A coalition of Texas hemp industry leaders and advocacy organizations are suing state officials over recently enacted rules restricting access to hemp-derived products such as smokable THCA flower.
The lawsuit, brought by the Texas Hemp Business Council (THBC), Hemp Industry & Farmers of America (HIFA) and several businesses, alleges that the Department of State Health Services (DSHS) and the Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) illegally bypassed lawmakers to restrict the sale and manufacture of consumable hemp products.
The dispute centers on how hemp is defined.
Under state law as approved by the legislature and governor in 2019, the suit says, cannabis products are legal if they contain a delta-9 THC concentration of not more than 0.3 percent. But regulators at DSHS and HHSC recently adopted a “total delta-9 THC” limit using a post-decarboxylation formula that includes tetrahydrocannabinolic acid (THCA) in the calculation.
“These Texas officials and state agencies are clearly attempting to create new law in direct contradiction to what the Texas legislature intended,” David Sergi, a lawyer leading the case, said in a press release.
“The Texas hemp business community is not challenging rules related to age verification or consumer protections. They wholeheartedly support those regulations, as they fall within the agency’s authority,” he said. “We are seeking to halt rules that would effectively end the in-state production of hemp and the sale of hemp products—items the Legislature chose not to ban during recent legislative and special sessions.”
Texas lawmakers did pass legislation to severely restrict hemp products in the 2025 legislation, but it was vetoed by Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and not enacted into law.
The hemp industry lawsuit, which also lists Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) as a defendant, additionally challenges large increases in business licensing fees that regulators adopted. Under the new rules, the cost for a manufacturer license increased from $250 to $10,000 per facility, while the fee for retailer registration jumped from $150 to $5,000 per location.
“These measures do not implement the Legislature’s policy choices; they replace them,” the complaint says. “And they do so against the backdrop of a constitutional lawmaking process that ran its full course—from legislative passage of Senate Bill 3 through gubernatorial veto, through two failed special sessions—and produced an unambiguous result: no new law. Texas law does not permit agencies to override that result through rulemaking.”
“Texas has long promoted itself as a national leader in economic growth and regulatory stability. It is a state committed to fostering innovation, supporting lawful enterprise, and maintaining a predictable legal environment in which businesses can operate and invest,” it says. “Consistent with that approach, Texas has chosen to permit and regulate the manufacture, distribution, and sale of consumable hemp products (“CHPs”) through a comprehensive statutory framework enacted by the Legislature in 2019.
“Plaintiffs support that framework and the State’s interest in ensuring that CHPs are produced and sold safely, responsibly, and in compliance with law,” the suit says.
The plaintiffs are asking the District Court of Travis County to grant an immediate temporary restraining order to block enforcement of the news rules, as well as temporary and permanent injunctive relief.
Separately, Texas officials recently conditionally approved more new medical marijuana business licenses as part of a law that’s being implemented to significantly expand the state’s cannabis program.
Last month, Texas voters approved a marijuana legalization question that appeared on the state’s Democratic primary ballot.
A statewide poll released in February found that Texas voters don’t like how state leaders and lawmakers have handled marijuana and THC policy issues. In the survey, a plurality of voters (40 percent) said they disapprove of how their elected officials have approached the issue, according to the survey. Just 29 percent said they approve of how cannabis issues have been handled, while 31 percent said they didn’t have an opinion one way or another.
A separate poll released last year found that a plurality of Texas voters want the state’s marijuana laws to be made “less strict.” And among the legislative items lawmakers considered during recent special sessions, voters say a proposal to address hemp regulations was among the least important.
Meanwhile, the lieutenant governor and House speaker announced recently that the state will proceed with its own ibogaine research program after no drug companies submitted proposals meeting requirements and standards to receive state funds to begin clinical trials with the psychedelic under a recently enacted law.
Read the new Texas hemp lawsuit below:
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