It’s been only a week since the historically monumental moment when a cannabis reform bill, Rep. Joe Moody’s House Bill 63, passed in the Texas House of Representatives with a sizable majority. The bill, which will still have to face the Texas Senate and the lieutenant governor who’s clearly aspiring to be the Harry Anslinger of Texas, nonetheless shows that cannabis reform is a heavily supported issue in the state of Whataburger, actual BBQ and HEB.
Yet just only hours ago, Rep. Eddie Lucio III’s House Bill 1365 passed in The Texas House with an even higher majority then HB 63 at 121-23, possibly giving the extremely restricted “medical marijuana” program ironically named The Texas Compassionate Use Act a desperately needed expansion of qualifying conditions. Although, HB 1365 would also establish a “cannabis therapeutic research review board”, which would be a board of certified and politically unbiased medical professionals to further research the medical uses of cannabis.
According to the specific language of House Bill 1365, the review board would have a total of 12 licensed physicians from the fields of Ophthalmology, Internal Medicine and certified in the subspecialty of medical oncology, Psychiatry, Surgery, Radiology, Family Medicine, Osteopathic Medicine, Anesthesiology and Hospice Care; quite an expansion by anyone’s standards.
HB 1365 also gives the review board the ability to “create and appoint one or more advisory committees composed of patients, law enforcement officers, other medical professionals, and other persons who are knowledgeable about low-THC cannabis cultivation, processing, and regulation.”
Arguably the most important clause however determines what the protocols would be if certain research has been proven to assist in the treatment of a condition.
“If after review of published, peer-reviewed medical literature and research results under this subchapter, the review board determines that the likely benefit of medical use in the treatment or alleviation of a medical condition or symptom outweighs any likely harm to patients, that condition or symptom qualifies as a debilitating medical condition.”
Although what’s Texas without a few restrictions? Without objection, Rep. Mayes Middleton added an amendment that the review board isn’t allowed to add qualifying conditions without first speaking with the Texas Legislature.
This continued reliance on the Legislature may appear aggravating, but advocates must remember how huge of a progress this bill would be regardless and that their unofficial representatives in the future sessions will be licensed medical professionals.
The ramifications of this bill could be tremendous for the many Texans who’ve found relief through cannabis yet don’t have exclusively intractable epilepsy. As opposed to advocates having to beg their politically motivated representatives during every Legislative session for the medicine that irrefutably helps their conditions, they can now speak with the review board that will certainly be meeting and discussing the future expansion of medical cannabis more frequently than once every two years.
“Patients, caregivers, and medical professionals have been working for years to see the passage of legislation expanding access to the Compassionate Use Program,” says Heather Fazio, director of Texans for Responsible Marijuana Policy. “We are so grateful for Rep. Eddie Lucio’s leadership and for the 121 members of the House who agree that patients with debilitating medical conditions deserve the medical freedom to choose cannabis if their doctors think it can help.”
As stated above, the bill must now venture to the Senate, where another round of meetings await in the Health and Human Services Committee. The committee is headed by Chairwoman Lois Kolkhorst, who both voted to drug test unemployment benefit recipients in 2013 but also voted in favor of Texas Compassionate Use Act in 2015.
With the uncertainty of Texas politics, it’s anyone’s guess as to the future of this bill. The 121-23 supermajority was a beautiful sight to see but Dan Patrick’s hatred of any cannabis legislation along with another inevitable stunt from the Texas Police Chief’s consisting of statements with little truth behind them proves that the storm is far from over on the subject of medical cannabis in Texas.
If there’s one silver lining, advocates will be pleased to know that the Health and Human Services Committee meets in the Sam Houston Building and has the wonderful room number of 420. The hilarious proof, along with the names of the respective members of the committee, please view below.
