Texas governor speaks out on THC regulation, redistricting

Texas gov. speaks out on THC regulation, redistricting

Texas Governor Greg Abbott spoke out on multiple key issues including THC and redistricting on the second day of the special called session of the State Legislature.

AUSTIN, Texas - Texas Governor Greg Abbott spoke out on multiple key issues, including THC and redistricting, on the second day of the Special Session of the State Legislature.

THC regulation in Texas

Gov. Greg Abbott

First up, regulating THC instead of banning it outright.

"I stand in favor of doing all we can to protect the lives of our children while also protecting the liberty of adults and so the structure of what I'm looking for is this and that is we must continue to criminalize marijuana in the state of Texas, no change in the marijuana laws. We need to ban THC as well as hemp products for children under the age of 21. We don't want them to be exposed to that. We also need to ban synthetics that are laced onto to hemp products that are extraordinarily dangerous. That said, after we accomplish those two things for adults we need to have a highly regulated hemp industry to insure that farmers are able to grow it and that hemp products that do not have an intoxicating level of THC on it can be sold in the marketplace for adults to be able to use. At the same time we want to be able to make sure that there is strict enforcement and the only way we are going to be able to do that is through tough enforcement, the money for enforcement will come from all the market participants and we would create an enforcement structure like what we have in alcohol system that would insure that TABC would be involved in the process to make sure its going to be completely monitored and there is going to be criminal consequences for anybody who violates these standards," said Abbott.

Redistricting in Texas

Governor Abbott also addressed the controversial topic of redrawing Congressional boundaries mid-decade at the request of President Donald Trump.

Steven Dial of the "Fox Texas Trio" pressed Abbott on the issue, suggesting the Governor was caving to Trump.

"People are always going to lodge criticisms. I'm not going to worry about stuff like that. What I'm worried about is making sure we are going to have Congressional districts in the state of Texas where Texas is going to be represented in Washington D.C. In ways that fit the structure of this recent court decision that allows Texas to draw these districts that also maximize the ability of Texans to vote for their candidate of choice," said Abbott.

The Governor also said he's confident lawmakers will successfully address each of the 18 issues laid out in the call this session.