Want a Felony?: The Ongoing War against THC in Texas Continues...
The crusade against THC in Texas expands. As of July 31, 2026, Delta-8, and Delta-10 variants now share the same schedule 1 classification as traditional Marijuana, Heroin and LSD, and now carry felonious disciplinary implications for innocent Texans, whom, until now, were able to purchase these products legally for over 5 years, protected under the 2018 Federal Farm Bill and the 2019 Texas House Bill 1325. Let that sink in… Meanwhile, we are still allowed to consume alcohol and tobacco products recreationally.
The United States Drug Enforcement Administration defines a schedule 1 drug as: Any substance that has a high potential for abuse and dependency and has no “accepted” medical uses. Notoriously dangerous and lethal drugs such as, Fentanyl, GHB, Heroin, LSD, and MDMA, earn their place among the schedule 1 classification, as their acute lethal toxicity risks are substantially higher than that of Marijuana and the hemp-derived non-Delta-9 variants. Isn’t it strange that alcohol, a known mind-altering depressant, that has been clinically proven to be a highly addictive substance, remains regulated and readily accessible for Texas consumers?
Who has the most to gain from expansion of the THC Ban in Texas?
The Alcohol and Tobacco Industry
The Private Prison & Law Enforcement Sector
Pharmacy and the Healthcare Industry
Alcohol abuse has been linked to liver disease, alcohol poisoning, heart disease, thousands of impaired driving fatalities and has contributed to over 13k deaths in Texas in 2025 alone per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Alcohol-related Disease Impact Report. Over 52,000 individuals placed on probation and over 4,000 inmates have been locked away on alcohol-related crimes per the Texas Department of Criminal Justice 2025 statistical report. Odd, how one of the most dangerous drugs in Texas remains protected under federal law and state law, and barred from ever being reclassified as a controlled substance and placed under the jurisdiction of the DEA, despite acknowledging it’s intoxicating and higher potential for addiction and abuse when compared to it’s THC counterpart.
As we have seen with attempts at banning alcohol during the prohibition era, the efforts did not cease it’s consumption and resulted in underground purchases, empowered organized crime in the industry and debilitated local municipal and county general funds. According to the International Business Information Systems, Texas generates billions of dollars in revenue from the Food and Beverage and Tobacco sub-sectors. This includes direct alcohol sales via taxes, license fees, distribution, tourism, employment, and state allocations managed by the Texas Comptroller and the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission.
Wine America, the Brewers Association Economic Impact Data, and the Distilled Spirits Council are industry-funded economic study programs. Wine America reports that in 2025 wine sales generated over 24 billion in total economic activity in Texas. The Distilled Spirits Council reports over $7 billion in total economic activity in 2025 in Texas. The Brewers Association Economic Impact Data Reports: An estimated $ 4.2 billion in total economic impact in Texas. (The third highest in the nation). Their total combined of over $36 billion is a foundational contribution to the NAICS 311- 312 sector of Texas and Texas’s reported $2.9 trillion economy (The second largest in the nation).
Is the Alcohol and Tobacco Industry the most influential/profitable industry in Texas? No. However, it is undeniably a profitable sub-sector of the Texas economy. This is important to note because, although trade wars, tariffs, and international retaliatory policies have contributed to the overall decline of this industry in recent years, we cannot ignore another factor: the rise of cannabis/THC product use in Texas and its popularity among younger consumers who are seeking alternatives to alcohol and nicotine.
The adoption of THC Beverages and hemp-derived flowers in retailers has resulted in THC products carving out a noticeably growing share in the market, with consumers substituting alcohol with THC Beverages and cigarettes with flowers. So much so, that alcohol conglomerates have resorted to lobbying against the legal expansion of cannabis to protect their market share, even though traditional alcohol and tobacco sales still hold the largest share in this market. Alcohol and tobacco sales also fund schools and local municipalities.
The Texas Tax code 183 mandates a 6.7% tax on Mixed Beverage Gross Receipts Tax and 8.25% Mixed Beverage Sales Tax. Texas Tax code 183 and Texas Tax Code 154.603, establishes that every quarter, 10.7% of alcohol sales tax revenue is to be distributed to qualifying counties and incorporated municipalities, any legally incorporated city, (e.g. Any town or village in Texas that have active alcohol-sales related businesses) and that 25% of the next excise be allocated for funding Texas public school districts. It is understandable why lawmakers would seek to uphold a system that has financially benefited Texas counties and public schools since its implementation, but why not formally expand these policies to include sales tax revenue from THC products, especially now that the consumer base for alcohol and tobacco products is on the decline and has been for the last 5 years?
In places where cannabis became legal, consumer reports consistently show that consumers reduce their alcohol and nicotine consumption in favor of cannabis. For example, Canada, which legalized marijuana in 2018, reported via the Canada Statistics that alcohol sales experienced a historic decline in 2023/2024 while adult cannabis sales increased nearly 12%, with 60% of the 23,000-plus cannabis users surveyed, whom reported to The Harm Reduction Journal in 2024, that they were using to decrease there alcohol consumption, with some even reporting to be substituting methamphetamine and or tobacco in favor of THC products.
In New York, data published in February 2025 in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, reported that alcohol and nicotine product consumption decreased amongst consumers 18 - 59 years old, with college-educated adults reporting reduced usage of alcohol and tobacco consumption, following the opening of licensed Marijuana retailers in the state. If you are willing to cough up $800 for a single report, the International Business Information Systems reports that as of March 2026 the Cigarette and tobacco Manufacturing industry (NAICS: TX31222) is expected to decline over the next five years.
In other states where weed has been legalized, including, but not limited to: Colorado, Washington, and Oregon, have provided economic evidence/reports that support similar outcomes. Colorado: PubMed Central (PMC), published "Recreational Cannabis Legalization and Alcohol Purchasing.” Findings: 13% average monthly decline in overall alcohol purchases. Washington State: Published findings in the Journal of Adolescent Health, stating that post the legalization of cannabis in December of 2012, there has been a documented steady decline in month-to-month alcohol and tobacco use from 2014-2019, specifically among younger consumers. Oregon: In 2018, “State Medical Marijuana Laws and the Consumption of Alcohol,” a study conducted by economist Michele Baggio and Alberto Chong, reported an estimated in the 12% decline in alcohol sales in counties where adult-recreational marijuana dispensaries were opened.
In Texas, although traditional cannabis has never been legalized, the Texas consumable hemp-derived Delta, legalized in 2018, was a multi-billion dollar market, reporting an estimated $8 billion according to the Texas Hemp Business Council in a study performed by Whitney Economics, evaluating from 2022-2023. This directly competed with alcohol and tobacco bottom line. It is evident that THC products have a considerable demand and has the potential to contribute greatly to the Texas economy and reduce alcohol and tobacco-related crimes, illness and fatalities, but why do lawmakers seem to want to limit access in Texas? As an outsider to Texas Legislation, one can only speculate. However, I think it is also important to note that drug offenses including: possession, manufacturing, and distribution, are the leading cause of convictions and incarceration rates in Texas per the Texas Department of Criminal Justice 2025 statistical report.
Expansion of the THC ban in Texas, will inevitably subject thousands of consumers of the hemp-derived/manufactured THC products previously legalized under the 2018 Federal Farm Bill and the 2019 Texas House Bill 1325, to gratuitous felony charges, thus snowballing the incarceration rate for drug offenses in the state. Weird, how they allowed these products to be sold and used recreationally in Texas for over 5-years, allowing it to become a booming industry, only to revoke it and instantly placing thousands innocent Texans at risk of incarceration. Are increased incarceration rates not beneficial to the Private Prison & Law Informant Sector, a reported $1 billion industry? They structure their revenue model around occupancy… Any expansion of criminalized offenses directly expands their target demographic.
Pain relief, sleep support and anxiety management, are among some of the medical benefits of Marijuana and it’s Hemp/Delta variants that have been clinically proven. The matter is not whether we should be able to pick between the two evils, but rather, discerning whether or not legislation is infringing upon Texan’s right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, reflects the best interest and safety of Texas Citizens and is consistent in it’s logic used to justify drug classifications, which carry life-altering legal implications for consumers while also existing to protect and re-line the pockets of billon dollar conglomerates that profit off of the THC Ban, whom continue to push alcohol and tobacco products that are just as dangerous, if not more so than THC and it’s variants. Inadvertently, this nudges Texans to seek these products on the black market, which poses a unique threat to public health and safety.
The Healthcare industry is also one of Texas’s largest economic powerhouses, boasting the largest medical center in the world and contributing a reported 173 billion annually, per the Texas Economic Overview in the 2025 International Business Information Systems report. Nudging Texas to consume more alcohol products, keeps their Drug and Alcohol Treatment centers admissions rates inflated and expanding the chokehold traditional medication interventions have on the industry. Additionally, the expansion of the THC ban protects the Texas healthcare industry’s monopoly on Medical Cannabis treatments protected under the Texas Compassionate Act, as THC-A dispensaries allowed consumers to bypass having to see a doctor and subscribing to expensive treatment plans, while also being urged to utilize expensive habit-forming FDA-approved medications to treat symptoms such as conditions such as Anxiety, Insomnia, and PTSD.
It’s baffling that Texas legislators remain complicit in promoting alcohol consumption, as abusers to continue to drive unsafely on our roads, drunk and belligerent and posing danger to themselves and others, but somehow marijuana and THC-A products, which have proven medical benefits, are where they draw the line? It’s conflicting with federal law and is contradictory to the DEA’s Schedules of Controlled Substances schedule 1 classification guidelines when you consider the absence of alcohol. Who’s benefiting from this? It’s certainly not Texas citizens. Remember when Governor Greg Abbott vetoed Senate Bill 3 in 2025, which sought to place an outright ban on all consumable hemp products containing any amount of psychoactive cannabinoids. He stated “The current market is dangerously under-regulated and that it, “would make felons of innocent Texans, like veterans treating PTSD and parents caring for their epileptic children with FDA-approved medications…” He also explained that when these products were temporarily protected, dealers took advantage and developed products that contained dangerously high concentrations and marketed them to children.
While acknowledging the dangers of an unregulated THC products, he also called for regulation (e.g. Age limits, lab-testing, child-proof packaging, licensing etc. and stated that Texans can and should be able to reasonably regulate consumable hemp-derived THC products to protect public health and safety, without eliminating consumer access altogether.” Gov. Abbott also recommended that legislators consider developing a regulatory framework similar to the how alcohol is regulated. Instead of considering new regulations that did not eliminate consumer access, legislators Dan Patrick and Senator Charles Perry, pursued the ban anyway and introduced Senate Bill 5, which sought to pass a statutory ban again. The House, failed to support SB5 in favor of developing a regulatory framework, as Abbott suggested.
The Texas Supreme Court then lifted the temporary injunction placed on the Schedules of Controlled Substances, submitted in 2021 by Dr. Jennifer Shuford, the Commissioner at the Texas Department of State Health Services, which sought to reclassify hemp-derived THC (e.g. Delta-8 and Delta-10 products) as schedule 1 controlled substances. This instantly put the power in her hands and she subsequently was able to carry out and publish the reclassification.
As it stands, Texans face jail time, fines up to $10k, driver’s license suspension up to 180-days, permanent criminal record (ie. Felony drug conviction that is ineligible for expunction or non-disclosure and loss of civil rights, which removes your right to vote, pursue professional licensing, receive financial aid and public housing.
Want to see a change? Get out and vote in upcoming elections:
Texas General Elections: Voters are to cast ballots for federal offices, state executives, state executive leadership, legislative seats, and judicial benches.
First day of Early Voting in-person Monday, October 19, 2026
Last day of Early Voting in-person Tuesday, November 3, 2026 (Election Day) at 7:00 p.m
Below, I’ve provided a brief guide on what key races are on the ballot this year. I hope this helps you make a more informed decision when you are in the voters booth.
References
Alcohol Related Disease Impact (ARDI) application. (n.d.). Average annual deaths in Texas due to excessive alcohol use. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. ARDI Application
Brewers Association. (n.d.). Economic impact data. Brewers Association Statistics
Distilled Spirits Council of the United States. (2026, March). Final DISCUS 2025 American spirits exports report. DISCUS Export Report
Distilled Spirits Council of the United States. (n.d.). American spirits exports report: U.S. spirits exports decline 3.8% in 2025 amid ongoing trade friction. DISCUS News Portal
IBISWorld. (n.d.). Cigarette & tobacco manufacturing in Texas - Market research report. IBISWorld Texas Cigarette Report
IBISWorld. (n.d.). Texas economic profile. IBISWorld Texas Profile
NORML. (2025, February 13). Study: Retail cannabis sales associated with reduced drinking among young adults. NORML News Release
Office of the Governor, State of Texas. (2025, June 22). Governor Abbott vetoes Senate Bill 3 (89R). Texas Governor News Portal
Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. (n.d.). Mixed beverage sales tax. Texas Comptroller Tax Portal
Texas Department of Criminal Justice. (2025). Statistical report fiscal year 2025. TDCJ Reports Portal
Texas Department of State Health Services. (n.d.). Consumable hemp program. DSHS Program Portal
Texas Department of State Health Services. (2026, July 10). Notice reinstating clarifications to the definitions of tetrahydrocannabinols and marihuana extract to the 2021 schedule of controlled substances. Texas Register, 51(28), 4597–4604. Texas Register July 10 2026 Issue
Texas Hemp Business Council. (n.d.). Home. Texas Hemp Business Council Portal
Texas Tax Code § 183.051. (1993). Mixed beverage tax clearance fund. Texas Constitution and Statutes. Texas Statutes Online
Tourism Economics & Distilled Spirits Council of the United States. (n.d.). Tourism economics report:
Texas distillery tourism generates more than $831 million for state. DISCUS Newsroom
WineAmerica. (2025). Economic impact study 2025: Texas wine industry. WineAmerica Economic Study.
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