Four Texas hemp businesses sue the state over THCA seizures and $10,000 fees
The August 20 filing is the third legal challenge to Texas's THCA enforcement this year - and as of late August, none of them had produced an injunction.
Reviewing documents and paperwork at a desk.
Four Texas hemp businesses filed suit against the state’s health department on August 20, 2026 - the third active legal challenge this year to how Texas enforces its hemp THC rules, and still without a court order that actually stops enforcement.
What the August 20 lawsuit says
The suit, filed in the 459th Judicial District Court of Travis County, names the Department of State Health Services, Interim Commissioner Imelda Garcia, and Division Director Glenn Hargett as defendants. Attorney David K. Sergi is representing the four plaintiff businesses. Unlike the broader challenge to the underlying rule, this filing targets DSHS’s enforcement practices directly: product detentions and $10,000 fees levied against hemp businesses.
The rule underneath the fight
DSHS’s Total THC standard took effect March 31, 2026. It converts THCA content into a “total delta-9” equivalent using a 0.877 multiplier, then measures that figure against the state’s 0.3% limit - counting a compound that does not intoxicate on its own toward a threshold originally written around delta-9 THC alone. It is the same conceptual move - total THC in place of delta-9-only - now central to the federal definitional fight, except Texas got there first, by about eight months.
This is not the industry’s first attempt
The Texas Hemp Business Council’s separate suit, THBC v. DSHS, has been working through the courts since before this rule took effect. A trial originally scheduled for July 27 did not proceed because the state’s interlocutory appeal is still pending before the Texas Fifteenth Court of Appeals. THBC filed a brief on August 14 attempting to reinstate an injunction against enforcement while that appeal is resolved.
The August 20 case is narrower and newer: it does not re-litigate whether the Total THC rule is valid, only whether DSHS’s detention and fee practices under it are lawful.
Multiple lawsuits are now challenging Texas's hemp THC rules from different angles. None of them, as of late August, has produced an injunction currently in effect. That means DSHS keeps enforcing the rule in real time while its legality is argued in court - the opposite of the outcome the plaintiffs are seeking.
What to watch
The Fifteenth Court of Appeals’ ruling on the state’s interlocutory appeal is the pending decision most likely to change enforcement on the ground, since it will determine whether an injunction can even be reinstated while the underlying rule’s validity is decided. Whether the August 20 case proceeds separately or gets folded into the existing litigation is the next thing to watch.
Common questions
- Is THCA legal in Texas right now?
- Texas's hemp definition still allows products at or below 0.3% delta-9 THC by dry weight, but a Department of State Health Services rule in effect since March 31, 2026 counts THCA toward that limit using a conversion factor - which puts most THCA flower over the line in the state's enforcement practice, even while multiple lawsuits challenge whether that rule can stand.
- What is DSHS being sued over in the August 20 lawsuit?
- Four hemp businesses are challenging DSHS's enforcement practices specifically - product detentions and $10,000 fees - rather than the underlying Total THC rule itself, which is already being fought in a separate, earlier-filed case.
- Has a court blocked Texas's hemp enforcement?
- No. As of late August 2026, none of the pending lawsuits had produced an injunction, so DSHS continues enforcing the rule while the litigation proceeds.
Editorial content only. This article is reporting and analysis, not medical, legal, or investment advice. Hemp and CBD regulations differ by state and change frequently. Verify current rules in your jurisdiction before making decisions.