After weeks of back-and-forth court rulings over the future of the Texas hemp market, state regulators may again be able to enforce new rules targeting smokable hemp products and charging sharply higher fees on retailers and manufacturers.

The Texas Fifteenth Court of Appeals on Friday denied the hemp industry’s emergency request to keep a temporary injunction in place.

That temporary injunction, issued May 1, had blocked the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) from enforcing major portions of new consumable hemp regulations while the lawsuit against them plays out.

The appeals court’s order puts the case in a temporary holding pattern. The two sentence decision doesn’t decide whether the rules are legal. But for now, it pauses the lower court order that had allowed hemp businesses to keep selling hemp flower and concentrate.

Hemp is a legal category of cannabis that contains no more than 0.3% Delta-9 THC, the plant’s main psychoactive ingredient. Marijuana is cannabis with more than 0.3% Delta-9.

But cannabis can contain other mind-altering compounds including THCA, which converts to Delta-9 when heated or smoked. Hemp stores have been selling smokable cannabis with high levels of THCA, similar to the cannabis sold in states where marijuana is legal.

The state’s new “Total THC Rule,” which had been put on hold by the lower court, counts THCA as 88% Delta-9 when it comes to selling and manufacturing hemp products. The appeals court’s decision now means that rule is back in effect.

“I know it’s been a lot of crazy back and forth and the lawyers are doing their best to push this forward and keep this going,” said Lukas Gilkey, CEO of Hometown Hero, an Austin-based retailer and manufacturer of consumable hemp products. Gilkey helped set up the Texas Hemp Business Council, which is the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit seeking to block some of the state’s new hemp rules.

“This is really going to impact the small stores,” he said. “If they have flower that qualifies under the rules, then they’re allowed to sell it. If they don’t, then theoretically, yes, they would have to stop.”

Smokable hemp products account for well over half the market in Texas, according to estimates by Portland-based Whitney Economics and Robin Goldstein, director of the Cannabis Economics Group at UC Davis.

The temporary injunction had also frozen the state’s new fee schedule for hemp businesses. Retailers’ annual registration fee had increased from $150 to $5,000 per location. Manufacturing fees increased from $250 a year to $10,000 annually.

KUT News has reached out to DSHS to ask whether the agency plans to enforce the Total THC Rule or the new fee schedule,

Possession of THCA products is still not explicitly prohibited under state law, which uses the Delta-9 metric to differentiate between hemp and marijuana. Austin police have advised people carrying smokable hemp products to keep the packaging with them to avoid having the flower or concentrate confiscated by an officer.

The case continues before the Fifteenth Court of Appeals. A final trial in Travis County had been set for July 27, but the date was seen as more of a placeholder, and this appeal could affect that timeline.

Screwworm risk and household pets

While state animal health officials race to contain the New World screwworm, federal officials confirmed the first case of the parasite in a dog. FOX 7 Austin’s Alec Nolan has more on what pet owners might want to be aware of. 

AUSTIN, Texas – Livestock and pet owners alike are on high alert in Texas after the USDA initially reported a canine case of the New World screwworm in the panhandle town of Andrews on Monday.

Federal officials later clarified that although the test was done in Texas, the dog actually lives in neighboring Lea County, New Mexico.

RELATED COVERAGE: Dog among 2 new screwworm cases; Canada blocks Texas livestock imports

Why you should care:

Regardless of jurisdiction, many Texans have been left to wonder if their pet is safe from the flesh-eating parasite.

FOX 7 Austin spoke with Dr. Alexandra Ives from Austin Urban Vet Center to better understand what pet owners might want to be aware of.

“If your animal does have an open wound and you are starting to notice like a weird smell or maggots definitely call your vet as soon as possible,” Dr. Ives said. “It is something we would report to the state boards as well.”

Dr. Ives says modern monthly flea and tick medications work as a first line of defense.

“The biggest thing is keeping them on flea and tick prevention things like Credelio Quattro, Simparica Trio, Nexgard and Brevecto,” Dr. Ives said. “They do prevent and treat these screwworms.”

The New World screwworm fly is drawn to even the tiniest scratch on your pet, unloading hundreds of eggs surrounding the break in the skin.

Within 12 hours, those eggs can hatch into flesh-eating larvae.

Dr. Ives says dogs working on ranches and farms are at a greater risk.

“Screwworm we’re seeing most often in our cattle so if these dogs are spending a lot of time with cattle or sheep or you know on these big farms where these animals don’t have that kind of protection, they are definitely more susceptible just with the exposure risk,” Dr. Ives said.

Whether on a ranch or a daily sidewalk stroll, Dr. Ives says vigilance is the key to staying safe.

“It’s most often in a wound, but they can get in the mouth, nose, orifice, it’s just not as common,” Dr. Ives said.

“I feel like people are watching their pets a little more than a thousand head cattle farm so just keep an eye on them.” 

As school districts across Texas, including Austin ISD, face budget crises and the threat of campus closures, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa is launching a new effort she says is aimed at helping communities fight back.

Hinojosa said Texas public schools are in dire condition.

“I will tell you that our public schools are on life support right now,” she said.

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Hinojosa announced a nonpartisan organizing program called Team Texas Public Schools. The program is designed to train parents, teachers and administrators to fight school closures in communities “getting hit the hardest.”

“Ten schools in this city alone in the school district are shutting down, but it is happening all over this state,” Hinojosa said.

Asked about Austin ISD’s budget process and closures, Hinojosa said, “What I think is important for the people of Austin to understand as they are in the trenches fighting this fight is that it is not just you.”

She also blamed Gov. Greg Abbott for the situation, saying, “And it is important for supporters of our public schools for parents and teachers to understand that Greg Abbott meant for this to happen.”

Abbott, Hinojosa’s November opponent, has focused his K-12 agenda on school vouchers in recent years. In February, Abbott celebrated what his office called “record-breaking school choice demand” after more than 100,000 families applied for vouchers.

Abbott said of vouchers: “Through this program, families will receive funds to send their children to a school that is the best fit for them.”

However, University of Texas at Austin professor Jennifer Keys Adair studies elementary and early childhood education, and says, “vouchers are definitely diverting funds from public neighborhood elementary schools.”

She also added, “it seems like in this voucher conversation, oh, it will allow all families to be able to choose where they go to school. But we know that that’s not what’s happening,” said Adair. She added more affluent families are more likely to get a voucher and said, “So in that case, you’re furthering the kind of pressure on teachers and we’re furthering the like lack of resources that we’re offering to children who need it most.”

Hinojosa said she opposes that approach.

“I don’t believe in public school vouchers,” she said. Hinojosa even called it a “scam.”

Austin ISD parent and former district principal Claudia Kramer Santamaria said she believes Hinojosa is the right advocate for Texas public schools.

“We understand as former principal and teacher that we needed to really have an advocate and I think that’s what failed,” Santamaria said.

Hinojosa also criticized Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath for what she called a “rigged” A-F report card system, saying Morath gets to “make the [STAAR] test, rate the test, look at results, and then decide who fails and who passes,” and added “And he rigs it to make it show what he wants it to show. And he wants it to show that our Texas public schools aren’t strong. And he wants it to show that privatization is a better option.”

Hinojosa said that if she becomes governor she would replace Morath.

Requests for comment were sent to the governor’s campaign and the Texas Education Agency about what Hinojosa said, and we are awaiting responses.