The Texas House gave initial approval on Wednesday to a bill that would expand the state’s medical cannabis program to include those with chronic pain, all cancer patients and Texans suffering from PTSD.
House Bill 1535, by Rep. Stephanie Klick, R-Fort Worth, who authored the bill establishing Texas’ initial medical cannabis program in 2015, would also authorize the Department of State Health Services to add additional qualifying conditions through administrative rulemaking, instead of the Legislature needing to pass a law to expand eligibility.
Currently, patients eligible include those with terminal cancer, intractable epilepsy, seizure disorders, multiple sclerosis, spasticity, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, autism or an incurable neurodegenerative disease. The House must give the bill a final vote, and then the Senate will consider the bill, before it can be sent to the governor to be signed into law.
When hemp was legalized in 2019, the medical cannabis program was rendered mostly moot — with legally permissible cannabis treatments only being marginally more potent than over-the-counter CBD oils or tinctures.
The bill would also raise the THC, or Tetrahydrocannabinol, cap from 0.5% to 5% and make it possible for those in Texas’ medical cannabis program to have access to much higher doses than currently available. [Read more at The Texas Tribune]
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