SB 3 could impact veterans using legal hemp products: FOX 7 Care Force
The Brief
Texas Senate Bill 3 could impact a lot of veterans currently using legal hemp products to treat physical and mental health issues.
SB 3 passed the Texas Senate and is scheduled for a public House hearing next week.
Mitch Fuller with the VFW joins Mike Warren to discuss in this Care Force.
AUSTIN, Texas - Texas Senate Bill 3 could affect a lot of veterans.
SB 3 would prevent the sale of currently legal hemp products, including cannabinoid or CBD products. However, thousands of Texas veterans use these products to treat issues related to post-traumatic stress and other conditions.
SB 3 passed the Texas Senate on March 19.
What they're saying
Mitch Fuller, the legislative chairman of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, joined FOX 7 Austin's Mike Warren to discuss SB 3.
Warren: SB3, what's your take on SB3?
Fuller: This will make all THC products illegal in Texas, except for the Texas Compassionate Use Program, which is the very limited and expensive medical marijuana program. And among those products are hemp-derived consumables that have a .03 level of THC that a lot of us use, including me.
Warren: For veterans that are using this, if SB3 passes, what could this mean?
Fuller: This is one of many options in the toolbox that is an effective alternative to the pharmaceutical cocktail of opioids and antidepressants that the VAs, that's their default position to treat physical and mental health elements. Hemp-derived consumables, Mike, have helped a lot of us, thousands of us get off of that pharmaceutical cocktail and this is not about getting high, this is about being impaired, this about being able to function and be productive in our jobs. and our families. And so this would be devastating to the veteran community and it's not just veterans. There are millions of Texans, non-veterans who use this product as well.
Warren: Dan Patrick, the lieutenant governor, very serious about this bill. What would you like to communicate to him to say, you know, this is important for veterans?
Fuller: I would say Lieutenant Governor Patrick, please work with the good actors in the industry and the veterans community. A total ban is not the answer. More regulation, more testing to ensure that the products, all products are 0.03. Regulate more, not ban. Work on packaging, require it to be 21 years old to buy it. Don't make any packaging look like candy like the old Joe Camel days when the tobacco industry was, right.
Warren: If SB3 were to pass, what alternatives are there for veterans who are using these products?
Fuller: You're taking an alternative that a lot of us use away from us, which is wrong. It's dead wrong. It's gonna force a lot of us to look at other alternatives. The Texas Compassion Use Program, we support expanding that too. That needs to be expanded and improved, more licensees, and also lower the cost of it. The VA does not cover any of this because marijuana is illegal federally.
What's next
SB 3 is scheduled for a public hearing in the Texas House State Affairs Committee on Monday, April 7.
The Source
Information in this report comes from the FOX 7 Care Force interview with Mitch Fuller and previous reporting by FOX 7 Austin.
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