Texas House approves expansion of state’s medical cannabis program

This means providers and patients will often drive hours to transport and pick up medication, Texas Original CEO Nico Richardson said.

“While we lease the space and we have employees out there, we don't actually keep medicine there. We keep it here in Austin, and we wait until a patient orders from us online or calls us, and then we'll drive that medicine to Houston or Dallas or [the] Rio Grande Valley,” Richardson told Community Impact in an April 25 interview. “We'll drop the medicine there in the morning, and if the patient doesn't come and pick it up, ... we then have to drive it back to Austin, call the patient, ask them when they can come back into that pickup location and then send it back out.”

Richardson said there are “incredible barriers” to access under the current program.

“It's not set up to succeed right now, and it's not set up to provide reasonable access to patients,” he said. “The law that we operate under says that we have to provide reasonable access to patients across Texas, and our regulations are not allowing us to do that.”

If HB 46 becomes law, Richardson said Texas Original’s pickup locations would operate like traditional pharmacies, allowing most patients to receive medication on the same day it’s ordered. He noted that this would also “dramatically reduce” the cost of medications, which are not covered by insurance.

Texas is among 47 U.S. states that allow cannabis use for medical purposes, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nine states, including Texas, limit medical cannabis use to CBD or low-THC products only. Thirty-eight other states, including Oklahoma, Louisiana and Florida, allow for broader medical use of cannabis products.

More details

Texas medical cannabis providers can currently sell topical medications, tinctures and edible products, like gummies or beverages. Under HB 46, doctors would also be able to prescribe aerosol and vaporized products, which can be inhaled.

Dr. Matthew Brimberry, an Austin physician who is licensed to prescribe medical cannabis, told Community Impact that allowing patients to inhale products would be “another tool in our toolbox ... that is missing at this point.”

Brimberry said edible products are not effective for some patients, because they do not take effect immediately. Some people may also metabolize edible medications too quickly or too slowly for them to work properly, he said.

“On average, [an edible product] takes about 45 minutes to an hour to initiate, and then it lasts for about four to six hours,” Brimberry said in an April 25 interview. “If you have somebody with extreme nausea, it's going to be very difficult for them to take something orally. If you have somebody with tremendous muscle spasms and they need to make it from their car to an event or to their house, they can't wait 30 to 45 minutes for the medicine to start working.”

Also of note

As House lawmakers discussed HB 46 on May 12, King noted that his bill is separate from SB 3, which would tighten restrictions on THC products sold in Texas.

“The other bill will be coming to a House floor near you soon,” King said May 12.

The House State Affairs Committee, which King leads, approved a heavily-amended version of SB 3 on April 30. The original proposal, by Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, would ban all forms of consumable hemp and THC from being sold in Texas outside of the medical cannabis program.

“This is potent poison that's being sold in smoke shops, and they package it for kids,” Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick told Community Impact during an April 2 interview. “There was a bag of gummies in the store that I went in—750 milligrams [of THC]. That'll put you on your rear end ... and cause potential life-altering health issues.”

King called the House committee’s version of SB 3 “a regulatory bill.” He said April 30 that the proposal would ban synthetic hemp products and hemp vapes, while allowing stores to continue offering edibles, tinctures and the “Delta-9 natural flower that’s grown and sold in Texas.”

Individual counties would have the option to hold an election to prohibit local hemp sales under the amended bill. Municipalities can currently elect to limit or bar alcohol sales, according to the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission.

Patrick has dismissed pushes to increase guardrails on the hemp industry in lieu of an outright ban.

“People say, ‘Why do you want to close down these THC shops?’ Because people who are buying it have no idea what’s in it,” he told Community Impact. “And some people said we should regulate it, but we can't regulate and check on 8,000 shops. We just have to close them down.”

SB 3 is scheduled to be debated in the House on May 20.