Texas a Year from Implementing Compassionate Use Law

Legal medical marijuana use is coming to Texas...but not for awhile.

The state voted to license dispensaries to sell low-THC cannabis products such as CBD oil, back in June of 2015, for people diagnosed with intractable epilepsy who suffer from seizures not controlled by traditional drugs.

Administrative rules approved by the state's Public Safety Commission in December intended to regulate the Compassionate Use Program which took effect on Jan. 10th. But, the state is still over a year from full implementation. The bill requires DPS to create a secure registry of physicians who treat epilepsy, and of patients who have been diagnosed with intractable epilepsy.

From now through May of 2016, DPS plans to "competitively solicit" Texas Department of Information Resources vendors for the development and implementation of a technology solution for the administration of the Compassionate Use Program.

In June 2016, the vendor contract will be awarded.  In July 2016, the development begins for the Compassionate Use Registry, the online database, where dispensing organizations will be able to submit licensing applications after completion of the online system.

But it won't be until June of 2017 that the DPS will actually license the first dispensing organization. (The bill requires DPS to license at least three dispensing organizations by Sept. 1, 2017.)  The license will authorize the organizations to cultivate, process and dispense low-THC cannabis to prescribed patients of the law.

Quite a let down for the hopeful epileptic patients that have been waiting for this law to pass.

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Rules for what will and will not be allowed are available in a PDF file (Texas Health and Safety Code, Chapter 487) at the Texas Government's website:  Texas Department of Public Safety Regulatory Services Division, Compassionate Use / Low-THC Cannabis Program Administrative Rules