Texas state health officials have proposed raising licensing fees by as much as 13,000% for some hemp businesses, among a slate of changes that many industry members and advocates say will shutter small operations in favor of large out-of-state companies.
Supporters of this change say this is necessary to strengthen oversight on an industry that they say has grown out of control.
Late last month, the Texas Department of State Health Services published a set of proposed rules to tighten regulations on consumable hemp products, including establishing a minimum purchasing age of 21, along with age verification requirements and mandatory product recalls, which are measures that the hemp industry supports. However, two of the proposed rules that have caused the most heartburn among advocates and businesses are new testing requirements and increases in licensing fees. Manufacturer licenses would increase from $250 to $25,000 per facility per year and retail registrations from $150 to $20,000 per location per year, an increase of over 13,000%.
Industry members say the new requirements on testing THC levels in consumable hemp products would eliminate the use of the hemp flower in manufacturing products like edibles and smokeables because hemp flowers naturally contain THC levels higher than the new limit. They say eliminating the use of hemp flowers would allow more synthetically derived THC, such as delta-9, to flourish.
Read more at The Texas Tribune
