Words used in this chapter in the singular form shall be deemed
to impart the plural, and vice versa, as the case may demand. For
the purposes of provisions and regulations of this chapter, unless
the context otherwise requires, the following terms shall mean:
(1) "Act" means Texas House Bill 1325, relating to
the production and regulation of hemp in Texas, as codified in Chapters
121 and 122 of the Code.
(2) "Acceptable hemp THC level" means a delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol
content concentration level on a dry weight basis, that, when reported
with the laboratory's measurement of uncertainty, produces a distribution
or range that includes a result of 0.3% or less. For example, if the
reported delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol content concentration level
on a dry weight basis is 0.35% and the measurement of uncertainty
is +/- 0.06%, the measured delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol content concentration
level on a dry weight basis for this sample ranges from 0.29% to 0.41%.
Because 0.3% is within the distribution or range, the sample is within
the acceptable hemp THC level for the purpose of plan compliance.
This definition of "acceptable hemp THC level" affects neither the
statutory definition of hemp, in 7 U.S.C. §1639o(1) and Texas
Agriculture Code §121.001, nor the definition of "marihuana,"
in 21 U.S.C. §802(16) and in Texas Health and Safety Code §481.002(26).
(3) "Administrative action" includes a denial, revocation
or suspension of a license, or an assessed penalty.
(4) "Applicant" means a person, or a person who is
authorized to sign for a business entity, who submits an application
to participate in the Department's hemp program.
(5) "Cannabis" means a genus of flowering plants in
the family Cannabaceae of which Cannabis
sativa is a species, and Cannabis
indica and Cannabis ruderalis are
subspecies thereof. Cannabis refers to any form of the plant in which
the delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol concentration on a dry weight basis
has not yet been determined.
(6) "Certified or Approved hemp seed" means seed that
meets the legal standards for seed quality and labeling required by
Texas and federal law, the legal standards of the jurisdictions from
where the seed is originally sold and produced, and the additional
hemp seed quality and labeling requirements required by the Department.
(7) "Contiguous" means all of the lots in or on a location
owned or controlled by one owner or tenant, or the same owner and
tenant, and no lot is separated from the other lots on the location
by different ownership or control, or a public right of way, a navigable
waterway, or an area greater than sixty feet.
(8) "Controlled Substance" is defined in Tex. Health
& Safety Code §481.002(5). The term does not include hemp,
as defined by Tex. Agric. Code §121.001, or the tetrahydrocannabinols
in hemp.
(9) "Conviction" means any plea of guilty or nolo contendere,
or any finding of guilt, except when the finding of guilt is subsequently
overturned on appeal, pardoned, or expunged. For purposes of this
chapter, a conviction is expunged when the conviction is removed from
the individual's criminal history record and there are no legal disabilities
or restrictions associated with the expunged conviction, other than
the fact that the conviction may be used for sentencing purposes for
subsequent convictions. In addition, where an individual is allowed
to withdraw an original plea of guilty or nolo contendere and enter
a plea of not guilty and the case is subsequently dismissed, the individual
is no longer considered to have a conviction for purposes of this
chapter.
(10) "Corrective action plan" means a plan established
by the Department for a licensed hemp producer to correct a negligent
violation or non-compliance with the hemp program, this chapter, or
other state or federal statute. Based upon a stated breach of law
or rule, a corrective action plan provides proof of and explains how
past actions or omissions were compliant with law and regulation,
and/or how future activities will comply with law and regulation.
(11) "Criminal History" means the results of a criminal
background investigation conducted by the Department.
(12) "Culpable mental state greater than negligence"
means to act intentionally, knowingly, willfully, or recklessly.
(13) "Cultivate" as defined by Tex. Agric. Code §122.001(1)
means to plant, irrigate, cultivate or harvest a hemp plant.
(14) "Days" means business days unless otherwise specified.
(15) "Decarboxylation" means the removal or elimination
of carboxyl group from a molecule or organic compound.
(16) "Decarboxylated" means the completion of the chemical
reaction that converts THC-acid into delta-9-THC, the intoxicating
component of cannabis. The decarboxylated value is also calculated
using a conversion formula that sums delta-9-THC and eighty-seven
and seven tenths (87.7) percent of THC-acid.
(17) "Delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol or THC or Delta-9-THC"
means the primary psychoactive component of cannabis. For the purposes
of this chapter, the terms delta-9-THC and THC are interchangeable.
(18) "Department or TDA" means the Texas Department
of Agriculture.
(19) "Drug Enforcement Administration or DEA" means
the United States Drug Enforcement Administration.
(20) "DPS" means the Texas Department of Public Safety.
(21) "Dry weight basis" means the ratio of the amount
of moisture in a sample to the amount of dry solid in a sample. Dry
weight is a basis for expressing the percentage of a chemical in a
substance after removing the moisture from the substance. The percentage
of THC on a dry weight basis means the percentage of THC, by weight,
in a cannabis item (plant, extract, or other derivative), after excluding
moisture from the item.
(22) "Entity" means a corporation, general partnership,
joint stock company, association, limited partnership, limited liability
partnership, limited liability company, series limited liability company,
irrevocable trust, estate, charitable organization, or other similar
organization, including any such organization participating in hemp
production as a partner in a general partnership, a participant in
a joint venture, or a participant in a similar organization. The term
entity includes a domestic or foreign entity defined in Texas Business
Organizations Code §1.002 that will be, or proposes to be, in
hemp production within the State of Texas.
(23) "Facility" means a location with a legal description
and is within the legal control of a person or entity. A facility
may consist of multiple fields, greenhouses, storage, and/or lots.
(24) "Farm Service Agency or FSA" means an agency of
the United States Department of Agriculture.
(25) "Field" means an outdoor area of land consisting
of one or more lots on which the producer will produce or store hemp.
(26) "Final test" means the last Department-authorized
laboratory test conducted from a final sample collected.
(27) "Final sample" means the last Department-authorized
sample collected from a lot.
(28) "Gas chromatography or GC" means a type of chromatography
in analytical chemistry used to separate, identify, and quantify each
component in a mixture. GC relies on heat for separating and analyzing
compounds that can be vaporized without decomposition.
(29) "Geospatial location" means a location designated
through a global system of navigational satellites used to determine
the precise ground position of a place or object. This includes GPS
coordinates.
(30) "Greenhouse" means any indoor structure consisting
of one or more lots on which the producer will produce or store hemp.
(31) "Governing person" has the meaning assigned by
Tex. Bus. Orgs. Code §1.002.
(32) "GPS" means Global Positioning System.
(33) "Handle" as defined by Tex. Agric. Code §122.001(3)
means to possess or store a hemp plant on premises owned, operated,
or controlled by a license holder for any period of time, or in a
vehicle for any period of time other than during the actual transport
of the plant from a premises owned, operated or controlled by a license
holder to a premises owned, operated or controlled by another license
holder, or a person licensed under Tex. Health & Safety Code,
Chapter 443. "Handle" also means to harvest or store hemp plants or
hemp plant parts prior to the delivery of such plants or plant parts
for further processing. "Handle" also includes the disposal of cannabis
plants that are not hemp for purposes of chemical analysis and disposal
of such plants.
(34) "Harvest" means to cut, gather, take, or remove
all or part of the cannabis plants growing in a lot or lots, for the
purpose of disposal, cloning, distribution, processing, storage, sale,
or any other use. "Harvest" does not include transplants from one
lot to another lot if both lots are within the same license holder's
control, and the plants are transplanted according to the hemp program
rules and procedures.
(35) "Hemp" or "industrial hemp" as defined Tex. Agric.
Code §121.001 means the plant species Cannabis
sativa L. and any part of that plant, including the seeds thereof
and all derivatives, extracts, cannabinoids, isomers, acids, salts,
and salts of isomers, whether growing or not, with a delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol
concentration of not more than 0.3 percent on a dry weight basis.
(36) "Hemp research license" means a license issued
to an institution of higher education to produce or handle hemp for
research purposes.
(37) "High-performance liquid chromatography or HPLC"
means a type of chromatography technique in analytical chemistry used
to separate, identify, and quantify each component in a mixture. HPLC
relies on pumps to pass a pressurized liquid solvent containing the
sample mixture through a column filled with a solid adsorbent material
to separate and analyze compounds.
(38) "Information sharing system" means the database
which allows the Department to share Texas hemp program information
with federal and state agencies.
(39) "Institution of higher education" has the meaning
assigned by Texas Education Code §61.003.
(40) "Key participants" means a sole proprietor, a
partner in a general partnership, a general partner in a limited partnership,
or a person with executive managerial control in an entity. A person
with executive managerial control includes persons such as a trustee,
independent or dependent executor or administrator of an estate, chief
executive officer, managing member, manager, president, vice president,
general partner, chief operating officer and chief financial officer,
or their equivalents. This definition does not include non-executive
employees such as farm, field, or shift managers that do not make
financial planning decisions and that do not vote or exercise control
of an entity.
(41) "Law enforcement agency" means any federal or
Texas law enforcement agency.
(42) "License" as defined by Tex. Agric. Code §122.001(6)
means a hemp producer, handler, or sampler license issued by the Department.
(43) "License holder" as defined by Tex. Agric. Code
§122.001(7) means an individual or business entity holding a
license.
(44) "License holder who transplants" means a license
holder who cultivates cannabis plants for the purpose of transplanting
all living parts of those same cannabis plants according to Department
rules and procedures.
(45) "Lot" means a contiguous area in a facility, field,
greenhouse, or indoor growing structure containing the same variety
or strain of cannabis throughout the area.
(46) "Lot permit" means a document issued by the Department
authorizing a license holder to produce or handle a hemp crop within
a lot.
(47) "Marijuana or marihuana" means all parts of the
plant Cannabis sativa L., whether growing or not, the seeds thereof,
the resin extracted from any part of such plant, and every compound,
manufacture, salt, derivative, mixture, or preparation of such plant,
its seeds or resin. The term "marihuana" does not include hemp and
does not include the mature stalks of such plant, fiber produced from
such stalks, oil or cake made from the seeds of such plant, any other
compound, manufacture, salt, derivative, mixture, or preparation of
such mature stalks (except the resin extracted therefrom), fiber,
oil, or cake, or the sterilized seed of such plant which is incapable
of germination. "Marihuana" means all cannabis that tests as having
a concentration level of THC on a dry weight basis of higher than
0.3 percent.
(48) "Measurement of Uncertainty (MU)" means the parameter,
associated with the result of a measurement, that characterizes the
dispersion of the values that could reasonably be attributed to the
particular quantity subject to measurement.
(49) "Negligence" means failure to exercise the level
of care that a reasonably prudent person would exercise in complying
with the regulations set forth under this chapter.
(50) "Nonconsumable hemp product" as defined by Tex.
Agric. Code §122.001(8) means a product that contains hemp, other
than a consumable hemp product as defined by Tex. Health & Safety
Code §443.001. The term includes cloth, cordage, fiber, fuel,
paint, paper, particleboard, construction materials, and plastics
derived from hemp.
(51) "Person" means an individual or entity, unless
otherwise indicated.
Cont'd... |
