14 August 22 - 28, 2024 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents The third-floor media room inside the Cotton Bowl may have been relatively quiet at that point, but shortly after, the sound of gun-loving hearts breaking could be heard from El Paso to Texarkana. Fox 4 reported on the change shortly af- ter the press conference, and folks on X wasted no time in expressing their displea- sure. “I thought this was the Texas State Fair, not the California State Fair,” wrote one X user, while another one added “what is this Nazi germany …” Of course, there was a cascade of people stating they would not be attending the fair this year, so maybe those who do go will en- joy shorter lines for coupons and cotton candy bacon. Others on X seemed to think fewer peo- ple packing heat will mean the fair will somehow be less safe in 2024. “Great idea, let’s make the patrons easier to rob on their way out of the fair. Brilliant!” wrote one unhappy X user. Another added, “Make everyone an easy target. Great plan. Conceal and protect yourselves.” In a development more predictable than the fair opting to tighten gun rules the year after a shooting occurred on its grounds, conservative state Rep. Briscoe Cain chimed in on the Fox 4 post with “Contact the @ StateFairOfTX and demand they reverse this dangerous policy.” Nor is he the only legislator pissed about this new rule. Last week, more than 70 Texas lawmakers signed a letter pleading with the fair to reverse course. “The Texas Legislature has repeatedly enhanced Texans’ Second Amendment rights, but your actions raise questions about the need for legislation next Session to fur- ther protect these rights on lands managed by the public,” the letter reads in part. North Texas legislators who signed the letter included Rep. Kronda Thimesch, Rep. Nate Schatzline, Sen. Mayes Middleton and Rep. Jeff Leach. In a statement provided to the Observer on Tuesday morning, Karissa Condoianis, the fair’s senior vice president of public rela- tions, noted that the fair has received “both criticism and praise” for the change in pol- icy and that the fair has long been a sup- porter of the rights of responsible gun owners, but that additional steps were needed. “It has been suggested that this decision makes the State Fair a ‘gun free’ zone and therefore less safe than before. We disagree with this suggestion,” Condoianis wrote. “The State Fair has adopted a similar policy to that of most mass community gathering events like athletic competitions, concerts, and other Fairs throughout the state and across the nation. The State Fair of Texas spends millions of dollars per year on safety and security measures. Furthermore, the Dallas Police Department has a substation at Fair Park. A combined total of more than 200 uniformed and armed DPD officers and State Fair Safety Team members are patrolling the fairgrounds whenever the gates are open. We take the safety of the State Fair very seriously and will continue to do so.” ▼ POLICE HEMP, HEMP, HOORAY! DALLAS POLICE KNOW WHAT TO DO WHEN THEY FIND PEOPLE WITH HEMP. BY JACOB VAUGHN W e’ve written much about people with hemp getting in trouble with the law, particularly in cit- ies surrounding Dallas. Hemp shops have been raided, and people have been arrested for possessing products like delta-8 THC and CBD. This seems to be a result of some police departments being fuzzy on current hemp laws, which, to be fair, are a bit fuzzy themselves sometimes. To get an idea of how the Dallas Police Department handles hemp, the Observer re- quested a year’s worth of police reports be- ginning Jan. 1, 2023, that mentioned hemp products such as delta-9 THC, delta-8 THC, delta-10 THC, THCa and HHC, all of which can be intoxicating and are, depending on how much or which lawyer you ask, argu- ably legal to possess. What we found is that DPD officers are not charging people with crimes for possessing it. Things became more difficult for police departments after the passage of the 2018 federal Farm Bill and Texas’ House Bill 1325. These laws legalized hemp, defining it as cannabis with 0.3% delta-9 THC or less. Delta-9 THC is the main psychoactive com- ponent in weed that gets users high, but dif- ferent forms of THC, such as THCa and delta-8, aren’t explicitly mentioned in the laws and can also get users high. Savvy en- trepreneurs saw a crack of daylight in the law and started pumping out products loaded with these versions of THC. The state of Texas tried to ban these other forms of THC in 2021 and got sued by hemp manufacturer Hometown Hero. So far, the courts have sided with the hemp company, but the case could go to the Texas Supreme Court. The difficulty for police departments is that their field tests can’t distinguish be- tween marijuana and hemp, and the two substances look and smell the same. So, these days, charging someone for marijuana possession is more complicated than just finding a green leafy substance or a package that contains THC. Some local law enforce- ment agencies — for example, Allen PD — focused on the question of what will get users high and less on organic chemistry and are making arrests and filing cases. Often, police departments have to send the substances to a lab determine whether it’s hemp or marijuana before they can file charges for possession. That appears to be what DPD is doing and, it’s letting people off the hook if they determine the substance to be hemp. Other Texas police departments have taken a different approach. Back in October in Killeen, Kyle Brown’s Venom Vapors shop was raided because police said he was selling products with illegal levels of THC. Brown maintained that everything he sold was considered hemp. That didn’t stop the police from taking all of his product and sending it to a lab. Before that, there was a raid on a hemp shop in Garland that involved local police and a Drug Enforcement Administra- tion (DEA) task force. The shop’s owner and a Unfair Park from p12 Maybe they should strap a giant six-shooter on Big Texas to keep lawmakers happy. The State Fair of Texas Will possessing cannabis like this lead you to jail? Maybe not in Dallas. Jacob Vaughn >> p16