8 July 6-12, 2023 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents others have been trying to kill this reservoir for decades. They say the reservoir would devastate local economies, schools and wildlife in Northeast Texas, all issues that could be considered in the feasibility study. The state budget says the study should look into the timeline, associated costs, land acquisitions and the economic impact of the reservoir. The Marvin Nichols Reservoir would flood at least 65,000 acres of land across Red River and Titus counties, about 135 miles northeast of Dallas. Federal law requires that additional land — known as mitigation — be set aside for wildlife disrupted by the reservoir. No one has offered an exact num- ber, but the estimate is that another 130,000 acres will be taken for mitigation. WIth DFW’s population headed toward around 14.7 million by 2070, proponents of the reservoir say it will be needed to serve the growing population. Some Northeast Texans, however, say there are other ways to meet these water needs that should be considered. They say there’s more to be done with conservation of DFW water, wa- ter reuse and techniques like desalination that could help meet the demand. Aside from all of that, though, Bezanson and others say it just doesn’t make sense to build a reservoir that would cause so much destruction to Northeast Texas. This is what she and others hope the feasibility study will show. The footprint of the reservoir is largely in State Rep. Gary VanDeaver’s district. He initially wanted the study to be added to the Texas Water Development Board sunset bill but it didn’t make the cut. Instead, he was able to get it added to the state’s budget. The study will have to be finished by January 5, 2025, the start of the next legislative session. The findings will be sent to the governor and to the legislative budget board. “Roughly 66,000 acres of private land would be used to build this reservoir, but at least an additional 130,000 acres of land [would be] taken out of production and out of private hands,” VanDeaver said in April. “This would make the proposed Marvin Nichols Reservoir one of the most expensive public works projects and one of the largest land grabs by eminent domain in Texas history.” Bezanson said she and others will be pro- viding their input as part of the study. “This isn’t definitive. This isn’t what’s going to ul- timately decide this,” she said. “But it’s an important step because it’s an opportunity to shed light on some of the impacts and negative aspects of this reservoir that haven’t gotten the official attention it needs to make an informed decision.” In the meantime, she said opponents of the reservoir will continue advocating for water conservation, particularly in the area of lawn watering. For water planning, the state is divided into 16 regions. Every five years, these 16 regions submit water plans to the state. North Texas is in Region C, and Northeast Texas is in Region D. These regional plans help de- termine the state’s overall water plan. Ac- cording to The Dallas Morning News, outdoor water use makes up 35% of the state’s total single-family outdoor water use. “We wind up in a situation where we’re taking people’s productive land and liveli- hoods and homes away from them so people can water their lawns in the Dallas-Fort Worth area,” Bezanson said. “That’s some- thing we hope will come out in the study.” She said she wants DFW to have the water it needs but wants the region to use the water efficiently and choose options that have lower impact than building a new reservoir. Jim Marshall, a children’s physician at the Cooks Children Medical Center in Fort Worth, owns a cattle ranch in Cuthand, Texas, an area the reservoir would cover. He said the future looks bright now that the state will be taking another look at the reser- voir. “It appears to me that the entire project is going to have to be looked at with a mod- ern eye,” Marshall said. He thinks this study will take a more criti- cal look at the potential displacement of peo- ple and disruptions to local economies the reservoir could cause. “I think it’s a very, very good step in the right direction,” he said. “One way or the other, people need wa- ter,” Marshall said. “I think if we sit back and reconsider a shallow, destructive lake in light of other things we could do like take it from lakes that exist and desalination and purchasing water from other states, which is another consideration, we might find just a better way to suit everybody’s needs, just like a family sitting around talking through some planning or problem they have. So I think this is a real step forward for every- body in Texas.”CA ▼ CANNABIS UNHAPPY HIPPY GARLAND SMOKESHOP CLAIMS INNOCENCE AFTER MARIJUANA ARRESTS. BY JACOB VAUGHN A smoke shop in Garland was raided on June 7 for allegedly selling prod- ucts with illegal amounts of THC, the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis that gets users high. The shop’s owners says that all of their products are compliant with state and federal hemp laws. According to a post by the Garland Police Department on social media, officers with the Garland Narcotics Unit alongside a Drug En- forcement Administration (DEA) Taskforce, executed search warrants at bee Hippy Hemp Dispensary around 10:30 a.m. The warrants were for the store’s owner, 41-year-old Chris- topher Charles Fagan, and the store’s manager, 55-year old David Lee Dranguet. Fagan is accused of distributing less than 5 pounds of marijuana. Dranguet faces two charges: distributing less than 5 pounds of marijuana and distributing less than 4 grams of marijuana. The police seized some 50 pounds of prepackaged products, including THC edibles. Some products that were tested by law enforcement showed levels of THC as high as 95.3%, according to Irving Weekly. The Garland Police Department said it couldn’t comment on the arrests because the investigation is ongoing. Hemp was legalized federally in 2018, and Texas legalized the stuff the following year. The laws established that cannabis with 0.3% delta-9 THC or less is legal hemp. Cannabis that exceeds that threshold is con- sidered illegal marijuana. Ever since, hemp manufacturers have been creating and sell- ing products with other forms of THC that can get users high. The thinking is that as long as the prod- ucts don’t exceed the legal amount of delta-9, manufacturers could do whatever they wanted with other forms of THC, such as delta-8. These other forms of THC share the same chemical formula as delta-9 but are dif- ferent in structure. They’re called THC iso- mers, and they’re often created synthetically in a lab. There’s a plethora of different THCs on the market, many of them sold by bee Hippy Hemp. The store’s website displayed a variety of products containing components like THCa, THCP, HHC and delta-8. It adver- tises disposable vape cartridges with 90% THCP, and others with over 30% THCa. Some have suggested the store’s sale of THCa products prompted the raid. THCa is the precursor to delta-9 and is not psychoac- tive, meaning it won’t get you high. That is until you heat it up. When heated, as in a vape pen or in a joint, it turns into delta-9. Zachary Maxwell, founder of the associa- tion Texas Hemp Growers, has been sound- ing the alarm about the sale of THCa products, saying that the way most law en- forcement agencies test marijuana will con- vert the stuff into delta-9, causing it to test over the legal THC limit. Others argue, how- ever, that regardless of how the products are tested, cannabis is legal as long as it doesn’t exceed 0.3% delta-9. “While some lawyers aggressively defend the legality of these products, I wonder if they have offered pro bono legal services to bee Hippy Hemp,” Maxwell wrote on his blog. “I also wonder if the manufacturers and distrib- utors that sold this retailer a bill of false hope will be donating to its legal defense fund.” Reached for comment by email, Fagan, the store owner, said he couldn’t confirm what products the store got busted for because he doesn’t even know. “Honestly, we don’t have a lot to say at this time because the police have not provided any details other than to say they’ve tested our product and it’s hot,” Fagan said. “They won’t say which products.” He said the only information the store has is what the police have said on social media. “It has become blatantly obvious that they’re attempting to shut our business down and completely destroy our reputation,” Fa- gan said. “Everything we sell is legal and compliant hemp, and we have the certificates of analysis [lab tests] to prove the delta-9 THC potency is within legal limits and was derived from Farm Bill compliant hemp.” The DEA says it’s working on new rules to clarify the legality of some of these THC isomer products. At the agency’s 2023 sup- ply chain conference last month, Terrance Boos, chief of the DEA’s Drug and Chemical Evaluation Section, said the synthetic cre- ation of these THCs is not allowed. “That act of taking that substance in any synthetic step now brings it back under the [Controlled Substances Act],” he said. Two days after the bee Hippy raid, Boos also sent a letter seeking to clarify the legal sta- tus of THCa. In the June 9 letter, he said what others have argued — that the federal hemp law requires testing to take into account the conversion of THCa into delta-9. To account for this, hemp must pass what’s called a post- decarboxylation test, also known as a total THC test. The letter was posted on Reddit and analyzed by North Carolina-based hemp in- dustry attorney Rod Kight. “Accordingly, cannabis derived delta-9 THCA does not meet the definition of hemp under the [Controlled Substances Act] be- cause upon conversion for identification purposes as required by Congress, it is equivalent to delta-9 THC,” Boos wrote. However, Kight argues on his blog that these testing standards apply only to hemp that is in production, not hemp that has al- ready been harvested. After the hemp is har- vested, he says, the only metric for determining if it’s legal is its delta-9 content. “In summary, this DEA pronouncement is bound to create more confusion in an already confusing area of law. However, it should properly be read as simply restating the fact that hemp producers must comply with the total THC test in order to harvest their hemp,” Kight wrote. “Post-harvest (i.e., post- production), the 2018 Farm Bill’s definition of hemp clearly states that the delta-9 THC lev- els are what matters, not the levels of THCa.” Law enforcement and the DEA may beg to differ. Nathan Hunsinger In Cuthand, Texas, Jim Marshall (left) and his neighbor Gary Cheatwood examine a map of the land the Marvin Nichols Reservoir could take. Unfair Park from p6 “WE WIND UP IN A SITUATION WHERE WE’RE TAKING PEOPLE’S PRODUCTIVE LAND.” - JANICE BEZANSON
