Thousands of Texans Face Serious Felony Charges for THC Possession

This article explains why private THC lab reports in Texas are under serious scientific and legal scrutiny.

To understand the problem with these lab reports, you first have to understand why they exist. In 2019, the Texas Legislature passed House Bill 1325, which adopted the federal 2018 Farm Bill’s definition of hemp and made a sweeping change to state law: cannabis containing 0.3% or less of Delta-9-THC by dry weight is now legal hemp—not marijuana. Anything above that threshold remains illegal marijuana.

That single change created an immediate crisis for Texas prosecutors. Overnight, proving a marijuana charge required proving that the substance exceeded the 0.3% Delta-9-THC threshold—a quantitative chemistry question that the Texas Department of Public Safety’s crime labs were not equipped to answer. The DPS crime labs could identify the presence of cannabinoids, but they could not measure the specific concentration of Delta-9-THC with the precision required to distinguish illegal marijuana from legal hemp.

Rather than dismiss cases or wait for the DPS to develop the capability, many prosecutors began routing evidence to private, out-of-state laboratories. THC cases in Texas involving private lab reports are among the most scientifically and legally complex drug cases in the state right now.