6 November 20 - 26, 2025 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents Feds Roll Up a THC Ban Texas hemp industry feels another bad trip coming. BY KELLY DEARMORE W ith the federal govern- ment finally reopened, the Texas hemp indus- try is experiencing deja vu as yet another THC ban looks to be in place, but this time, at the federal level. As a part of the spending package approved by the U.S. House and Senate, intoxicating hemp products are now outlawed under the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administra- tion (FDA), and Related Agencies Appro- priations Act. Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell is re- sponsible for the provision that would ban THC products. He’s also often cited as the lawmaker responsible for the loophole that allowed for the THC industry to boom in the first place. Over the summer, he admitted as much, saying in a Senate Appropriations hearing, “My 2018 hemp bill sought to cre- ate an agricultural hemp industry, not open the door to the sale of unregulated, intoxi- cating, lab-made, hemp-derived substances with no safety framework.” The intoxicating hemp products ban pro- vision would prevent “the unregulated sale of intoxicating hemp-based or hemp-derived products, includ- ing Delta-8, from being sold online, in gas stations, and corner stores, while preserving non-intoxicating CBD and indus- trial hemp prod- ucts,” according to a summary of the legislation provided by the Senate Appro- priations Committee. If all of this sounds familiar to Texans, it should. We’re only a few months removed from a statewide ban narrowly missing be- coming law following the 89th Texas Legis- lature. As one of his top priorities for the session, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick aimed to imme- diately shut down an industry that report- edly generates billions of dollars and thousands of jobs from thousands of retail- ers and manufacturers. Although the bill banning intoxicating hemp in Texas made its way onto Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk in June, it was vetoed, with the governor citing “valid constitutional challenges.” For Texas THC manufacturers and re- tailers, the term “one battle after another” isn’t just a recent Hollywood box office hit. When reached by phone last week, Wyatt Larew, co-founder of Wyatt Purp, a North Texas dispensary and manufacturer special- izing in legal, all-natural THC products like gummies, wasted no time in summing up the devastating effect the federal THC ban would have on his business. . How High? “They said 0.4 grams for the whole package [will be allowed], which means that every THC product on the market right now in Texas will be illegal,” he said. “Not even full- spectrum CBD products can meet that, be- cause 0.4 grams is not per gummy, it’s per package.” Indeed, a key difference between what the feds are proposing now and what is legal in Texas is the measurement Larew pointed out. The bill sets a cap of 0.4 milligrams of total THC “per container of a finished hemp-derived product.” In this case, “con- tainer” means “the innermost wrapping, packaging or vessel in direct contact with a final hemp-derived cannabinoid product.” For example, a single, currently legal 10 mg Wyatt Purp delta-9 gummy, like the ones we recently reviewed, would be catastrophi- cally over the legal limit, not to mention an entire bag of them. Under the federal ban, Larew says it would be pointless to even try to manufacture or sell gummies that com- plied. “You’d have to buy 20 individually pack- aged and sold gummies to probably not even get the same effect as one of our gummies now,” he said. Austin attorney and lobbyist Susan Hays sees the federal language as an escalation of what Patrick tried to achieve in Texas. “This federal ban is a belt, suspenders, chastity belt type of ban on any useful con- sumable hemp product,” she said. “I just think of it as a more sophisticated THC ban bill than what the Legislature passed in the regular session, with the killer being the 0.4 mg container cap.” But Hays doesn’t necessarily see the fed- eral bill as the end for THC in Texas. The ban will provide a 365-day grace period for businesses to become compliant, and she pointed to how some conservatives, includ- ing Sen. Ted Cruz and Rep. Dan Crenshaw, have spoken out against banning THC at the federal level this week as possible signs of life. “It’ll be a year of a great lobbying scramble,” she said. “This is major prohi- bitionist language. It is way over the top; it would shut down scores and scores of businesses around the country and there’s a year where another bill can get some language stuffed in it to undo all this. I’m not panicked, because there’s a long way to go.” Hays might be right. The worst-case sce- nario for those in the Texas THC industry might not come to be even if the ban passes this week as part of the spending package to open the federal government. But if it does, Wyatt Purp’s Larew has an idea of what his Plan B might be. “I might just leave the United States,” he says. “I might move to Spain and start a can- nabis company there.” ▼ CITY HALL FUNCTION OVER FORM, DOLLARS OVER ALL IN THE PUSH FOR A MORE EFFICIENT CITY, DALLAS CITY HALL MAY HAVE TO DIE. BY EMMA RUBY L ast week’s Dallas City Council vote did not call for a wrecking ball to be at the Marilla Street plaza ready to take down City Hall as soon as the sun rose this morning. But what the members sitting around the horseshoe voted for could clear the path to that type of drama. After three hours of executive session, 62 agenda items and dozens of public speakers, the council voted 12-3 to direct City Manager Kimberly Tolbert to explore alternatives to the current City Hall build- ing and conduct an economic analysis of the area. The move came amid a balloon- ing estimate of what the deferred mainte- nance on the building would cost to fix; what was once $80 million has now reached $350 million, and city staff have warned the costs of repairs could go even higher. The council has agreed that the status quo cannot continue, but only a small fac- tion seems to believe that finding the money to renovate the building designed by the re- nowned architect I.M. Pei should be the path forward. While council member Paul Ridley proposed an amendment that would have slowed the process by first directing a third-party firm to conduct an evaluation of City Hall’s needs, function and wear and tear before a real estate assessment is done, the motion failed. A second motion, which would have created a task force of outside professionals to review the assessments and make recommendations to the council, also failed. Several council members responded to Ridley’s resolution by emphasizing the city’s ability to “walk and chew gum at the same time.” They stated their belief that a real es- tate survey and an internal building inspec- tion can be conducted simultaneously. “[City Hall] shouldn’t be a sacred cow,” said council member Gay Donnell Willis, who noted that although a majority of the evening’s speakers had called for the build- ing to be saved, emails and phone calls from constituents have had a more approving atti- tude toward looking outward for City Hall’s future. The approved resolution calls for city staff to conduct an assessment of the of- fice space required by the city’s various departments, while also reviewing office space available for purchase or lease that could accommodate those needs. The city will also bring in outside experts to assess the deferred maintenance costs of the Marilla Street building, consider the po- tential economic benefits of redeveloping the site and conduct a market study to de- termine the best development approach for the area. The results of those inquiries are expected to be presented to the coun- cil in early 2026. Council members who voted in favor of the resolution repeatedly reminded the au- dience in the council chamber that the vote was about obtaining information, not a vote for selling or relocating from City Hall. Council member Chad West, who has found himself driving the conversation about City Hall’s future as chair of the council’s Fi- nance Committee, acknowledged that the conversation was an “emotional” one, but reminded the horseshoe that the discussion was initiated by the mayor in the August document that announced committee as- signments. At the time, Mayor Eric Johnson directed the Finance Committee to “determine whether Dallas City Hall and other munici- pal facilities effectively support city opera- tions and best serve the citizens of | UNFAIR PARK | Adobe Stock THC gummies and other intoxicating hemp products have been in GOP crosshairs throughout 2025. WE’RE ONLY A FEW MONTHS REMOVED FROM A STATEWISE BAN NARROWLY MISSING BECOMING LAW FOLLOWING THE 89TH TEXAS LEGISLATURE. >> p8
