Rep. Stephanie Klick has filed medical cannabis bill HB 1805 in the Texas House of Representatives this week.
Rep. Klick is known for creating the bills and language that would become the Texas Compassionare Use Program in 2015. Over the years and multiple Sessions Klick has been the filer of bills addressing the medical side of cannabis in the legislature. She has also been the author of the medical bills that get signed by Governor Greg Abbott.
Learn how to become a medical cannabis patient in Texas
The bill this session is rather short compared to previous bills and is only two pages long. The bill adds only one explicit condition of three conditions as of writing this article. The one explicit condition is “a condition that causes chronic pain, for which a physician would other wise prescribe an opioid.” The other conditions are a “medical condition that is approved for a research program under Subchapter F, Chapter 487, Health and Safety Code, and for which the patient is receiving treatment under that program;” or “a debilitating medical condition designated by the Department of State Health Services under Subsection(b).”
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The first condition was in previous bills but would wind up being stripped out once it reached the Senate floor for a vote. The second condition solidifies patients being prescribed medical cannabis by a physician in Texas if they are part of an institutional review board program in the state. The third condition is a rehash of the condition from previous bills that would allow the DSHS board to add conditions as they see fit.
There is another attempt to raise the THC by weight cap of 1% to 5% as seen in the bill put forward last session.
There is currently no language in the bill that designates that patients would be protected to continue taking low-thc cannabis products if they are on probation or parole. And there is currently no language about extending the program’s capability of having physical medical cards.
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This doesn’t mean that these things will not wind up in the final draft. Advocates will have to voice their concerns to the legislature via their representatives, and at the committee hearings when they take place at the capitol.
Advocates will be able to meet up at the capitol for a marijuana advocacy lobby day on March 14th at 10:00 am.