Texas’ medical marijuana law has been significantly expanded by a new Texas law that went into effect on Monday. The expansion includes adding conditions to patients who qualify for the program. A new survey shows that the vast majority of people agree with a recent poll that chronic pain sufferers will benefit from this new law.
The newly signed law by Gov. Greg Abbott, R. can now recommend medical marijuana for a number of additional conditions. The regulators will also have to approve the licenses for a greater number of dispensaries. Cannabis is often prescribed to treat chronic pain by other states.
A new survey from the marijuana telehealth platform NuggMD shows that many consumers—91 percent–feel cannabis is especially effective in the treatment of that condition.
About 65 percent of respondents said marijuana is “very” effective in managing pain, while 26 percent said that it was “mildly” effective. Four percent of the respondents claimed that marijuana was “not sufficient effective” in treating chronic pain.
NuggMD is a NuggMD.
According to federal statistics, two million Texans regularly use cannabis. “While I do not know exactly how many will be eligible for the new law, the polling data indicates that it is a non-addictive, effective option to relieve pain that has never caused toxicity,” Andrew Graham told MEDCAN24.
He stated that “Cannabis is legal for Texas adults of all ages, and the movement must celebrate progress wherever it happens.” The expansion of Texas qualifying conditions that Gov. Abbot’s signature on the bill will save many lives, and help reduce crime. This is thanks to veterans, patient advocacy groups, and other organizations that pushed for it.
NuggMD interviewed 391 cannabis-consuming consumers between August 21 and 24, with an error margin of 4.96 percentage points.
Texas’ new law allows for the use of marijuana by patients with chronic pain and various other conditions. This includes traumatic head injury, Crohn’s, and other inflammatory intestinal diseases.
Recently, the Department of Public Safety proposed new rules that would facilitate licensing expansion and establish security standards for satellite locations. They also authorized the cancellation of licenses in certain cases.
DPS will ultimately be issuing 12 new licenses for dispensaries across the state. At the moment, there are just three. Officials prioritize Texas’ public health regions in order to improve access.
Nine out of 139 applicants will receive licenses in the first round. They submitted their applications during a window for application earlier this year, 2023. DPS selects the nine licensees in December. The licensees from 2023 who didn’t get a license as well as new applicants will have a chance at the license in a second phase. This will take place on April 1st, 2026.
By September 15, 2023 members can revise and submit their application. Until that date, new applicants for dispensaries can submit their own applications.
Meanwhile, the Department of State Health Services (DSHS) has separately taken steps to implement medical cannabis expansion with proposed rules to let physicians recommend new qualifying conditions for cannabis and create standards for allowable inhalation devices.
This comes in the background of a heated debate over separate legislation that would ban hemp products containing any THC—a proposal that the industry says would effectively wipe out the market.
Last week—shortly after the governor signed a proclamation to convene a second special legislative session—the Senate passed a hemp ban measure again, sending it back to the House. The last version didn’t advance in the chamber, due in large part to the fact that many Democrats left the state to prevent a quorum that would be necessary to pass a controversial redistricting measure.
Other hemp and marijuana-related bills were filed in the second special legislative session. One from Rep. Charlie Geren, (R), would implement the Governor’s directive that hemp products can only be bought by those 21 years old and over.
Ahead of the end of the first special session, the House Public Health Committee took up the prior bill to ban consumable hemp products containing THC, without taking action on it.
Gov. Greg Abbott (R) vetoed an earlier version of the controversial proposal that passed during this year’s regular session, and he more recently outlined what he’d like to see in a revised version of the bill.
Among them, Lt. Dan Patrick (R), and Senate Bill sponsor Perry have insisted on an outright prohibition as a necessity for public safety to rid the State of the intoxicating products which have proliferated in the last year since federal legalization. Other people say it is better to regulate the market in order to keep youth out of the industry while still providing access for adults over 21.
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During the first special session, Rep. Nicole Collier (D) introduced a one-page bill, HB 42, designed to protect consumers in the state from criminal charges if what they believed was a legal hemp product turned out to contain excessive amounts of THC, making it illegal marijuana. The bill would protect consumers from criminal charges if they are found to be in possession of hemp-based products that contain excessive amounts of THC, making them illegal marijuana.
For the purchaser to be entitled to legal protection the hemp-based product must have been bought “from an authorized retailer that the buyer reasonably believed to be authorized to sell consumable hemp products.”
Another bill—HB 195, introduced by Rep. Jessica González (D)—would legalize marijuana for people 21 and older, allowing possession of up to 2.5 ounces of cannabis, with no more than 15 grams of that amount being in concentrated form.
A third proposal requires state officials conduct an intoxication test for THC.
As for what Texans themselves want to see from their representatives, proponents of reining in the largely unregulated intoxicating hemp industry in Texas shared new polling data indicating that majorities of respondents from both major political parties support outlawing synthetic cannabinoids, such as delta-8 THC.
In the same survey, it was found that people would prefer to purchase therapeutic cannabis products from state-licensed medical programs than from “smoke shops selling hemp untested and unregulated.”
Ahead of the governor’s veto in June of SB 3—the earlier hemp product ban—advocates and stakeholders had delivered more than 100,000 petition signatures asking Abbott to reject the measure. Critics argued that the industry—which employs an estimated 53,000 people—would be decimated if the measure became law.
Mike Latimer is the photographer.
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