Texas governor has signed off on a law to expand medical marijuana in the state.
In the meantime, as advocates and stakeholder await a decision on a separate bill that will ban consumable hemp products from being sold in stores, Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law on Saturday the medical cannabis bill from Rep. Ken King.
New law expands the list of qualifying medical conditions for cannabis to include chronic back pain, TBI, Crohn’s and other inflammatory diseases. It also allows patients receiving palliative care or hospice to use marijuana.
The measure additionally allows patients to access a wider range of cannabis product types—including patches, lotions, suppositories, approved inhalers, nebulizers and vaping devices.
It also mandates the Department of Public Safety to increase the number of licenses for medical cannabis businesses from three currently, to fifteen. Dispensaries can also open satellites.
House members rejected Senate amendments to the bill before it reached the Governor’s desk. These changes largely reduced the proposed scope of expansion for the medical marijuana program.
The version passed by the House last month would have extended the currently limited list of medical cannabis qualifying conditions to include chronic pain, glaucoma, TBI, spinal neuropathy, Crohn’s disease or other inflammatory bowel disease and degenerative disc disease.
It would also have allowed military veterans to become registered cannabis patients for any medical condition—and authorized the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) to further expand the list of qualifying conditions.
These provisions were removed by the Senate State Affairs Committee, before the bill could be brought up in that chamber.
Rep. Tom Oliverson suggested an agreement was reached with Lieutenant Governor on chronic pain. Dan Patrick, the Republican presiding Officer of the Senate. While Patrick disputed the characterization of their conversation, the lieutenant governor and lawmakers ultimately reached a deal to reinsert the condition into the bill with an amendment that passed on the Senate floor, among others.
The Senate’s version stated that patients with chronic pain could access medical marijuana only if they first used opioids for 90 consecutive days. However, the final draft drafted by the Conference Committee does not include such a condition. The agreement also adds TBI as another qualifying condition.
The resolution was passed by lawmakers, who added Crohn’s and other inflammatory diseases to the bill. Sen. Charles Perry said that the author of the original draft “had accidentally left them out late last night”.
The final bill will allow up to four refills for a 90 day supply. Packages, containers, and medical devices containing cannabis will have a maximum of 1 gram total THC. A 10 mg/dose limitation is also allowed.
A resolution was also passed by the lawmakers to make it clear that “a doctor may prescribe more than 1 package of low THC cannabis to a particular patient within a period of 90 days.”
The final version of the bill allows doctors to request that the Department report to lawmakers the fact that cannabis is beneficial to a particular condition. This could then lead to legislators expanding the program.
This law includes provisions that ensure patient privacy and only allow access to the registered doctors, dispensaries and department.
Regulations for the expanded Program must be promulgated by regulators before October 1.
The bill is based on Texas’s existing, limited medical cannabis program. It allows qualifying patients to obtain certain non-smoking marijuana products that contain no more than 0.5% THC in dry weight.
This comes in the background of a highly contentious debate over another piece of legislation that was sent to Abbott last month to ban consumable hemp products containing any amount of THC, even though federal law permits hemp products containing up to 0.3 percent THC by dry weight.
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A recent poll found that four in five Texas voters want to see marijuana legalized in some form, and most also want to see regulations around cannabis relaxed.
Meanwhile in Texas, a House committee approved a Senate-passed bill last month that would prohibit cities from putting any citizen initiative on local ballots that would decriminalize marijuana or other controlled substances—as several localities have already done despite lawsuits from the state attorney general.
Under the proposal, state law would be amended to say that local entities “may not place an item on a ballot, including a municipal charter or charter amendment, that would provide that the local entity will not fully enforce” state drug laws.
While several courts have previously upheld local cannabis decriminalization laws, an appellate court comprised of three conservative justices appointed by the governor has recently pushed back against two of those rulings, siding with the state in its legal challenge to the marijuana policy in Austin and San Marcos.
Despite the ongoing litigation and advancement of the House and Senate bills, Texas activists have their targets set on yet another city, Kyle, where they hope put an initiative before voters to enact local marijuana reform at the ballot this coming November.
New Jersey officials celebrate the completion of the Marijuana Training academy curriculum to help people enter into legal industry
Brian Shamblen provided the photo.
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