With the Depart of State Health Service (DSHS) Hemp rules of 2020 placed in front of Texas, those in the space realized they would need to fight to keep this ship from sinking financially. The Texas Hemp Legal Defense Fund may be an answer.
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The ban DSHS put in place on smokable hemp products being sold at retail, combined with the smokable hemp production ban by HB 1325, threatened a multi-million dollar industry that had already taken off in the state. It began to threaten retail stores with profit losses over 50% and for companies to shut down facilities and move to other states. Texas was blindsided as so many stores were already selling products under the 2014 farm bill that allowed their marketing federally.
In comes a few businesses with funds to become plaintiffs and to take these rules and law to court for a challenge. One of them is a major player in the production scene, Wild Hemp Hempettes. Represented by the law firm Ritter Spencer. Unfortunately that cannot always be the case. What happens when the rules come out and there is no economically viable plaintiff?
That’s where the Texas Hemp Legal Defense Fund (THLDF) comes in. A collaborative effort of the hemp industry to protect our mutual legal interest including fighting costly and unnecessary regulations.
Chelsie Spencer, a board member of the THLDF, wants to see that at minimum the collective voices of the hemp industry have a method to fund their legal endeavors. I had the opportunity to talk with Chelsie Spencer about the THLDF.
“Instead of having a wheel and spoke scheme where there is a central figure at the hub to collectively voice concerns of the individual spokes of the hemp industry, each organization is going at this on its own trying to represent a portion of the industry,” said Spencer
Spencer spoke of how the industry is not very organized when it comes to advocating for itself in Texas. On a national level there are two major voices such as Hemp Roundtable and the Hemp Industries Association. Texas just does not have this going on for it. The hemd industry in Texas needs to be not just challenging regulations such as the smokable hemp ban but lobbying effectively to make sure these regulations don’t go into place at legislative session.
Spencer stated, “It is much cheaper to lobby to stop laws and regulations than to fight them in court. Raising money for litigation is difficult.”
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These organizations are all awesome, but 10 different organizations with 10 different voices are not collaborating. It’s starting to show with the recent hemp bill filed Tracy King
(HB 3948) and when it comes to committee hearing time there is no word on who is working with elected officials to make sure bad regulations are not going into place. The session is only going to last for 6 month every two years. If you get bad regulation, you’re stuck with it for two years.
“If the hemp industry does not get off its rear end for the 6 months out of two years we are in session, the hemp industry is going to wind up with bad regulations. The hemp industry isn’t really taking that step right now in Texas.”
Right now the average cost for an effective lawsuit is ~$350 thousand dollars. Texas is lucky right now that the case on smokable hemp bans was done in a way that the entire state can reap the benefits of a possible win, rather than just one company.
The spirit of the hemp bill at the federal level was to have a cannabis product that did not contain substances that would cause a psychoactive response like marijuana does. There are only one or two people actually calling to talk to their elected officials about what is going on with hemp. Some people are claiming that they do so, but these officials have no recollection of ever talking to them or staff talking to them.
As well, Spencer spoke on how right now the industry is attracting bad actors and not going as far as it should to make sure the bad actors’ voices are not drowning out those that do business properly. The people who strive to do good get punished for others actions.
“We’ve got shops that have been caught selling D8 gummies to underage kids and parents are calling their Senators, worried that the law didn’t go far enough. The industry has acted so negligent with delta-8, that it will eventually go away if not at the state level, but the federal level.” Spencer said on the issue of bad actors that are ruffling elected officials’ feathers on hemp and its associated products.
Between products that come up hot for other THC amounts, are believed to have labs that are falsified, products with adulterants such as paint thinner used as extraction methods, and an industry seems to be turning more of a blind eye than taking action, you’re going to get higher ups that want to bring the hammer down on all of this. And when they do, they will go overboard rather than having thoughtful regulation that addresses these issues properly.
The Texas Hemp Legal Defense Fund strives to be a collective point where the industry can educate elected officials on how to properly go about these new laws and regulations. It is run by three attorneys (including Susan Hays and Shawn Hauser) that are passionate and want to see the right things take place in the industry and not have bad loud voices take over. The industry needs to find a way to oust the loud bad actors. Right now it does not have an organized voice to speak for it. Nobody is there to educate on these issues.
“We could have used assistance, even with having a private plaintiff. This hemp fund helped to offset the cost for the expert economist in the smokable hemp ban case which is better than nothing.”
For more information, donate to, or get in touch with the Texas Hemp Legal Defense Fund, feel free to visit https://www.txhempfund.com/