Texas Lawmakers Pass Bills To Expand Medical Marijuana Program And Support Psychedelic Research
From toxifillers.com with love
The Texas House of Representatives has passed bills to significantly expand the state’s limited medical cannabis program and to support research on the therapeutic potential of ibogaine with the aim of encouraging federal approval of the psychedelic.
The marijuana measure cleared the House on third reading with a vote of 122–21 and the ibogaine legislation was approved 138-2. The body’s action sends both proposals to the Senate and comes one day after the bills were given initial approval on second reading.
Rep. Ken King (R), sponsor of the medical cannabis legislation, HB 46, said on the floor that the bill would build on the Texas Compassionate Use Program, known as TCUP, to ease access to more patients across the state.
“House Bill 46 expands the TCUP program by adding more licenses, up to 15. It shortens the timeframe for the licenses to be approved. It adds qualifying conditions like palliative care and hospice for terminal patients,” he said. “TCUP is certainly a veteran priority, and they’re taken care of in this bill.”
The proposal would expand the types of products patients could buy and also add multiple other qualifying conditions for people to become registered patients.
Specifically, it would allow patients to access cannabis patches, lotions, suppositories, approved inhalers, nebulizers and and vaping devices. The currently limited list of qualifying conditions would be extended to include chronic pain, glaucoma, traumatic brain injury (TBI), spinal neuropathy, Crohn’s disease or other inflammatory bowel disease, degenerative disc disease and any terminal illness for patients receiving hospice or palliative care.
Military veterans would be able to become registered cannabis patients for any medical condition, and the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) would also be authorized for further expand the list.
The bill would additionally mandate that the Department of Public Safety (DPS) issue 11 dispensary licenses within the 11 designated public health regions across the state. It would further allow dispensaries to open satellite locations if approved.
An amendment adopted on the floor Monday would grandfather existing medical cannabis dispensary satellite locations, ensure a competitive business licensing application process, create a timeline for when new licenses must be issued, amend background check rules, allow physicians to determine dosage and remove a 1.2 gram limit for possession by patients and instead let doctors recommend an amount they see fit.
A second amendment approved by members would require doctors who issue medical cannabis recommendations to report them to the state’s prescription drug monitoring program.
If ultimately enacted, the bill would significantly build upon Texas’s current, limited medical marijuana program, which allows patients with one of eight qualifying condition access certain non-smokable cannabis products containing no more than 0.5 percent by dry weight.
—
Marijuana Moment is tracking hundreds of cannabis, psychedelics and drug policy bills in state legislatures and Congress this year. Patreon supporters pledging at least $25/month get access to our interactive maps, charts and hearing calendar so they don’t miss any developments.
Learn more about our marijuana bill tracker and become a supporter on Patreon to get access.
—
The separate ibogaine bill, meanwhile, would create a grant program through the state Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) to provide funding for clinical trials exploring ibogaine as a potential treatment option for people suffering from opioid use disorder (OUD) and other serious mental health conditions.
“To the veterans who are out there struggling, for the mothers—millions of mothers across the state of Texas who have kids who are addicted to opioids—Texas is coming, Rep. Cody Harris (R), sponsor of a House companion version of the measure, said on the floor.
The purpose of SB 2308 is to help secure approval of the psychedelic by the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
While the measure has previously passed the Senate, the House slightly amended it to clarify that the definition of ibogaine that would be studied also includes ibogaine-based therapeutics and analogues. As such, it needs to go back to the other body before potentially being sent to the governor and enacted into law.
An analysis of the legislation says OUD “continues to be one of the most insidious threats to public health of our time, devastating individuals, families, and communities across Texas and our nation,” and “current treatment options are often unsuccessful in treating OUD and lives are lost as a result.”
Ibogaine has “shown incredible promise in early research as an effective and fast-acting treatment for OUD and other related or co-occurring conditions,” it says. “However, ibogaine must undergo costly FDA-approved clinical trials before it can become a viable treatment option.”
The proposed public-private partnership program envisioned under the legislation “will pay for the costs of the FDA’s drug development trials with ibogaine to secure FDA approval as a medication for treatment of OUD, co-occurring substance use disorder, and any other neurological or mental health conditions for which ibogaine demonstrates efficacy.”
Organizations eligible for the grant money must be a “for-profit, nonprofit, or public benefit corporate entity” that is capable of conducting clinical trials into ibogaine that could facilitate FDA approval, while also providing a proposal on the financial incentive of developing the psychedelic medicine, third-party insurance coverage of the therapy and credentialing of medical professionals to administer the drug.
“If before implementing any provision of the bill a state agency determines a waiver or authorization from a federal agency is necessary for implementation of that provision, the state agency affected by the provision must request the waiver or authorization and may delay implementing that provision until the waiver or authorization is granted,” the analysis says.
The measure’s passage comes days after the Texas House gave final passage to a pair of bills designed to ensure speedy access to psychedelic-assisted therapy in the event of federal approval from FDA.
One bill—HB 4014, from Rep. John Bucy III (D)—would establish a state-backed study into the use of psilocybin, MDMA and ketamine to treat conditions such as PTSD and depression. The other—HB 4813, from Rep. Tom Oliverson (R)—aims to minimize delay at the state level if and when FDA approves a new drug, such as psilocybin or MDMA.
With respect to the cannabis legislation, its approval comes months after DPS released a report advising that the state’s currently limited medical marijuana system “does not provide for statewide access for patients” and recommending that the number of licensed dispensaries be significantly expanded to meet demand.
A recent poll found that four in five Texas voters want to see marijuana legalized in some form, and most also want to see regulations around cannabis relaxed.
Meanwhile in Texas, a House committee approved a Senate-passed bill earlier this month that would prohibit cities from putting any citizen initiative on local ballots that would decriminalize marijuana or other controlled substances—as several localities have already done despite lawsuits from the state attorney general.
Under the proposal, state law would be amended to say that local entities “may not place an item on a ballot, including a municipal charter or charter amendment, that would provide that the local entity will not fully enforce” state drug laws.
While several courts have previously upheld local cannabis decriminalization laws, an appellate court comprised of three conservative justices appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has recently pushed back against two of those rulings, siding with the state in its legal challenge to the marijuana policy in Austin and San Marcos.
Despite the ongoing litigation and advancement of the House and Senate bills, Texas activists have their targets set on yet another city, Kyle, where they hope put an initiative before voters to enact local marijuana reform at the ballot this coming November.
Abbott has lashed out against the municipal cannabis reform efforts.
“Local communities such as towns, cities and counties, they don’t have the authority to override state law,” the governor said last May “If they want to see a different law passed, they need to work with their legislators. Let’s legislate to work to make sure that the state, as a state, will pass some of the law.”
He said it would lead to “chaos” and create an “unworkable system” for voters in individual cities to be “picking and choosing” the laws they want abide by under state statute.
Abbott has previously said that he doesn’t believe people should be in jail over marijuana possession—although he mistakenly suggested at the time that Texas had already enacted a decriminalization policy to that end.
In 2023, Ground Game released a report that looked at the impacts of the marijuana reform laws. It found that the measures will keep hundreds of people out of jail, even as they have led to blowback from law enforcement in some cities. The initiatives have also driven voter turnout by being on the ballot, the report said.
Another cannabis decriminalization measure that went before voters in San Antonio that year was overwhelmingly defeated, but that proposal also included unrelated provisions to prevent enforcement of abortion restrictions.
Meanwhile, in March the Texas Senate approved a bill that cannabis advocates and stakeholders said would effectively eradicate the state’s hemp industry, prohibiting consumable products derived from the plant that contain any amount of THC.
That, as well as another measure from Rep. Joe Moody (D) to decriminalize cannabis statewide, is one of the latest of nearly two dozen cannabis-related proposals filed so far in Texas for the current legislative session. Various other measures would legalize adult-use marijuana, remove criminal penalties for cannabis possession and adjust the state’s existing medical marijuana laws, among others.
Moody sponsored a similar marijuana decriminalization bill last legislative session, in 2023. That measure, HB 218, passed the House on an 87–59 vote but later died in a Senate committee.
The House had already passed earlier cannabis decriminalization proposals during the two previous legislative sessions, in 2021 and 2019. But the efforts have consistently stalled in the Senate amid opposition from the lieutenant governor.
Ben Adlin contributed reporting.
Pennsylvania Senate Committee Rejects Marijuana Legalization Bill That Was Approved By House
The post Texas Lawmakers Pass Bills To Expand Medical Marijuana Program And Support Psychedelic Research appeared first on Marijuana Moment.