Pot cases down, confusion up after pot law change KTRK Replay Video UP NEXT When he took the bench in 2019, the seats in Harris County Court at Law Judge Franklin Bynum's misdemeanor courtroom used to be filled with people trying to fight possession of marijuana cases. Now, nearly two years after a change to Texas agriculture laws made it legal for farmers to grow hemp, Bynum's court rarely sees those cases. Marijuana is still illegal in Texas, but the law made it harder, more expensive and more labor-intensive for investigators to differentiate between the illegal drug and legal hemp. 13 Investigates analyzed pot possession cases in Harris County and the surrounding area starting a year before the law changed. We compared it with the 19 months after the law changed.