4 May 25 - 31, 2023 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents Month XX–Month XX, 2014 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER | CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | MOVIES | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | FEATURE | SCHUTZE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS | what’s in front of them. What’s the evidence showing them? Is the evidence showing them what the shooter’s motivation was?” The Department of Justice defines federal hate crimes as “crimes committed on the ba- sis of the victim’s perceived or actual race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orienta- tion, gender, gender identity, or disability.” Because Garcia can’t be interrogated, investi- gators have much more work to do to deter- mine whether he was targeting the Allen victims based on race, or if he was looking for a place to inflict the most damage he could in a short time, regardless of race. The 2019 murder of 23 people at an El Paso Walmart could be classified as a federal hate crime rather clearly because of the rac- ist manifesto the shooter reportedly left be- hind, Urbina explained. As far as the public is aware in the case of the Allen shooting, al- though police have reason to believe Garcia was a white supremacist, clear evidence that he set out to kill anyone based specifically on race at this point has not been uncovered. “Law enforcement doesn’t dismiss any rea- son why a crime might have occurred,” Urbina said. “Any police officer, any agent, will never rule out a possible reason for a crime until there’s evidence that leads them to do so.” Urbina also noted that the investigation into a crime doesn’t really change much after it’s been determined that a hate crime had oc- curred. Any change in procedure at that point would likely have more to do with deciding whether it’s a state case, a federal case or both. El Paso assailant Patrick Crusius, for ex- ample, faced a state murder charge and a fed- eral hate crime charge. “It’s very nuanced, it’s not really cut and dried,” Urbina said. “Investigators can’t jump to conclusions,” she said. “They want to make sure they have enough evidence to support whatever their conclusion is. The conclusion they draw has to be supported by evidence… it takes time.” ▼ POLITICS FOAMING AT THE MOUTH HEY, BUD LIGHT: CONSERVATIVES ARE WHINING ABOUT MILLER LITE’S ‘WOKE CULT’ NOW. BY SIMONE CARTER T exas conservatives keep on cryin’ salty tears into their beers. First, there was the Bud Light controversy. Lone Star conservatives on so- cial media — including Texas Congressman and star of his own action films Dan Cren- shaw — vowed to boycott Bud Light after it partnered with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. Sure enough, Bud Light’s sales are down, a trend that’s carrying over into other Bud-brand bevs. And now there’s Miller Lite. Citizen Free Press recently posted one of Miller’s recent ads with the caption: “Miller Lite has joined the woke cult.” The minute- and-a-half spot includes Broad City come- dian Ilana Glazer, who informs viewers about women’s historic role in brewing beer. Miller Lite launched the campaign in March for Women’s History Month to try to rectify the brand’s previous “bikini bimbos holding brews” ad trope. Glazer explains how Miller Lite has since vowed to make up for its sexist past by donating fertilizer to women brewers under a campaign titled “Bad $#!T to Good $#!T.” And wouldn’t ya know? It seems that some conservatives would rather cling to corporate sexism. Right-wing firebrand and Fox News dar- ling Tomi Lahren, who once called Dallas home, retweeted Citizen Free Press’s post. “No no no no no! Miller Lite is my beer!” she wrote. “Who is running these compa- nies?! Bad bad move.” Speaking of, back in Lahren’s Big D days, she used to work for Glenn Beck’s The Blaze. Beck-daddy himself also (sort of) weighed in when he retweeted a photo of Glazer and former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. “Miller Lite really chose this person to be the face of their working-class beer brand,” conservative columnist Benny Johnson wrote in the Beck-retweeted post. “These ad agencies are suicidal.” Austin-based conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ far-right site Infowars also covered Miller’s campaign. Owen Shroyer — who hosts a show on Infowars and who’s racked up fed- eral charges in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot — did a segment on the spot. The Twitter account @InfoWars_tv tweeted a clip featuring Shroyer. The host doesn’t seem unhinged in the slightest as he discusses the latest brewing controversy. “’Miller Lite’s Campaign to Eradicate Sexist Beer Advertising Proves Successful,’” Shroyer reads off a page before laughing ma- niacally for several seconds, referencing the title of a Forbes article from back in March. “Forbes magazine! OK! “Hey, the good news here is people are go- ing to stop drinking the beer that turns men into feminist slobs,” Shroyer continued be- fore joining rank with the likes of white trash- lord Kid Rock by ragging on Bud Light. Conservative Dallas comedian Tim Young also unleashed a series of tweet-rants aimed at Miller Lite. “Bud Light tanks their sales by going woke and dumps their marketing executives...” he tweeted. “Miller Lite: Hold my beer.” Young then got cartoonishly sexist with the following tweet: “Miller Lite’s new spokesperson is an angry women’s studies major who complains to her cats about hot women in bikinis, tells everyone her pro- nouns ... and can’t figure out why no one wants to date her.” You know what we can’t figure out? Why conservatives, who so bravely denounce lib- eral “snowflakes” and so-called cancel culture, will miss drinking Miller Lite in the first place. ▼ CANNABIS HARSHING THE BUZZ DEA COULD ISSUE NEW RULES FOR DELTA-8, SYNTHETIC THC. BY JACOB VAUGHN M any hemp-derived THC products on the market today are made using some sort of chemical process. These products have exploded in popularity over the last few years, but new rules pro- posed by the Drug Enforcement Administra- tion (DEA) could send it all grinding to a halt. As first reported by the cannabis news site marijuanamoment.net, the DEA will propose new rules that could add syntheti- cally made cannabinoids like delta-8 to the federal list of controlled substances. The U.S. legalized hemp in 2018, and Texas did the same the following year. Fed- eral and state laws say that cannabis with 0.3% delta-9 THC or less is called hemp and is legal. Cannabis with more than 0.3% delta-9 is illegal marijuana. Delta-9 is the main ingredient in weed that gets users high, and it’s often referred to simply as THC. After hemp was legalized, manufacturers started making products with other forms of THC such as delta-8. As long as they didn’t ex- ceed the legal amount of delta-9, the manufac- turers have argued, they should be allowed to do their thing. But regulators don’t agree. Terrance Boos, chief of the DEA’s Drug and Chemical Evaluation Section, noted the new rules at the agency’s 2023 Supply Chain Con- ference this month, according to marijuana- moment.net. Boos said the DEA is in the process of changing regulations regarding hemp-derived THCs after multiple petitions on the issue and recommendations from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Ser- vices. Part of the change could include decon- trolling CBD up to 0.1% on a weight-to-weight basis or weight-volume basis, Boos said at the conference. According to marijuanamoment. net, it seemed Boos was talking about de scheduling synthetic CBD because natural CBD is already legal as long as it doesn’t con- tain more than 0.3% delta-9 THC. The new rules, if implemented, would clarify the legal status of synthetically cre- ated cannabinoids like delta-8. Delta-8 occurs naturally in the hemp plant, but not in abundant amounts. That’s why manufacturers have largely turned to extracting CBD from hemp and using a chemical process to turn it into as much delta-8, or delta-9 or delta-10 as they want. At the DEA conference, Boos said this isn’t allowed. He said “synthetic [THCs] were not exempted” from the federal controlled sub- stances list. “That act of taking that substance in any synthetic step now brings it back under the [Controlled Substances Act],” he said. Zachary Maxwell, president of Texas Hemp Growers, told the Observer he saw something like this coming. “For more than a year, Texas Hemp Grow- ers has informed its members that the syn- thetic cannabinoid market — most notably delta-8, THCo, HHC and other synthetic THCs — are legally dubious and extremely volatile,” Maxwell said. “In fact, Texas’ market for many of these synthetic THCs depends on the grace of an injunction issued by a county judge, which could be overturned any day. “We know that regulators at both the state and federal level are champing at the bit to pass laws to ban these products. Most people have acknowledged this in their long-range planning and have already di- vested from synthetics.” Others, like local hemp company Wyatt Purp, have stayed away from the synthetic stuff all together. Wyatt Larew, co-founder of the Bedford-based company, said he’s been selling delta-9 gummies that are completely natural, no synthesis required. He also sells products with something called THCa, a pre- cursor to delta-9. Larew said if the DEA’s new rules include a total THC cap, he wouldn’t be able to sell his THCa anymore. But, he said his delta-9 products would still be compliant because they’re not created synthetically. Texas cannabis advocates have had their eyes on bills that could ban the synthetic creation of these cannabinoids. State Sen. Charles Perry, a Lubbock Republican, filed Senate Bill 264, which would introduce a to- tal THC cap for hemp and outlaw products with synthetic THCs. A companion bill was also filed in the House. Those two bills have yet to make it out of their respective committees and are as good as dead with only about two weeks left in the legislative session. However, some are wor- ried that a ban on hemp-derived THCs could be tacked onto other bills before the legislative session is over. But, if the DEA issues a new rule clarify- ing that synthetically created THCs derived from hemp are controlled substances, it won’t matter what Texas does this legisla- tive session. ▼ LGBTQ REDNECK MOTHERS COLLIN COUNTY CONSERVATIVE REPUBLICANS: HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY — UNLESS YOU’RE TRANS. BY SIMONE CARTER M other’s Day was May 14, and Texans young and less-young gathered ’round to celebrate their good old mamas. For many, it’s a holiday of reflection, gratitude and sentimentality punctuated by cheesy Hallmark cards and Kroger Joe Raedle/Getty Images Texas Department of Public Safety Regional Director Hank Sibley speaks to the press about the Allen mass shooting. Unfair Park from p3 >> p6
