, refer to it as a CBD bill or cannabinoid bill in order to use language more preferable for legislators to process these bills out of committee.
