New state restrictions on THC this year already wiped out a big part of Texas’ smokable hemp market. Makers of hemp-derived THC beverages believed they had survived. They were wrong: beginning December 11, a new federal ban on hemp-derived THC products makes that part of the industry illegal too, as Houston Public Media reported this week in a conversation with two Denton beverage founders.
The federal rules would make any product containing more than 0.4 milligrams of THC per container illegal — a threshold that, as Wild Revival co-founder Michael Williams put it, no meaningful product can meet. His company sells drinks at 10, 25 and 50 milligrams. “These new rules and new law that would go into effect on December 11th will put us out of business,” Williams said.
The squeeze is already financial, months before the ban takes effect. Williams said Square, one of the largest payment processors in the country and the processor handling at least 45% of his company’s revenue, notified him that it no longer wants to do business with the company because of the looming ban. Co-founder Andrew Martin, whose business is both a brand owner and its own manufacturer, said 95% of the company’s revenue is cannabis-based: “if we lose the ability to bring in that revenue, we’re going to be in a very, very hard position.”
Texas built one of the country’s largest consumable hemp economies after the 2018 federal farm bill legalized hemp derivatives, and the state’s THC beverage scene — from Austin canneries to North Texas manufacturers — became a genuine industry, complete with its own trade groups and retail chains. The 2025 Legislature’s crackdown on smokable hemp products drew the first red line; the new federal ban, which Congress included in appropriations legislation and which takes effect December 11, closes the beverage lane entirely.
Politics is now racing the calendar. Williams noted that many of the officials who won last week’s election ran on a platform of protecting an industry built in good faith — “so many mostly small businesses… have built this over years and years of hard work.” Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa’s allies and legislative Democrats have promised relief for consumable hemp businesses, and bill filing opened Monday for the 2027 session, giving manufacturers a legislative path — but no immediate one. The Texas Tribune reported that the issue helped spur the state’s blue wave, but that retailers’ fight continues.
Until January, the state’s hemp drink makers are watching two clocks: the December 11 federal enforcement date, and a payment processing exit that could starve them of revenue even sooner. Congress could still adjust the ban’s scope; a court challenge has been discussed in the industry; but as of this week, neither has materialized. For now, the shelf-stable era of Texas THC seltzers ends in 31 days.
