A day after Democratic Senators reached a deal with their Republican counterparts in the Senate to end the longest government shutdown in history, a vote on the agreement was held up by a provision in the bill that would ban the unregulated sale of hemp-based or derived products. The provision relates to funding for the Department of Agriculture, and was flagged by Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, home to a burgeoning hemp industry.
Texas governor Greg Abbott has signed an executive order mandating age restrictions on the sale of hemp-derived THC products, roughly three months after he vetoed a bill that would have outlawed the intoxicant entirely in the Lone Star State. The order, released today, is geared toward protecting children and orders the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) and Department of State Health Services (DSHS) to immediately begin a rulemaking process to develop a new framework for the sale of hemp-derived products to minors.