AUSTIN, Texas — Look around the stores and you'll see CBD and hemp products all over the place. While those things can be sold here in Texas, you can't grow the hemp plants used to make them.
One important distinction to point out ahead of time is there is only trace amounts of THC in these products, that's the chemical in marijuana that gets you high.
But for CBD products, the state is hoping to start producing more of them right here in Texas.
While it may not be a new business, the MINERAL store is new to Austin. That is why founder Mills Miller gets to explain his product to new customers,
"I started MINERAL," said Miller to a customer on the first day of his store opening. "We formulate cannabinoids to terpenes for targeted benefits in the mind and body. Cannabinoids are the chemical compounds of the cannabis plant."
In short, they take hemp plants and create different blends of CBD oils.
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"We think of CBD as an activator of receptor sites in the brain and body to receive additional cannabinoids," said Miller.
Even though his best sales are from Texans and his store is on East Sixth Street in Austin, the product still has to be manufactured in Colorado.
"With hemp, we know that product is one that's going to be wanted around the countryside," said Assistant Agriculture Commissioner Dan Hunter. "We want to put Texas hemp on Texas shelves ... because, right now, what's being sold in Texas isn't Texas hemp. However, we know when we start growing it like we do everything else, we're going to produce a better product that's superior to everything else that's being grown out there."
As for Miller, even if they wanted to use Texas products for their CBD, there's still a ways to go for that to happen.
The Texas Department of Agriculture is waiting for rules from the federal government before they can officially set up their program for growing hemp. But the Texas law sets them up to act as soon as they do.
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