SOURCE: National Public Radio
EXCERPT:
If you want to get high in Texas, your options are almost limitless. This law-and-order state of guns, God and capital punishment is awash in cannabis.
Today, Texas has more than 7,000 cannabis dispensaries, almost twice as many as California. Add to that: 24-hour cannabis delivery, mobile pot trucks, cannabis vending machines, and mail-order cannabis.
"Texas has become known as the biggest open recreational market in the country. 'Open' meaning no regulations," says Nico Richardson, CEO of Texas Originals, which sells only medical marijuana.
It's confusing because recreational marijuana is still illegal in Texas. The socially conservative legislature—which also shuns casino gambling—has voted it down year after year. And yet, with its exploding market for largely unregulated consumable hemp, Texas has inadvertently become the new Republic of THC.
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"From day one we have tried to play by the rules," says Richardson, the head of Texas Original, one of only three companies licensed to grow, process and sell medical marijuana in Texas.
"We're getting slaughtered by a completely unregulated, intoxicating hemp industry," he continues.
Richardson calls it "unregulated" because his own independent testing, as well as an investigation by Texas Monthly Magazine, revealed that some hemp consumables in Texas far exceed the legal limit for THC, and some products are contaminated with heavy metals, pesticide and mold. Richardson claims Texas' unintentional hemp marketplace is now larger than any of the 24 states that voted in recreational marijuana.
And there are bad actors. Because there is no age limit in Texas, some hemp houses are brazenly selling to kids after high school lets out.
"There is no recreational market in the country that would allow that (sales to minors). Not one," Richardson says.
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