When the record-breaking government shutdown finally came to an end after 43 long days, on November 12, 2025, the legislation also surprised many, especially those in Texas, for what else it ushered in: a nationwide ban on virtually all CBD and hemp-derived THC products in America.
This news must have come as a shock to many of the 8,000 licensed retailers across Texas, who represent the backbone of what’s become a multibillion dollar market that employs 53,000 people in the state.
During this one year moratorium before the federal law takes effect, all those who rely on the industry in Texas financially are now asking themselves what now? As Texas Public Radio reports, Mike Ballerini owns the Double Vapes shop, one of the nine thousand stores registered with the state to sell consumable hemp products. Those products include everything from drinks and vape juice to THC gummies, and more. Ballerini predicts many hemp shop owners will likely be forced to shutter their businesses, because just like him, much of their inventories will be illegal a year from now. “If all this stuff had been compliant to begin with then we probably wouldn’t be in the situation that we’re in.”
The Texas hemp industry has its roots in the 2018 Farm Bill and Texas HB 1325, which stipulate that hemp products are legal only if Delta 9 THC is below .3% by dry weight. But study results released in April of 2024 by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) found that the vast majority of samples – roughly 93% - contained more than 0.3% THC, making them illegal.
That fact may help explain a sign on the wall you might see at some hemp shops that say – ‘consume at your own risk.’ Ballerini concludes, “So I have no sympathy for this industry at all. Should have followed the rules. Now we’re all crying, ‘oh no, my business is failing.’” Ballerini says he will be shutting down this store and turning his other hemp shop into a liquor store.
But for others switching business won’t be so easy. Take Commercial hemp grower Kenneth Berner, for instance. He owns two smoke shops in Galveston County, Texas. He says he follows all the rules. “We focus on all natural hemp products; we don't try to bring in any of the other mess.” Berner describes giving everything he’s got into his business endeavors, only to watch it be on the verge of going up in smoke quite literaly. “I don't understand how we can legalize something, let everybody invest all their money into it, get up and running and, and, and then just strip it away from 'em. I don't know. I really don't know what that's going to do with us.”
In general, it's fair to say there is a great sense of whiplash in Texas. That’s because the vast majority of 2025 was spent debating the fate of intoxicating hemp products to answer one question: whether to ban or to regulate hemp-derived THC products?
First out of the box, as it were, came Senate Bill 3 (SB 3), which called for a ban. Both the the House and Senate approved the measuure and sent SB 3 to Gov. Greg Abbott's desk. But on June 22, 2025, Gov. Abbott vetoed SB 3. The governor had other plans. He called lawmakers back to Austin for a special legislative session to draft a bill that would tighten regulations on intoxicating help products, and to do so without wiping out an entire multibillion dollar market.
Yet, after two special sessions lawmakers still failed to find common ground. In the end, it was Gov. Abott himself who issued an executive order in September, who instituted those tighter regulations. For Abbott that meant making sure no one under 21 could purchase these hemp products. The ordeal was over, everyone thought. There was no ban, the industry survived. That is why word of a national ban on virtually all CBD and hemp-derived THC products came as a such a blow in Texas when it was attached to the spending bill that finally reopened the government.
Berner worries what his customers might do now without the products they had relied on to deal with pain, anxiety, sleep issues and more. Berner says he knows customers do not want to return to the days of pharmaceuticals. “I would say nine out 10 people currently using legal hemp products where they are legal, are going to become criminals and be buying it from the black market because they do not want to go back. They don't feel they should have to. And I agree with them.”
Hemp industry leaders aren’t throwing in the towel just yet. The U.S. Hemp Roundtable, for one, announced plans to spearhead efforts to either reverse the national ban in Congress, or at least revise the law to make regulations similar to those surrounding alcohol. As for Berner, he said the fight’s over, at least for him. Personally, he does not believe Congress will reverse the ban, which becomes effective November 13, 2026.
