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The Texas Senate has approved House-passed bills to reduce criminal penalties for possessing marijuana concentrates and require the state to study the therapeutic potential of psychedelics like psilocybin and MDMA. But because senators amended both pieces of legislation, they must first head back to their originating chamber before they can be sent to the governor\u2019s desk.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, advocates are closely monitoring a separate bill to expand the state\u2019s medical cannabis program, which cleared the House and was referred to a Senate committee on Thursday<\/a>. But the fate of that proposal remains murky as a legislative deadline approaches. It must be acted on in the Senate State Affairs Committee in order to advance to the floor, and the end of the session is nearing.<\/p>\n Under HB 1802<\/a>, which passed the Senate on Saturday in a 25-5 vote, the state would be required to study the medical risks and benefits<\/a> of psilocybin, MDMA and ketamine for military veterans in partnership with Baylor College of Medicine and a military-focused medical center. As amended by a House committee, it would also mandate a clinical trial into psilocybin for veterans with PTSD, in addition to a broader review of the scientific literature on all three substances.<\/p>\n The Senate adopted a balanced budget amendment to the bill clarifying that the psychedelic studies wouldn\u2019t be carried out unless there\u2019s funding allocated the effort\u2014a situation already accounted for by a contingent rider for the funds.<\/p>\n Former Gov. Rick Perry (R), who also served as U.S. energy secretary, has\u00a0called on lawmakers to approve the psychedelics legislation<\/a>.<\/p>\n The cannabis concentrates measure that also advanced through the Senate is a modest reform compared to another proposal to more broadly decriminalize marijuana possession that recently passed the House but has since stalled. But if enacted, HB 2593<\/a> would mark the first time that Texas has reduced penalties associated with marijuana since the 1970s.<\/p>\n\n The legislation, which the Senate approved by a vote of 24-7 on Friday night, would make possession of up to two ounces of concentrates a class B misdemeanor, which does still carry the threat of jail time\u2014but it would be significantly less serious than the felony classification such offenses currently come with.<\/p>\n Senators added an amendment<\/a> before passing the bill, however, to calculate THC potency in legal hemp products by counting all forms of tetrahydrocannabinol, a change that would upend the market for delta-8-THC products.<\/p>\n \u2014 \u201cThis is concerning since hundreds if not thousands of Texas businesses, who have survived the economic impacts of the pandemic, will be impacted, as well as the many customers who have benefited from these products,\u201d Jax Finkel, executive director of Texas NORML, told Marijuana Moment. \u201cLegality based on the chemical makeup of a plant is expensive, ineffective and a failed policy.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s not clear when the House will consider accepting the changes to the marijuana and psychedelics bills, but the session is set to end on May 31. If the body approves the Senate-amended legislation, it will go to Gov. Greg Abbott (R), who has not yet publicly weighed in on either measure.<\/p>\n Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R), who as the Senate\u2019s presiding officer decides if and when legislation will advance, is a vocal opponent of marijuana reform and has played a role in killing or slowing down cannabis measures.<\/p>\n The current House-passed medical cannabis expansion<\/a> measure, for example, was not referred to a Senate committee until several days after it arrived in the chamber, a delay that has jeopardized its chances of clearing a floor vote by the end of the session.<\/p>\n The bill<\/a>, HB 1535, would add cancer, chronic pain and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as conditions that could qualify people for the state\u2019s limited medical cannabis program.<\/p>\n It would further allow the Department of State Health Services to add more qualifying conditions via administrative rulemaking. And it would also raise the THC cap for medical marijuana products from 0.5 percent to five percent.<\/p>\n The House approved a cannabis decriminalization bill<\/a>\u00a0in 2019,\u00a0but it did not advance<\/a> in the Senate that session. Patrick declared the measure \u201cdead in the Texas Senate,\u201d stating that he sides with lawmakers \u201cwho oppose this step toward legalization of marijuana.\u201d<\/p>\n That said, Patrick and other legislators acknowledged early this year that modest proposals would be taken up and potentially approved during the 2021 session<\/a>, particularly as it concerns expanding the state\u2019s limited medical cannabis program. The lieutenant governor said, \u201csure, that will be looked at this session\u201d when asked about the prospect of expanding access to medical marijuana in January.<\/p>\n Separate\u00a0legislation<\/a>\u00a0to clarify that a positive marijuana test alone is not sufficient criteria for removing a child from their home was enacted without the governor\u2019s signature this month and takes effect on September 1, 2021.<\/p>\n One still-pending bill concerns hemp. The Senate Water, Agriculture & Rural Affairs Committee advanced the House-passed legislation<\/a> earlier this week. It would impose rules related to the transportation and testing of consumable hemp products.<\/p>\n But the panel also added an amendment that advocates oppose because it would ban products with more than trace amounts of delta-8-THC products, which they say would deliver an economic blow to the hemp industry. The change\u2019s effect would be similar to the amendment added to the separate cannabis concentrates bill that cleared the full Senate on Friday.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the House-approved marijuana decriminalization proposal<\/a>\u00a0hasn\u2019t been assigned to any Senate committee and doesn\u2019t appear to have a good chance of advancing further this session. It would make possession of up to one ounce of cannabis a class C misdemeanor that does not come with the threat of jail time.<\/p>\n Marijuana Decriminalization Qualifies For Local Ohio Ballot, With Activists Working To Secure More Measures<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo courtesy of WeedPornDaily<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Texas Senate Approves Psychedelics And Marijuana Concentrates Bills<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The Texas Senate has approved House-passed bills to reduce criminal penalties for possessing marijuana concentrates and require the state to study the therapeutic potential of psychedelics like psilocybin and MDMA. But because senators amended both pieces of legislation, they must first head back to their originating chamber before they canContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":47840,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47839"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47839"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47841,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47839\/revisions\/47841"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: Texas Senate Approves Psychedelics And Marijuana Concentrates Bills<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"