Army veteran, Ty Cobb, shops for CBD gummies which he says helps reduce his anxiety at Rock N' Roll It Vape Shop on Saturday February 25, 2023 in Houston, TX. "Edibles enable me to process and understand my emotions and high levels of anxiety. I have a better quality of life and am not so uptight and intense," he said.

Texas Lt. Govenor Dan Patrick shows his ID to an employee at The Happy Cactus Apothecary in Austin Tuesday, March 18, 2025. Courtesy of David Sergi.

Texas A&M undergraduate Clay Moore puts pollen on a legal cannabis Friday, April 8, 2022, in College Station. The cannabis plants greenhouse, each containing no more than the legal limit of THC in Texas. These hemp plants can be grown and sold legally.

Howdy is one of the non-alcoholic seltzer brands from Bayou City Hemp.

President Donald Trump greets Lt. Gov. of Texas Dan Patrick during a National Day of Prayer event in the Rose Garden of the White House, Thursday, May 1, 2025, in Washington.(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick doesn’t trust adults to make their own decisions.

The man who rules the Texas Senate convinced lawmakers to impose a prohibition on THC products on Wednesday and send a $4.3 billion business that employs 53,000 people underground. Polls show that most Texans think marijuana should be legal.

Patrick, who calls himself a Christian first and a conservative second, opposes recreational use of THC, the ingredient in cannabis that gets people high. During the Wednesday night debate, he promised to expand Texas’ medical marijuana program if House members banned widely available THC products sold as

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