Abbott's hemp reversal threatens Houston THC businesses and jobs

Texas moved to ban hemp products containing certain intoxicating cannabinoids on July 31, and Houston shops that grew under Greg Abbott’s 2019 hemp law are now scrambling to unload inventory before it becomes unsellable. The reversal has put Harris County jobs, leases and shelf space at risk in a market state leaders once helped open.

In June 2019, Abbott signed House Bill 1325, the Texas Hemp Farming Act, legalizing industrial hemp in Texas and setting the hemp threshold at less than 0.3% THC. At the time, Abbott and other state leaders drew a hard line between hemp and marijuana, saying the law did not decriminalize marijuana. That distinction helped create a retail market in Houston for hemp-derived products that now faces a very different set of rules.

The tightening is centered on the Texas Department of State Health Services’ Consumable Hemp Program. New March 31 rules required a total THC calculation that includes THCA, a change that hit many smokable hemp products sold in Houston and beyond. A Texas Supreme Court ruling in May 2026 cleared the way for the state to prohibit the sale of certain smokeable hemp products, accelerating pressure on stores that had built their businesses around those items.

Business owners have already described the hit in concrete terms. One Houston hemp shop owner estimated about 40% of his inventory would become illegal at midnight under the new rules. Another Houston-area store owner said he had to remove smokeable hemp cannabis from his shop and expected a financial hit. Those losses ripple outward: employees face shorter hours or layoffs, landlords can lose tenants, and suppliers can be left with product that no longer has a legal retail outlet.

The latest crackdown reaches products containing intoxicating cannabinoids such as delta-8, delta-10 and THCP, along with other non-delta-9 THC variants. Stores across the Houston area have been trying to sell off inventory before deadlines, a scramble that shows how quickly a once-allowed market can be squeezed when state rules change.

For Harris County, the fight is no longer abstract. Houston has been one of Texas’ biggest hemp markets, and the policy shift is forcing businesses that followed the state’s 2019 opening to rework their operations or close them down.