Initially on paper, Utah and Texas have several political characteristics in common. They’re both deeply Republican states, with the GOP of their respective states controlling nearly all high-ranking positions in the state government. From Governor to Speaker of the House to Attorney General and countless state legislature positions across both branches of the legislative board and committees, the Republican Party will remain dominant for many years down the road. They’re massively expansive states that tend to be rather overall religious, conservative states in both local politics and the social culture. And yet each of their neighboring states contain a notoriously sinful, raging party city where the laws surrounding all the vices one could ask for are severely relaxed, Las Vegas and New Orleans respectively.
Although when it comes to our medical cannabis laws and policies, we couldn’t possibly be any more different. While any legislative attempt at a more comprehensive medical cannabis program beyond a slight expansion of Texas Compassionate Use Program unfortunately went up in smoke, The Beehive State is miles ahead. Whereas any medicinal use of full-flower cannabis in Texas will either result in a civil fine or incarceration, Utah’s medical cannabis policies are far more inclusive, unlike the laughably restrictive TCUP.
Conditions far beyond the limited handful considered qualifying conditions in TCUP are included in Utah’s Medical Cannabis Act, from HIV to chronic pain and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). And while there’s a ban of smokable products, “unprocessed” flower is allowed in blister packs and numerous concentrates of all types are available for patient usage. For patients living within 100 miles of a medical dispensary, they may pick up up to 56 grams of cannabis flower within a two week period.
Even with an overwhelmingly Mormon population, medical cannabis will still become a reality by March of 2020. While the immensely powerful Church of Latter Day Saints originally opposed the medical cannabis program-creating House Bill 3001 this past November, LDS representatives later changed pace and stated that they see HB 3001 as an effective bill, just so long as the legislation doesn’t lead to recreational legalization in Utah.
“We think the state is in a pretty good position right now for medical cannabis. It’s our intent now to let the legislature manage this issue. We’re not going to get involved in which doctor should be prescribing, which conditions should be covered. We believe there’s a good compromise in place now and it’s not an issue the Church intends to engage on further going forward.” said LDS Government and Community Relations Director Marty Stephens said.
On Thursday, Utah Governor Gary Herbert made national headlines for lambasting the United States Congress for their inaction on rescheduling cannabis from the overly dramatic Schedule I substance it currently holds. Herbert discussed the difficulties of cannabis remaining at the highest schedule of Controlled Substances, such as banking difficulties and the lack of research due to its supposed “lack of medicinal benefit” according to its drug schedule.
Meanwhile, Texas Governor Greg Abbott voiced his support of cannabis decriminalization and medical expansion during the gubernatorial debate last September, stating that veteran and cannabis for autism advocacy groups made a convincing argument. Yet unlike his boss, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick proved his political might and hatred of medical cannabis reform during the 2019 Legislative Session, outright refusing to let House Bill 63 have a Criminal Jurisprudence committee hearing while also releasing a medical cannabis-related bill (House Bill 1365) that passed the Texas House of Representatives with a super majority to the Senate’s Health and Human Services Committee dangerously close to the deadline to the point where the bill wasn’t able to be discussed in their the end of the session.
Even through meetings with children-centric advocacy groups and witnessing plenty of displays showing the effectiveness of cannabis for PTSD treatment from veteran advocacy groups, Governor Abbott has yet to publicly denounce Congress in a similar manner as Herbert.
Hopefully, Governor Herbert’s comments will loudly echo in both the chambers of The Legislative Branch, changing the opinions of prohibitionist and otherwise apathetic towards cannabis Congress members and Senators into seeing the irrefutable evidence behind the painfully obvious medicinal benefits of this plant.