Texas Defends THC Testing Rule in Hemp Appeal Brief

TEXAS, September 24, 2026: The State of Texas asked an appeals court to uphold its hemp testing rules, filing a reply brief September 17 that completes written arguments in a year-long legal fight over how regulators calculate whether consumable hemp products exceed the state's THC limit.

The filing, submitted to the Fifteenth Court of Appeals in the case brought by the Texas Hemp Business Council, defends the Department of State Health Services' method of counting THCA's potential conversion to delta-9 THC toward the state's 0.3 percent total-THC threshold. The state argued the approach is scientifically and legally sound, that its licensing fees and import restrictions on noncompliant hemp fall within its statutory authority, and that the agency satisfied Texas rulemaking requirements by responding to more than 1,400 public comments. THBC counters that the dispute is really about whether an executive agency can replace a standard set by the Legislature without completing formal rulemaking.

Both sides have asked for oral argument, but the court has not scheduled it or said whether it will rule on the written briefs alone. DSHS's rules remain in effect while the case is pending, and a decision could land before or after the state's other three pending hemp lawsuits, including an October 30 injunction hearing in a separate Travis County case, are resolved.

No hemp beverage regulatory or business developments were confirmed elsewhere in the Gulf and Interior South this week. Kentucky, Louisiana, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi and Arkansas each remain under regulatory frameworks unchanged from prior weeks, while Oklahoma's reclassification of THC as a Schedule I substance under Senate Bill 1257 is set to take effect November 1, with the state still not saying how it will interact with hemp beverages' existing THC standard.