Robbie

This is the most senseless act of economic self-sabotage in modern history. $5.5 billion a year. 53,000 jobs. $268 million in annual sales tax. That's the hemp industry Texas criminalizes on Friday, when delta-8 and the other manufactured isomers go Schedule I. The state gave retailers three weeks' notice. Shops that are legal Thursday will be holding felony inventory Friday, and today I watched Austin stores giving product away because a giveaway is cheaper than a felony. Austin PD has already said possession will be a state jail felony. 180 days to 2 years and a $10,000 fine for a gummy, while actual weed stays a misdemeanor they rarely arrest for. Every court date and jail bed burned on a gummy case is capacity pulled off robberies and murders. Demand won't vanish and will simply walk to a dealer who tests nothing and answers to a cartel. Texans get a dirtier product and criminals get the revenue. Alcohol kills about 178,000 Americans a year. Tobacco kills 480,000. Both are legal in every corner store, and both industries bankroll the politicians who cheered this on. I own property in Austin. I walked through the Capitol this week and saw the Governor's Cups on display, all 14 of them, one for every straight year Site Selection magazine named Texas the top state in the nation for business investment. Growth that lifted everyone here. And the same state that polishes those trophies is torching a homegrown industry for nothing. Who is this ban for?