Abbott Calls Special Session for THC
Regulation after Veto Buries SB 3 Ban
Capitol Inside
June 23, 2025
Governor Greg Abbott began the task of cleaning up a mess from a THC ban that he vetoed when he announced on Monday that he's calling Texas lawmakers back to Austin for a special session next month with the regulation of a booming hemp industry that Republicans voted to cancel as their paramount concern.
Abbott said the session that he set to begin on July 21 will give the Texas Legislature second shots at THC and five other measures that he disabled with the veto pen on Sunday night before a deadline for final calls on legislation that emerged from the regular biennial gathering this year.
Abbott portrayed the THC prohibition in Senate Bill 3 as a sloppy excuse for lawmaking that would be doomed in the courts because it would preempt federal law that legalized hemp for commercial use with President Donald Trump's blessings during his first term in the White House.
"Senate Bill 3 is well-intentioned," Abbott said in a veto proclamation on the dead THC bill. "But it would never go into effect because of valid constitutional challenges. Litigation challenging the bill has already been filed, and the legal defects in the bill are undeniable. If I were to allow Senate Bill 3 to become law, its enforcement would be enjoined for years, leaving existing abuses unaddressed. Texas cannot afford to wait."
Abbott suggested that Texas lawmakers would have known that the ban wouldn't fly in the judiciary if they'd taken the time to investigate why a similar bill that Arkansas legislators approved in 2023 was thrown out by a federal judge because it would have superceded the hemp law that Congress approved in 2018.
"As a former Supreme Court Justice and Attorney General of Texas, I know that Senate Bill 3 is vulnerable to the same legal attacks," the Republican governor added. "At worst, Senate Bill 3 would be permanently invalidated by the courts; at best, its implementation would be delayed for years as the case winds its way through the legal system. We can do better."
Abbott said SB 3 would have set Texas farmers up for entrapment while making criminals out of pharmacists, veterans who suffer from PTSD and parents with children who have epilepsy.
The THC ban "therefore criminalizes what Congress expressly legalized and puts federal and state law on a collision course: Today, federal law promises Texas farmers that they may grow hemp without fear of criminal liability," Abbott explained. "But under Senate Bill 3, the seeds used to grow those plants are "consumable products"-currently available in stores-and they naturally contain cannabinoids. What's a Texas farmer to do? Trust the federal government's promise, or fear criminal liability from the State?"
Abbott suggested that lawmakers consider a "regulatory framework" like the system in place for the alcohol industry in Texas. The governor provided a list of proposals that the Legislature could deliberate for a hemp regulations plan including the imposition of a state tax to fund oversight and enforcement.
The made no reference in the SB 3 veto statement to the Texas House leadership's plan to regulate the hemp industry complete with excise taxes and license requirements and fees. The House Republicans voted in a panic to gut the regulatory proposal after Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick threatened to force a special session if they didn't bow to his demand for the ban on THC products in SB 3.
The veto left House and Senate Republicans out on a limb where they will get the chance in re-election races to defend votes for a THC ban that would have destroyed 10,000 small businesses across the state and put an estimated 53,000 employees out of work.
Abbott listed the vetoed bills that he wants legislators to tackle in the summer session. The governor indicated that he may add some bills that he allowed to become law without his signature to the special session agenda at some point. A $300 million film incentives measure is an example of a bill that Abbott declined to sign or to veto. But THC will be the big ticket item
"Texas must enact a regulatory framework that protects public safety, aligns with federal law, has a fully funded enforcement structure, and can take effect without delay," Abbott said in the scorching assessment of SB 3.
more to come ..
| 
