Texas Gov. Abbott betrays Republicans with nonsensical THC-ban veto | Opinion

I’ve known Greg Abbott for more than 25 years, dating back to his days as a Texas Supreme Court justice. Along his path from that bench to more than a decade as Texas attorney general and now three terms as governor, it has become clearer with each passing year that if he strongly supports something, you will know it, and you will hear about it often.

Take the last year or two. He has spread the gospel of property tax relief far and wide. His passion for school choice has run so deep that he actively campaigned against incumbent legislators who tried to stand in his way. And his advocacy for border security has made him a national star, landing him on Fox News as often as any other recurring guest.

So, what are we to make of the logic he gave us a few minutes before midnight Sunday as the deadline loomed for action on a THC ban passed with the votes of nearly every Republican in the Legislature?

Mind-reading is impossible, but one can only presume that the words he crafted in his veto statement were not arguments he wished to spend weeks or even days defending and that he did not wish to reveal his reasoning when people were actually awake.

Well, eyes are opened now, and there is no avoiding the examination of why Abbott thwarted his fellow Republicans and, while we’re at it, nearly every law enforcement voice that weighed in.

His stated reasons are a copy of the familiar index cards of an industry that is rolling in Texas money and has no intention of losing that revenue stream.

In his veto statement, Abbott frets at length about the vulnerability of a THC ban to court challenges. If memory serves, large portions of his conservative agenda have attracted such opposition, and his response has been what real warriors say: Bring it. I dare you. We will beat you.

There is ample reason to believe a Texas ban on products containing THC, the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis products would prevail in the courts. Idaho and South Dakota have near-total bans on items containing THC derived from hemp. In Texas’ matter, the courts may have hesitated to intervene at all, having deferred in the past to state concerns over public safety. A 2001 Supreme Court ruling (United States v. Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative) supported the right of California, of all places, to regulate controlled substances more strictly than federal law.

With logic that surely made the hemp lobby leap for joy, Abbott wholly misinterpreted the 2018 federal farm bill. It removes hemp from the Controlled Substances Act but in no way requires states to permit the sale of the hemp-derived products that litter the shelves of the 8,000 or so Texas shops that have sprung from nowhere to hawk this stuff.

If you sense that I supported the ban, you are correct. This industry is a web of unregulatable nightmares that cannot be wrangled in the wishful fashion Abbott favors. Bad actors will continue to dangle these treats in front of countless kids and adults who will surely zero in on the stores surreptitiously stocking the stronger concentrations.

Parts of the governor’s attempts to seem vigilant about the industry’s dangers reduce to silliness, as in the suggestion that a state agency monitor whether products are “made, packaged or marketed in a manner attractive to children,” an impossible standard to define.

So, what of the veterans and others with health issues who testified that visits to the local shop gave them relief from actual maladies? Their valid needs should be addressed through valid channels: a robust and effective “compassionate use” network that allows patients to get THC-based solutions for genuine medical problems.

Such a system exists in Texas today, but some complain that it is inadequate. OK, fix it. That is surely a more realistic avenue than trying to finance fresh armies of regulators to scurry from store to store to pry Flying Monkey Delta-8 joints from the hands of high-schoolers.

In a news conference Monday that crackled with resistance to Abbott’s veto, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick raised eyebrows with his conclusion that the governor favors legal weed in Texas, what Patrick senses as a continuation of a retreat on other vice issues, such as casinos and sports betting apps.

Abbott would surely differ, saying he simply favors his path, the one preferred by the hemp industry, uber-libertarians and a smattering of sympathetic consumers, over the one his party in Austin and the law enforcement community he ordinarily partners with resoundingly supported.

But know this: The anecdotal tales of genuinely ailing people and noble Mom-and-Pop shops are wildly overblown. This industry would not exist if it did not live to attract buzz-chasing Texans of all ages in a march toward its real goal — to wrap our state in the same foul smell now common to New York City, Colorado and other places unwise enough to follow the siren song of legal weed.

The veto will leave countless harmful products on the shelves. The thinly defined “regulations” laid out in his statement are a litany of costly impracticality. SB 3 did not deserve this stealth dagger through the heart. It deserved a signature at a ceremony featuring proud Republican lawmakers, law enforcement groups and families who had lobbied for it, many inspired by stories of children lured by the poisons the industry peddles.

No matter what Abbott did on this issue, some people were going to be upset. Such are the challenges of elected office. But fighting the good fight over the years has yielded a deeply red Texas he should be proud of, forged by partnering with his party for a functional border, protections for the unborn, upholding gender sanity, strong Second Amendment support and more.

In this moment, that partnership with his party, and the voters they spoke for, has been spurned.

This story was originally published June 24, 2025 at 5:24 AM.