Even if The Lone Star State has become notorious for strict cannabis laws with an unlikeliness to legalize the plant anytime soon, the passing of both The Federal 2018 Farm Bill and Texas House Bill 1325 has resulted in a blossoming CBD industry. In all corners of the state, from the DFW metroplex to towns as small as Mineral Wells, the hemp/CBD industry has become quite a booming one. The number of employment opportunities, whether as a side hustle or the full-time job, created by this industry is a community that deserves a voice, an advocate and most importantly, a lobbyist in the same sense that other industries have.
Debuting themselves at an appropriate venue, none other than the 2020 Texas Hemp Convention, The Texas Cannabis Council hopes to act as a group that advocates and lobbies for the best interests of the burgeoning CBD/hemp industry and hopefully a recreational market in the future.
Being involved in the legally grey area of an industry that CBD was way back in the wild days of 2017, Sarah Kerver now runs Austin’s 1937 Apothecary, a CBD shop featuring not only the 1937 home brand but other CBD brands locally produced around Central Texas. Running the CBD store as part of the greater Custom Botanical Dispensary brand with her Coast Guard veteran sister Sue Kerver, the store caters to the wellness of the customer, with educated staff and products that range from skincare products to Cheekywell’s line of dark chocolates for every occasion imaginable.
Through an appearance in the Austin Business Journal, Kerver met Susan Hays, a seasoned business and appellate attorney. Through her legal career, Hays began developing an interest and enjoyment in lobbying, with an eventual interest in lobbying for a newly legal and heavily regulated industry. In 2012, Hays moved back to Dallas from Austin to pursue lobbying more thoroughly. Two years later, she desired to do legal work for a new frontier, one that was just now slowly becoming legal.
Hays gained a new client at the end of 2016, coincidentally a cannabis company in Nevada wanting Hays to write the application for a Texas operation and further for her to act as general counsel as The Battle Born State created the regulatory framework for recreational legalization. In 2018, Hays saw the article in Austin Business Journal with Kerver holding a bag of hemp flower and initially held concern that the old-school prohibitionists would only see 1937 as a weed shop and react negatively.
After a visit, Hays saw the passion, professional ethic and dedication to compliance in Kerver and her sister’s operations. Soon after, the appellate lawyer turned lobbyist began bringing legislative staffers to Kerver’s store, showing the promise in the CBD industry and the clear need for a lobbying group.
Even before the eventual formation of The Texas Cannabis Council, Hays had already helped the hemp industry in Texas tremendously, being one of the most dedicated lobbyists in the passing and signing of House Bill 1325 during the 2019 Legislative Session.
Towards the end of the session when House Bill 1325’s fate seemed pretty set in stone, Hays, accompanied with Kerver, met with fellow lobbyists who were representing a lab testing company. Through their conversation, they realized the need for a coherent and unified lobbying, advocacy and education-providing group for cannabis in Texas. As Hays is an experienced business attorney, she could also provided Texas Cannabis Council a translation to hemp business owners for the sometimes confusing language found in legislation.
“If Sarah and these other little CBD shops don’t get organized, they’re going to get rolled in rule making.” explained Hays. “And while they’re too small to have their own lobbyists like HEB or Mary Kay, they’ve got particular interests. We decided that we needed to set up an organization to help them organize on the legislative public affairs side.”
Through several brainstorming sessions and taking inspiration from other cannabis lobbying efforts such as Cannabis Trade Federation or National Cannabis Industry Association, Hays began to construct a lobbying group with those who advocate and lobby based on the needs of the business owners that could exist in a functioning and healthy environment.
“We did a lot of thinking about how to best structure an entity that would provide a great infrastructure for the business and consumers going forward, both to advocate for interests at the Capitol and to give lawmakers who make decisions in government reliable information about the industry.” said Hays.
As opposed to other industry lobbying groups where one usually must pay an exorbitant amount to hold any power in the organization, Texas Cannabis Council will be a fairly balanced organization, with committees made up of the sectors of business owners across all corners of Texas themselves. This way, the organization will give an equal voice to every sector and every location of the burgeoning cannabis industry in Texas.
And from a small business owner perspective, Kerver can already see the benefits in a group existing to represent the best interests of an industry still very much in its infancy.
“What I was able to see during this session and with these lobbyists was that as a mom and pop shop, I finally had a voice and that was empowering. It was amazing to be mom and pop and have a voice. The true grassroots, we really are what’s presented in front of everyone everyday. And to not have our part in the policy making procedure, it doesn’t do this industry any justice.” Kerver told.
“We have the opportunity to create something so amazing in Texas and across the country because it’s still so new. We can do it the right way and create a space that’s best for the consumer. You talk to anybody in the industry and we all have the same end goal. And that’s to empower the plant and empower people to have access to the plant and the benefits that come along with it.”