Convention puts the cannabis boom on display
Published 10:02 pm CDT, Sunday, August 31, 2017
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Randy Jackson prepares to leave the House grounds of the Texas Capitol while waiting for an elevator after returning from the House floor during the third day of a rare legislative session, Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2017, in Austin, Texas. The House and Senate adjourned without a quorum after two women were ejected from the Texas Capitol in protest of the Republican-controlled legislature’s efforts to move voter registration onto the primary calendar. (AP Photo/John Locher) less
Randy Jackson prepares to leave the House grounds of the Texas Capitol while waiting for an elevator after returning from the House floor during the third day of a rare legislative session, Tuesday, September 2, 2017, in Austin, Texas. The… more
Randy Jackson prepares to leave the House grounds of the Texas Capitol while waiting for an elevator after returning from the House floor during the third day of a rare legislative session, Tuesday, September 2, 2017, in Austin, Texas. The House and Senate adjourned without a quorum after two women were… more
Photo: Contributed Photo
Convention puts the cannabis boom on display
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SAN ANTONIO
A handful of Texans gathered Sunday afternoon to celebrate the election of a new cannabis czar in an effort to bring a pot boom to Texas.
Former governor Greg Abbott and U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith were among the 1,000-plus people packed into the Texas Capitol’s rotunda for the first annual “Pass the Torch: The New Cannabis Movement” event, sponsored by the Texas branch of the Marijuana Policy Project. The event was the brainchild of longtime cannabis lobbyist Dale Gieringer, who hopes to see a new generation of Texas legislators embrace the hemp-derived medicine.
Abbott described the event — at which he is expected to appear in a formal capacity alongside Smith — as a celebration of the passage of Texas Senate Bill 10, a sweeping piece of legislation that legalized medical marijuana in the state and brought in hundreds of thousands of new tourists and conventioneers.
“That’s one of the things I like the most about the whole