Last-Minute THC Agreement Fell Apart
after Patrick Pulled Plug on Compromise
Capitol Inside
September 4, 2025
A juggernaut THC industry emerged as the single biggest winner of the summer
at the Texas Capitol when a bill that would have shut it down died on Thursday morning in the crossfire of a standoff between the state's top two leaders on the final night of a second special session.
The collapse of an apparent deal on Wednesday night ensured that cannabis gummies, drinks and flower products will remain legal for all ages in the Lone Star State at least until the Legislature meets again in regular session in 2027 barring any unexpected special sessions before that time.
The THC legislation's failure represented the single worst defeat for Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick in more than 10 years on the job as the state Senate president. Patrick invested massive political capital, time and emotion into his crusade for an outright prohibition on the sale of consumable products that are infused with THC derived from hemp.
But Patrick reportedly killed the fragile agreement that he'd forged with Governor Greg Abbott and Speaker Dustin Burrows for a THC package with strict regulations as the centerpiece without a full-scale ban that he championed. Patrick had insisted in the spring that there could be no middle ground on the issue. And when the governor and the speaker thought they had a deal, they say the lieutenant governor simply refused to compromise.
Patrick portrayed hemp-based THC as bad actors who are peddling dangerous products to children, causing addiction among parents and destroying Texas families as a by product. The lieutenant governor argued that it would be impossible to regulate an industry with more than 8,000 retail outlets around the state where there could be substantially more than he realizes.
The House caved under pressure from Patrick in the closing weeks of the regular session when the Republicans abandoned a regulatory proposal that Speaker Dustin Burrows' team had developed and voted for a full-scale prohibition that would have wiped out the budding young industry if Governor Greg Abbott hadn't saved it with a veto in June.
Abbott said the ban was legally defective and would not survive a court challenge. The governor called for strict regulations for the THC industry as the sole original reason for calling a special session to begin in July. But an epic flood on the Guadalupe River on July 4th prompted Abbott and lawmakers to relegate THC to a second-level priority with disaster relief as the new number one concern by the time the initial session convened in July.
Flood-related measures took a back seat to congressional redistricting, however, by the time the first summer session got under way with hearings around the state. The Patrick ban in Senate Bill 6 spent two weeks bottled up in the House Public Health Committee with its chairman, GOP State Rep. Gary VanDeaver as the west wing sponsor for a similar bill.
Then when the cannabis measure appeared to be doomed in special session number two, the rival chambers struck a tentative deal on Wednesday and House Republicans expected to bring it up before the Legislature adjourned late that night. But the reported accord proved to be an illusion and the Patrick prohibition died a second time in less than three months without a vote on the floor in the House.
Patrick eschewed the temptation for sour grapes and thanked Abbott and Burrows for trying to find a way to break the stalemate. The lieutenant governor had said at one point in the spring that the status quo would be the most unacceptable of the various alternatives on the table. But that's the outcome nonetheless after the powerful Senate leader refused to blink.
| 
