Regardless of the legislative status of the other bills, it was refreshing to see the number of advocates speaking in favor of Texas Compassionate Use Program to the Senate Health and Human Services Committee in regards to Rep. Stephanie Klick’s House Bill 3703 and the relief that an expansion of the otherwise limited program may provide. More specialty heartwarming is that autism would be considered a qualifying condition from the expansion due to HB 3703, meaning the many parents of children with conditions on the autism spectrum disorder would now have a new possible route of medicine.
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Yet even with the well-needed expansion, a huge group of brave individuals who’ve found relief through medical cannabinoids are left out of the legislation. Medical cannabis patients consisting of veterans of all branches, many of whom suffer from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or the many other ailments caused by the horrors of war, are entirely excluded from the language of HB 3703 as PTSD is not considered a qualifying condition.
Worse for our nation’s heroes however is that the legislative traction behind the far more inclusive House Bill 1365 seems to have fizzled out in the Senate, according to Texas Veterans for Medical Marijuana founder David Bass.
HB 1365 possessed legislation to not only drastically expand upon the state’s almost non-existent “medical cannabis” program but also implement a medical “review board” and research program for the studying of future medical cannabis research. The bill passed out of the Texas House of Representatives with an overwhelming supermajority of 128-20, showing the very apparent support that exists for medical cannabis within our state’s lawmakers.
But as is usually the case in politics across the country, there’s always one lawmaker with extremely too much power and a radical personal agenda that goes wildly against the policies and platforms of their respective political parties. In Texas, that lawmaker is Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, a former radio host who’s evolved into a horrible mutation of Jeff Sessions mixed with Pete Sessions.
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“House Bill 1365 died as soon as it got to the Senate.” Bass said. “He allowed it go to a committee hearing but the committee didn’t hear it in time. The compromise would be that they (Texas Senate) would vote on Klick’s bill HB 3703 and what got stripped out of Rep. Klick’s bill was the research program. We really don’t understand why the research program was removed because all we hear from legislators are that they need more “proof based on research” but Lt. Gov. Patrick stripped the research part of out Rep. Klick’s bill.”
As for the legislative reasons why House Bill 1365 is more than likely dead, it simply comes down to of the expiration of scheduling time for Senate committees to hold hearings on bills. Because Health and Human Services Chairwoman Senator Lois Kolkhorst didn’t schedule a hearing for the bill in the same manner she did for House Bill 3703, meaning that the bill missed the deadline for Senate hearings.
“I took a team of veterans up to the Capitol on Thursday and we lobbied all day long. We went to each committee member of the Health and Human Services Committee and asked them to urge Senator Kolkhorst to hear HB 1365 on Friday at the same time they heard HB 3703. But obviously, the Lt. Governor wasn’t going to allow that.” Bass recounted. “Most people informed in the Legislature say that there’s no time to move HB 1365 because Kolkhorst wouldn’t hear it. And we assume that order came from the Lt. Governor.”
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As for House Bill 3703, Bass only magnified the problems that arise from the exclusions of the bill and even expressed issues with the qualifying conditions that actually have been included in the expansion such as terminal cancer, discussing the disturbing reality that one must prove the terminal diagnosis of their cancer in order to have access.
In another apparently shameless example to flaunt his opposition towards any legislation related to cannabis, the office of Lt. Governor Patrick outright refused to accept a wreath constructed by Texas Veterans for Medical Marijuana honoring their fellow veterans lost to the horrifying conditions that are frighteningly all too common among those who’ve served. Still though, Bass and Texas Veterans for Medical Marijuana stopped by the office of every Health and Human Services Committee member and gave them a rose with an attached flyer describing the usefulness of HB 1365 for veterans.
However even with the possible legislative murders of House Bills 63 and 1365 from the Cannabis Law Slasher Dan Patrick, Bass and his group aren’t slowing down their advocacy operations in the slightest.
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“We’re lobbying right this minute for senators, hopefully a courageous senator, to present an amendment on the Senate floor to add PTSD and a couple other conditions on the Senate floor.”
Whether or not a senator will put their underlying fear of the Lt. Governor’s political retaliation aside and sponsor an amendment that will surely anger the man in charge of the Texas Senate has yet to be seen however.
Although even with all the exclusions of conditions relevant to veterans in House Bill 3703 aside, it should still be considered a victory among medical cannabis advocates that children with conditions on the autism spectrum may soon have access to another medical option with, one that’s been proven to be effective on several occasions. The work of medical cannabis for autism groups such as MAMMA and the many others who testified in favor of a TCUP expansion is undoubtedly commendable. Because honestly if innocent children who’ve been diagnosed with a developmental disorder finding relief from their conditions can’t change the prohibitionist opinions of our Lt. Governor, I simply don’t believe anything will. In that case, advocates will have to let their voices be heard even stronger when Patrick is up for re-election in 2022.