At a recently opened Vape Time smoke shop on Shepherd Drive in Houston, a neon sign advertised “DELTA 8” on Wednesday. But inside, the advertised delta-8 had been pulled off the shelves. That’s because Texas recently banned delta-8 and delta-9 products, though the cashier said he still wasn’t clear what the store was allowed to sell. As a precaution, Vape Time now sells hardly any THC products.
“It’s still confusing trying to figure out what can stay and what has to go,” the cashier, who asked to remain anonymous, told Chron. “They aren’t really being specific.”
After a campaign from conservative Texas lawmakers who argued that the state’s THC retailers were exploiting a loophole and peddling products to kids, a crackdown ensued. At the end of July, Texas moved to reschedule and ban the sale of several hemp-derived THC products, such as those containing delta-8 and delta-10 THC derivatives. Possessing these products is now an offense that can carry jail time.
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And this week, Texas’ hemp industry was handed another setback. A federal judge in Galveston declined to block the ban from the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS), allowing it to stay in force while the case against the new rule continues. That follows a Texas Supreme Court decision from May that allowed DSHS to reschedule THC products as Schedule I, save for those containing delta-9.
Many retailers around Texas have stopped selling any delta-8 they had in stock, said Cynthia Cabrera, the Chief Strategy Officer at Austin-based hemp retailer Hometown Hero.
“Right now, the status of delta-8 products is on hold. They cannot be sold,” Cabrera told Chron. “It’s a controlled substance until this gets sorted out in the court system.”
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Stores like Vape Time, the cashier explained, buy much of their stock in bulk from manufacturers months in advance. Despite the new ban, the store still has shipments of delta-8 joints and vapes they can’t sell. He pulled out a box of delta-8 pre-rolled joints from underneath the counter as an example. Vape Time will have to return it and other products to the manufacturer.
“Everything has to go back,” the cashier said.
“This is so stupid, why would anybody do this? This is BS.”
THC edibles are displayed on shelves at the Austin Smoke & Gift Shop on November 21, 2025 in Austin, Texas.
Brandon Bell/Getty Images
One cannabis expert who talked to the Texas Tribune said that as many as half of THC products sold in Texas shops may need to be removed from the shelves. But losing the ability to sell delta-8 and delta-10 products, for now, may not be an immediate death blow to the some 14,000 Texas retailers licensed to sell consumable hemp products. The impact, Cabrera explained, depends on how much delta-8 a store was selling before the ban went into place, though stores could still see an effect on their bottom line.
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“It’s a financial blow to these businesses; it’s just one less product that they’re able to carry,” Cabrera said. “Depending on what the revenue stream from delta-8 products was for a particular business, it could be 5 percent, it could be 20 percent. It would depend on the business.”
Cabrera said that Hometown Hero, one of the state’s biggest hemp retailers, won’t be significantly impacted because delta-8 doesn’t make up most of the company’s revenue. Delta-9 edibles are Hometown Hero’s big sellers. Still, hemp businesses like Hometown Hero and others “don’t love” the new rule, Cabrera said. That’s why the company was one of several that sued DSHS back in 2021, when the agency first tried to reschedule delta-8 products.
And while products with delta-9 THC in them, which are the most commonly sold product in Texas, are still legal, Cabrera said Hometown Hero has noticed “how absolutely furious and upset consumers have been.”
“Before the deadline, there was a big buyout. People stocked up,” Cabrera said. “But even after the rules have taken effect, we still are getting emails from people saying ‘This is so stupid, why would anybody do this? This is BS.'”
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“A miasma of conflicting regulations”
Texas’ new ban impacts all synthetic THC products, which include delta-8, delta-10, THCP and THCPA flower products. Already, Texas has banned the sale of THC vape pens and most smokeable hemp, like flower buds and pre-rolled joints. Delta-9 products that contain less than 0.3 percent THC are still legal in Texas, thanks to a 2018 federal law. Delta-9 naturally occurs in cannabis, while delta-8 and delta-10 are synthetically derived from hemp and won’t get consumers as high as delta-9.
Cabrera argues that these regulations are confusing not just for consumers, but for retailers.
“What they’ve created is a miasma of conflicting regulation and regulatory uncertainty,” Cabrera said. “I don’t know how DSHS is going to dig themselves out of this, because there are so many conflicting rules and regulations.”
Smart, funny and sometimes unhinged look at the week that was.
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At Vape Time, the cashier explains that the store isn’t a dispensary and makes most of its sales from nicotine vapes and tobacco. But he told Chron that he’s constantly fielding questions from confused customers, many from out of state, who didn’t realize that delta-8 and delta-10 products were now banned.
“Some days are good, some days are bad,” the cashier said. “People come in asking, and it’s hard to tell them we won’t have it and it ain’t gonna come back.”
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It appears, however, that some retailers are adapting to the shifting landscape. During a brief stroll through a dispensary down the road in Houston’s Montrose neighborhood, only delta-9 gummies were on sale. Most of the store was devoted to kratom, sex toys, and peptides. But Cabrera said that even if delta-9 products are still available, retailers should be on guard.
“The fact is that this was a legal industry and a couple of legislators decided that they didn’t like it and so they set their sights on destroying it,” Cabrera said. “Today it’s this, what’s it gonna be tomorrow?”