Patrick May Have Hurt Case for THC Ban
with False Claims in Abbott Pressure Bid
Capitol Inside
May 29, 2025
A small Austin business that caters to veterans accused Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick on Thursday of lying repeatedly at a press conference that he staged on Wednesday as a thinly-veiled pressure tactic aimed at Governor Greg Abbott in a bid to head off a veto on a statewide THC ban.
The event behind the Senate chamber unfolded like a classic dog-and-pony show - complete with a long line of speakers who repeated the same baseless claims behind a brightly-colored collage of packages with gummies, cereal bites and other THC products that Patrick obtained as props for the urgent pitch.
After failing to present any evidence to support the alarming rhetoric that House and Senate sponsors used to scare GOP representatives into supporting Senate Bill 3, Patrick may have set himself up for a lawsuit with a flurry of wildly unbelievable claims that he unleashed with the urgency of a desperation Hail Mary.
The Austin company Hometown Hero accused Patrick of blatant lying throughout the press event with inflammatory and potentially slanderous statements about the business and the products that it's marketed legally for the past five years.
Patrick "claimed that we didn’t test our products and they aren’t regulated (all of our products are third party lab tested in accordance with Texas state law HB 1325)," Hometown Hero ATX said in a post on X last night.
"He also claimed our products were Delta 10 and Delta 6 when they are actually Delta 9 THC," the firm added. "And he also claimed “we have no clue what’s in it”, well Governor (Patrick) if you turn it over you’ll find full ingredients list as well as nutritional information and certificate of analysis" on every product that's available there.
Patrick may have hurt his case for the ban when he turned to psychological warfare and claimed to know how he feels about the prohibition down deep inside.
“I know where his heart is - and I know where he wants to be to protect children and adults,” Patrick said of the Republican governor in his deliberations on whether he will sign SB 3, kill it with a red pen stroke or let the measure become law without his signature.
Patrick ran the risk of offending Abbott by acting though he was speaking for him on a subject that the governor has kept close to the vest. The lieutenant governor snapped at a reporter for asking why the state could adopt laws designed to keep children from drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes but could not do the same for THC without banning its use for adults as well.
Patrick failed again to produce any evidence to back up claims that legal cannabis has been poisoning and killing Texans, wrecking families and leaving a swath of addiction and lives destroyed in its murderous wake.
The Senate and House sponsors for Patrick's prohibition have relied on the same talking points that appear to be taking from the scripts of American exploitation propaganda films from the 1930s that are cult classics now like Reefer Madness and Marihuana: Weed with Roots in Hell.
The performances that Patrick and State Senator Charles Perry of Lubbock delivered at the press conference could lead Abbott to question if the legislators who backed SB 3 are in the dark as much about the consequences of a THC ban as they were when they hatched the booming industry they want to shut down now with scare stories in lieu of evidence.
more to come ...
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