Texas officials are taking another step toward implementing a law to significantly expand the state’s medical marijuana program—posting a draft of proposed rules to let physicians recommend new qualifying conditions for cannabis and create standards for allowable inhalation devices.
It is expected that the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) will file its proposed rules in a formal manner next week. Then, they will be published by the Texas Register and open a period of public comments for 31 days.
It comes a few days after the Department of Public Safety (DPS), in accordance with recently passed legislation, previewed another set of rules aimed at increasing the number of licensed marijuana dispensaries.
For compliance with the medical cannabis expansion bill signed by Gov. DPS is drafting a formal proposal for a new licensing process. It will also include security standards and parameters regarding license revocation.
In the meantime, a new memo released ahead of Thursday’s Executive Council Meeting for Health and Human Services Commission outlines further steps taken.
The Department of Health and Human Services is proposing specific rules which “explain the process by which physicians may request that medical conditions be added to the list; establish standards for inhalation devices for use under the Program, and create a schedule for reviewing such devices.”
The rule requires doctors to submit the recommended qualifying medical conditions of cannabis to Department of State Health Services, which will then pass the recommendation along to DPS. This department will be responsible for presenting the request to legislators in the upcoming legislative session.
Final rules are due by 1 October 2025.
The law, signed by Governor Abbott, not only increases the number of marijuana dispensaries but also revises physician recommendations policies, sets standards for vaping devices, and expands qualifying medical conditions. This includes chronic pain, TBI, Crohn’s and other inflammatory diseases as well as Crohn’s and Crohn’s Disease. It also allows patients receiving palliative care or hospice to use cannabis.
This policy change is automatically implemented by the statute that will take effect when the new law comes into force on 1 September. No further rules will need to be made.
DPS will issue 12 licenses to dispensaries in the entire state. There are currently only three. Officials prioritize Texas’ public health regions in order to improve access.
Nine out of 139 applicants will be eligible for the initial round of licensing. They submitted their applications during a prior application window that was held in 2023. DPS will choose these nine licensees by December 1. The applicants who did not receive a licence in 2023, and any potential licensees that are new, will get another chance to obtain their licenses during the second round, where winners will be announced April 1, 2026.
If you are a member of the 2023 group, your application can be revised until September 15th. Until that date, new applicants for dispensaries can submit their own applications.
In order to ensure compliance with medical marijuana law, the Department of Public Safety separately previewed future regulations.
The proposals include establishing “security standards for dispensing organizations satellite locations, if approved or the department,” creating regulations to revoke dispensaries’ licenses if they fail to disperse cannabis in two years from issuance of their license and setting an action timeline to “review and take action on licenses issued to dispensing organizations.”
Texas lawmakers also took up a measure on Wednesday to ban hemp products that contain THC. But despite the committee hearing being held, the legislation isn’t expected to advance during an ongoing special session as Democratic state lawmakers continue to deny the House a quorum to pass any measures amid a conflict over proposed redistricting.
The House Bill, an identical hemp proposal that was passed by the Senate, has been discussed in a long meeting of the House Public Health Committee. This committee is still able to do business, even though there’s no quorum. The governor threatened to prosecute or dismiss absent Democratic members. However, the walkout continues.
The governor’s special session to discuss a number of issues is quickly running out of time. This includes legislation relating to hemp-derived cannabinoids. Abbott vetoed an earlier version of the controversial ban that passed during this year’s regular session, and he recently outlined what he’d like to see in a revised version of the bill.
Since then, the governor and legislative leadership have stated that if Democrats do not show up by Friday and create a quorum, they’ll end this special session. They will start another one. The state constitution limits special sessions to 30 days. But there’s no limit on the number of them.
At a press conference last month, a group of Democratic state senators introduced two new cannabis-related bills, including one that would regulate the hemp market, allowing adults 21 and older to purchase hemp products containing no more than 5 mg of THC per serving.
Second new bill will effectively legalize marijuana for adults by eliminating criminal penalties for possessing up to 2 ounces on an individual and 10 ounces within a household, if they are hidden and secure. It would also legalize the cultivation of up to 6 plants. Only half of them could be mature.
In addition to limiting the THC content and preventing sales of products to minors, the governor has backed the idea that the product should be banned entirely rather than merely outlawed.
Under the current Senate-passed proposal, consumable hemp products with any amount of THC—or any other cannabinoid besides CBD and CBG—would be illegal. The mere act of possession could be punished as a misdemeanor Class B, punishable by up to 180-days in prison and $2,000 in fine.
Some advocates are hopeful that either SB 5 or its House counterpart could see revisions as they make their way through the legislative process—either to affirmatively regulate the hemp market or to at least ease some of the criminal penalties on individuals found in possession of the affected products.
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Separately, 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. This bill prevents criminalization for anyone found with a hemp product but later determined to have “a controlled substance” or marijuana.
To be eligible for legal protection, a person would have to purchase the product “from a retailer they reasonably believed had the authority to sell hemp consumable 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 respondents preferred to purchase therapeutic cannabis products from state-licensed medical programs than from “smoking shops selling unregulated and nontested hemp.”
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.
Philip Steffan provided the photo.
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