Veterans, businesses ask Texas lawmakers to keep hemp products legal; others call for complete ban

For Mitch Fuller, the hemp-derived products available to legally purchase in Texas are life-saving medications that can prevent veteran deaths by suicide or lethal overdoses from opioids that are prescribed by traditional doctors.

For Dr. Sheela Gavvala, the same products are responsible for a spike in emergency room visits by young children and teenagers who could suffer long-term effects from ingesting high doses of the products.

The dueling testimonies from Fuller, the legislative director for the Texas VFW, and Gavvala, a Houston-based pediatrician, were just two of the dozens of the Texas Senate Committee on State Affairs during an hours-long hearing over possibly banning Delta 8 and Delta 9 products in Texas.

The products hit the shelves after the passage of the Farm Bill in 2018, which said hemp products with low amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, were no longer considered marijuana if their THC content wasn’t more than 0.3%. That prompted Texas lawmakers in 2019 to pass House Bill 1325, which allowed farmers to grow hemp in Texas.

But lawmakers claim that a loophole allows products that can produce a high similar to marijuana to flourish in Texas with little to no regulation. Retailers also sell THC-A, a precursor to THC that can produce the same effect as marijuana once heated.

The Texas Department of State Health tried to ban Delta 8 but a pending lawsuit has kept the product legal and on the shelves. The litigation is now before the Texas Supreme Court.

The interim charge for the committee included investigating how the products are marketed to children and to consider additional regulation of the products.

Texas already has a medicinal program called theTexas Compassionate Use Program. But it’s hard to access, expensive, and doesn’t treat all disabilities, several witnesses said.

Fuller said banning the products would cut off a source of therapeutic medicine embraced by a wider swath of the Texas veteran community. He said that a separate interim charge that examines veterans’ mental health and suicide prevention conflicts with the order to consider banning hemp products.

“Let us choose the path for our healing. Access to hemp-derived consumables saves lives in our community. It is affordable, it is effective, and it is an accessible alternative to opioids,” he said. “We are extremely passionate about this. We want the ability to function and not be high in a pharmaceutical fog, which kills thousands of our veterans, causes many of them to turn to alcohol, which, along with tobacco, kills millions annually. And no one is suggesting banning alcohol or, tobacco.” [Read More @ KERA News]