The statewide survey also found that Texas Republicans are closely divided on the issue.
A majority of Texas voters oppose a comprehensive ban on hemp-derived THC products like the one recently vetoed by Gov. Greg Abbott, according to a statewide poll released this week.
The survey from the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin found that 53% of Texas voters opposed the ban approved by the Legislature, Senate Bill 3, during the regular session that ended earlier this month. Thirty-one percent of voters voiced support for the ban.
Republican voters were divided on the issue with 46% supporting a ban and 39% opposing it, according to the poll that was conducted in early June after the Legislature adjourned but before the governor spiked SB 3 Sunday night.
Abbott’s veto of SB 3 drew immediate condemnation from Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the state’s second-in-command who had championed the ban. Patrick, the presiding officer of the state Senate, also rejected Abbott’s call for lawmakers to more strictly regulate the products — in lieu of a ban — during an overtime legislative session next month.
“The Legislature looks toward a potentially heated special session,” the pollsters wrote, noting voters’ divided views on the issue.
SB 3 would have banned consumable hemp products that contained tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive compound in marijuana known as THC. Such products have become widely available at gas stations and smoke shops across the state since lawmakers authorized the sale of consumable hemp in 2019.
Since the last-minute veto, Patrick has blasted Abbott in a rare rift between the state’s top two elected officials, who have typically been friendly during the decade they have each served in their respective roles overseeing Texas’ rightward shift.
“This is a fight that didn’t need to be,” Patrick said Monday. “Where has he been all session? Where has he been? We get this [veto] proclamation from him last night after midnight, and he parachutes in at the last moment with arguments that we do not think are valid.”
On Tuesday, Patrick said, “it won’t be long before 8,000 smoke and vape shops will be out of business in Texas” after a federal appeals court let a similar ban resume in Arkansas.
Abbott had cited the Arkansas case in his veto proclamation, where he argued that SB 3 could not withstand legal scrutiny and would be tied up in the courts for years. Responding to the Tuesday ruling, Abbott said on social media that there were key differences between the Texas and Arkansas THC bans..
“Even though the Arkansas law was not plagued with the same legal defects as the Texas bill, it still was unenforced for two years and will be further tied up in court for years to come,” Abbott wrote. “I vetoed the Texas bill because we do not have time for a protracted legal fight — we must act now to keep Texas children safe. That process begins next month.”
The governor has not otherwise responded to Patrick’s criticism and accusations.
The divided views among Republican voters on the THC ban reflect their changing attitudes on the legal status of marijuana, according to Texas Politics Project polling.
A decade ago, 31% of Texas Republicans said marijuana possession should not be legal under any circumstances. That figure now stands at 21%. Meanwhile, the percentage of Republican voters who backed legalization of small amounts of marijuana for any purpose increased from 23% in 2015 to 31% in April.
Source: Alejandro Serrano, The Texas Tribune
Photo Credit: Credit: Juan Figueroa/The Texas Tribune
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