AUSTIN (Nexstar) — Thirteen days after Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order requiring state agencies to take steps to ban THC sales to minors, the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) created an emergency rule to ban sales to those under 21.
The rule — adopted unanimously at the TABC Commission meeting Tuesday morning — would cancel the license of a TABC licensee who “sells, offers to sell, serves, or delivers a consumable hemp product to a minor.” The regulation carves out exceptions for retailers who “reasonably” believed the customer was not a minor, and the minor lied about their age.
In addition, TABC adopted a rule preventing sale of consumable hemp to anyone who fails to provide a “valid, unexpired proof of identification issued by a governmental agency that contains a physical description and photograph consistent with the person’s appearance and that purports to establish that the person is 21 years of age or older.”
TABC passed the rule on an emergency basis, allowing for immediate effect with enforcement starting on Oct. 1. Emergency rules can only take effect for 180 days before being replaced with a permanent rule. A TABC spokesperson said the agency is currently working with the Department of State Health Services (DSHS) to determine which DSHS hemp license holders do not have a TABC license so they can also enforce the rules on those companies.
‘The brain isn’t ready’
While hemp industry leaders — who had pushed for a bill preventing minors from accessing THC — celebrated TABC’s move, those who tried to get the substance banned feel they haven’t gone far enough.
“We like the idea of restricting the age so at the store level people under the age of 25 wouldn’t be able to enter,” Betsy Jones with Texans for Safe and Drug-Free Youth, said. “We now know the brain isn’t ready to start making those kinds of decisions until 25.”
“There is some scientific literature to back that up,” Nicolas Mortillaro, a hemp shop operator with a chemical engineering background, said. “But you also have to think about medical patients… we have medical patients, sometimes at 17, who benefit from these compounds. My concern with putting any age gate that is higher (than 21) without an exception for those patients denies them access to the compounds they need for their conditions.”
Mortillaro is fully on-board with the new change, and has even created vending machines using facial recognition software to safely sell to only adults.
“My hope is that these are in businesses everywhere, and as common as RedBox used to be,” he said. “It is really one of these highly-compliant solutions… that regulators, parents (and) the industry can trust as a safe way to vend these consumable hemp products.”
