At the federal level, Republican lawmakers and the Trump administration are attempting to rectify a huge mistake they made last November, when they passed an ill-advised bill that, if allowed to go into effect, would all but smother the United States’ flowering hemp industry. In red states like Iowa, Kansas, and Ohio—where polls have shown Democratic momentum in the gubernatorial races—promising candidates are insisting on the need to finally, belatedly legalize it. A bid in blue Massachusetts to have voters approve a rollback of the state’s recreational industry faces overwhelming popular opposition. And the anger is especially boiling down in Texas, where even Joe Rogan is warning that GOP intransigence on weed could well cause the Lone Star State to vote Democratic in the upcoming midterms.

Since the 2024 election, conservative politicians have attempted to stoke reefer madness as a backlash to the legalization movement’s state-by-state victories. Their justifications, which seized on legitimate concerns over the unfortunate prevalence of misleadingly packaged hemp-derived candies stocked in unlicensed gas stations and smoke shops, have pivoted away from children’s safety to old, tired arguments for outright prohibition. And this fall, they’re likely to see their concerted counteractions fall flat—even, and especially, in the areas they’d least expect.

Texas, which does not appear to have learned from the uproar its lawmakers inspired the previous time they attempted a weed crackdown, provides an incisive example. In late July, a long-pending state rule went into effect that outlawed all sales of certain smokable THC products derived from hemp, including milder and medicinal pot alternatives. These derivatives, which were federally legalized by the 2018 farm bill, allowed a limited lineup of retail cannabis options in a state where medical marijuana is legal but recreational bud is not. (Individual Texas cities where residents voted to either legalize or decriminalize the plant have seen those efforts preempted by municipal and state authorities.)

Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico has already seized on the issue, referring to these harsh rollbacks as an example of “the nanny state at its worst.” His Republican opponent, Attorney General Ken Paxton, has notably pivoted his rhetorical tack from outspoken denunciation of legal cannabis to professing to not know any details about his own administration’s relevant rules. A county judge has even complained that Paxton’s office is not responding in a timely manner to queries about how the state wishes to proceed in court, now that multiple hemp businesses have filed lawsuits.