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The Texas House of Representatives has given initial approval a bill that would allow doctors to recommend medical marijuana to patients as an opioid alternative for chronic pain, bringing it one step closer to final passage in the chamber.<\/p>\n
The legislation from Rep. Stephanie Klick (R)\u2014which would also replace the THC cap that was established under the state\u2019s existing limited medical cannabis law\u2014cleared the chamber in a 121-23 vote on second reading Tuesday. It needs to be approved one more time in the House before potentially moving to the Senate.<\/p>\n
This vote also comes weeks after a separate House panel unanimously approved a bill to decriminalize cannabis possession<\/a>\u00a0in the state while providing a pathway for records expungement.<\/p>\n The medical marijuana expansion legislation<\/a>, which moved through the House Public Health Committee last month<\/a>, would replace the one percent THC cap for cannabis oil from with a volumetric dose of 10 milligrams.<\/p>\n It would also expand eligibility for low-THC marijuana products by granting legal access to patients with \u201ca condition that causes chronic pain, for which a physician would otherwise prescribe an opioid.\u201d<\/p>\n Importantly, the bill further stipulates that regulators at the Department of State Health Services (DSHS) could approve, through rulemaking, additional debilitating medical conditions to qualify patients for the cannabis program. If enacted, the bill would take effect starting on September 1, 2023.<\/p>\n \u2014 Advocates at groups like Texas NORML have been encouraging<\/a> supporters to reach out to their lawmakers and encourage them to approve the reform.<\/p>\n \u201cPassage of this legislation will provide qualified patients with a state-sanctioned option to access a therapy that has proven to offer significant benefits,\u201d Texas NORML Executive Director Jax James said in a press release on Tuesday. \u201cMedical cannabis is an objectively safer alternative to the array of pharmaceutical drugs that it could potentially replace.\u201d<\/p>\n While advocates would like to see the conservative legislature\u00a0enact more holistic medical cannabis legislation, or end prohibition altogether, the measure does represent a significant expansion, while also recognizing the potential of cannabis as an opioid alternative.<\/p>\n The full\u00a0Texas House approved a cannabis decriminalization bill<\/a>\u00a0in 2019,\u00a0but it did not advance<\/a>\u00a0in the Senate that session. Lawmakers have since been\u00a0unable to pass additional expansive cannabis bills<\/a>\u00a0in recent sessions.<\/p>\n For his part, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) said that\u00a0he doesn\u2019t believe people should be incarcerated<\/a>\u00a0over low-level marijuana possession. However, the governor incorrectly suggested last year that lawmakers have already adopted the policy statewide.<\/p>\n House Speaker Dade Phelan (R) said in September that he will work to\u00a0enact criminal justice reform in the 2023 session<\/a>, and he again expressed support for lowering penalties for marijuana possession.<\/p>\n The\u00a0Texas Republican Party adopted a platform plank<\/a>\u00a0endorsing decriminalization of marijuana possession in 2018, but that was later rescinded.<\/p>\n A poll released last month found that a majority of Texas voters say that\u00a0the state\u2019s marijuana laws should be \u201cless strict.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Also last month, Texas lawmakers filed three bills aimed at expanding\u00a0research on the therapeutic benefits of psychedelics<\/a>. Those measures, if enacted, would build on a modest psychedelics study law enacted last session.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, there\u2019s also been a surge of local action on marijuana issues under home rule laws in Texas over recent years.<\/p>\n Major cities like Austin have already enacted decriminalization locally at the ballot, and\u00a0voters passed the reform in five other Texas cities<\/a>\u00a0this past November.<\/p>\n Another Federal Court Rules That Banning Marijuana Consumers From Possessing Guns Is Unconstitutional<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo courtesy of Philip Steffan<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Texas House Approves Bill To Allow Medical Marijuana As Opioid Alternative And Replace THC Limit<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The Texas House of Representatives has given initial approval a bill that would allow doctors to recommend medical marijuana to patients as an opioid alternative for chronic pain, bringing it one step closer to final passage in the chamber. The legislation from Rep. Stephanie Klick (R)\u2014which would also replace theContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":63711,"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\/63710"}],"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=63710"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63710\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63712,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63710\/revisions\/63712"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: Texas House Approves Bill To Allow Medical Marijuana As Opioid Alternative And Replace THC Limit<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"