Latest news with #HB46
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Texas reps rally against Senate amendment pruning medical marijuana expansion
The Brief The Texas Senate has passed an amendment that narrows the scope of a bill expanding medical marijuana use, reducing eligible patients. The Senate's version cuts conditions like chronic pain and traumatic brain injury, which were included in the House-passed bill. Texas House representatives are expressing strong disapproval, vowing to fight for the original, broader expansion. AUSTIN - An amendment passed by the Texas Senate to a bill defining medical marijuana use in the state greatly reduces applicable patients compared to the version passed by the House. Some Texas representatives are less than happy about the change. The backstory HB 46, or the Compassionate-Use Program (TCUP) bill, would expand Texas' limited medical marijuana program for applicable users. The House on May 13 passed a version of the bill that would have included in the expansion honorably discharged veterans who would benefit from use, those experiencing chronic pain, glaucoma, traumatic brain injury, spinal neuropathy, Crohn's disease or other inflammatory bowel diseases, degenerative disc disease and patients with a terminal illness or condition for which a patient is receiving hospice of palliative care. The House passed the bill 122-21. What's Changed On Friday night, the Senate Committee on State Affairs added a new amendment to the proposed legislation that would reduce the new list of applicable users. The amended version would cut chronic pain, TBI and other conditions from those included in the new parameters. It also dramatically cuts the number of new licenses to be issued. What they're saying Rep. Daniel Alders (R-Tyler) began the House's outcry on X by expanding on a post explaining the changes to the bill. "One of the main reasons why many representatives voted yes on SB3 was because the Texas House passed legislation specifically expanding TCUP," Alders said on the social media platform. "At minimum the Senate needs to expand the program to include: - Chronic pain and TBI traumatic brain injury - More license holders - Prescription by mail. We must get this right." Rep. Katrina Pierson (R-Rockwall) said on X that she agrees "100%" with Alders' statement. Rep. Tim Oliverson (R-Cypress), one of the authors of HB 46, also expressed displeasure at the altering of the proposal. "I am deeply disappointed in the removal of chronic pain and TBI from the Senate version of HB46. I am working tirelessly to get it back in the bill," Oliverson said on X. "Without these qualifying conditions and more access than what is currently contemplated, I am concerned about the effect of SB3 on Texans with legitimate medical conditions." Rep. Nate Schatzline (R-Fort Worth) also spoke out on X. "Last week I voted to expand TCUP, the Texas Compassionate Use Program," Schatzline said. "I hope & believe that the Senate will keep the expansion for: - Chronic pain and TBI traumatic brain injury - More license holders - Prescription by mail." Rep. Dustin Burrows (R-Lubbock), the current Speaker of the House, reposed each of these statements on his X account. Burrows has yet to post a statement of his own. At the time of the statements, Burrows was presiding over a House hearing. Dig deeper A sweeping bill equating to a near-total ban on THC products is currently nearing the governor's approval. SB 3 would prohibit the sale or use of THC products that were legalized via a loophole created in a 2019 expansion of the hemp industry in Texas. SB 3 was passed by the Senate before being amended in the House, and was passed to its third and final reading this week. Small business owners are leading the pack in opposition of the bill. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a major proponent of the proposal, believes the thousands of businesses peddling the products are a detriment to the state. Owners and employees of those smoke and vape stores, on the other hand, are concerned about the loss of business, revenue and a fortune in tax dollars. What's next Now that an amended substitute to HB 46 has passed out of committee, it must next be heard before the full Senate. If passed, the bill would then be sent back to the House, where it may be either passed in its new form or reverted to the original text. If the House and Senate cannot come to an agreement on the provisions in the bill, the proposed legislation will not make it to the governor's desk. The Source Information in this article comes from Texas Legislature Online and public X accounts for Texas elected officials.
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Senate committee voices concerns over expansive low-THC medical cannabis House bill
AUSTIN (Nexstar) – On Monday morning, a Texas House bill that addresses access to low-THC medical cannabis raised some concerns in the Senate State Affairs Committee. House Bill 46 aims to increase the number of medical cannabis providers, expand patient eligibility and allow patients to use inhalers to receive the medication. Bill sponsor Senator Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, acknowledged the concerns that have been raised about the legislation. At Monday's hearing, Perry described the bill as 'definitely a work in progress.' 'Some of the things in it are a good step in the right direction, some of the things that are in it are kind of a backwards look, and some of the things in it could open up the door for unintended consequences,' said Perry during the hearing. 'You said opens the door. I think it puts a C4 blast on it,' said State Sen. Brian Birdwell, R-Granbury. Texas House backs bill to expand access to low-THC medical cannabis Perry authored Senate Bill 1505, which is listed as the Senate companion bill to HB 46. Both bills work to expand Texas' Compassionate Use Program (CUP), a program that has grown since 2015 to provide low-THC cannabis to those with certain medical conditions. Currently, all three licensed Texas dispensaries that distribute medical cannabis prescriptions are located in Austin and must store their inventory there. To serve patients in other cities or rural areas, the dispensaries have to drive the medication out after an order is placed. If the patient isn't available to receive the prescription, the dispensary has to return the order to Austin, making the process slow and inefficient for both sides. Compared to its Senate companion, House Bill 46 is more expansive in medical cannabis access. While the Senate bill would increase the amount of licensed dispensaries to no more than six, the House bill allows for 11 licenses. The Senate version also defines 'low-THC cannabis' as containing no more than five milligrams of tetrahydrocannabinols per dose, while the House sets the maximum dosage at 20 milligrams of tetrahydrocannabinols. '1505 and this bill both wants to expand access in a responsible way to where you're not driving a product from Austin to Lubbock only to have that person not on the recipient end of it, to have to drive back—That is a legitimate, prescribed-by-physician affliction named in statute that could benefit,' Perry told the committee. The head of one of Texas' three licensed dispensaries, Texas Original Compassionate Cultivation, testified at the hearing. CEO Nico Richardson said he is 'supportive of the conversation between 1505 and 46.' He said the bills help fix the system by adding accessibility through satellite locations, allowing for pulmonary inhalation, and lowering the cost of the medicine. 'This is a poison': Texas Senate passes bill that would ban THC products from being sold Perry said the Senate will consider a committee substitute, which is still being drafted, for HB 46. Tuesday's vote on Senate Bill 3 in the House will likely shape what is in that substitute legislation. SB 3 places strict regulations on the sale of consumable hemp in Texas, including new fees and criminal offenses. 'Senate Bill 3 is up tomorrow in the House, so we'll see where that lands and see where this all fits together,' Perry said. 'It's all kind of a package deal.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Texas House backs bill to expand access to low-THC medical cannabis
AUSTIN (Nexstar) — On Monday, the Texas House voted 118-16 to advance a bill addressing perceived issues with Texas' Compassionate Use Program (CUP). House Bill 46, authored by State Rep. Ken King, R-Canadian, will now head to a third reading in the House before getting sent to the Texas Senate. 'The program has been set up, but it's never been made functional or accessible,' King said. King's concerns derive from the lack of accessibility to the program first established by the legislature in 2015. 'There are not enough dispensing organizations licensed in the state of Texas,' King said. The three licensed dispensers are all Austin-based and current law requires secured storage at the production facility. 'The way it works today is I have to keep all that inventory in Austin, and so when we have patients in Houston and Fort Worth and Dallas and San Antonio, they order the night before. We drive the prescription to them the next morning and if they don't pick it up, we have to drive it back,' Texas Original CEO Nico Richardson said. 'That's in the high population density areas of Texas.' If we go out into the rural areas… to get on a delivery route schedule, because we need to schedule them out so that we have enough time to fill a route that can take two weeks sometimes.' Richardson says planning to get medication to rural areas can be a weeks-long process. HB 46 would allow those companies to create secure storage facilities in other cities, expanding easy access for those who need it. The bill would also increase the number of providers. According to an FAQ section on the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) website, 'Texas Health and Safety Code Chapter 487 requires that the department issue at least three licenses but no more than the number of licenses necessary to ensure reasonable statewide access to, and availability for patients prescribed low-THC cannabis.' HB 46 requires DPS to issue 11 licenses to increase supply. In 2015, the Texas CUP program was started specifically for intractable epilepsy. Since then the program has slowly rolled more patients in. Currently, doctors can approve low-THC cannabis for patients dealing with: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis Autism Cancer Epilepsy An incurable neurodegenerative disease Multiple sclerosis Post-traumatic stress disorder A seizure disorder Spasticity Under HB 46, doctors can also prescribe low-THC cannabis for: A chronic pain condition which a physician would otherwise prescribe an opioid Glaucoma Traumatic brain injury Spinal neuropathy Crohn's disease or other inflammatory bowel disease Degenerative disc disease A terminal illness or a condition for which a patient is receiving hospice or palliative care HB 46 would also lift the restriction on using a low-THC inhaler to take their medication. 'There are a lot of patients that have episodic conditions that either need immediate relief or they can't digest our medication properly,' Richardson said. 'If you ingest the medicine, it can take 30 minutes to an hour for it to become active in your system and your bloodstream. When you take it through an inhalation method, it's almost immediate.' Richardson says the new method could help first-time users who accidentally take too much cannabis because they aren't aware of how long ingested THC takes to activate. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Texas lawmakers look to expand law on use of medical marijuana
The Brief Texas lawmakers are looking to expand the law that allows the use of medical marijuana Lawmakers are also looking to bans most products containing THC Time is running out on the legislation AUSTIN, Texas - Texas lawmakers are looking to expand the law that allows the use of medical marijuana. The expansion comes as lawmakers are also looking to clamp down on hemp products sold across the state. Medical marijuana legislation A medical marijuana dispensary, located in south Austin, is one of three operating under a state license. Since the program began in 2018, it's estimated that about 110,000 people have been helped. This highly-regulated business is now ready to grow, according to Texas Original CEO Nico Richardson. "We're very hopeful that our case has been heard now by the legislature. They understand that the people we are helping are some of the most necessary medical patients in Texas," said Richardson. Dig deeper Back in April, the House Public Health committee voted out HB 46. On Tuesday, in the state Senate a companion bill, SB 1505, was ready for its floor debate. The legislation increases the number of licensed medical cannabis dispensaries from three to six. It also allows the license holders to set up satellite offices in different parts of Texas. In the House hearing, Richardson explained the reasoning for that. "We put it into our distribution cars. We'll drive that across the state of Texas if a patient is not there for delivery. In El Paso or Rio Grande Valley or East Texas. We have to drive it back that day as soon as possible and put it back into storage in that one facility," said Richardson as he testified in April. The proposed legislation expands what's known as the Texas Compassionate Use law. "The second piece where it's really going to help actually is just the cost of the medicine, which is we're already pretty competitively priced with what people can go find in this unregulated hemp market, as long as they're buying Delta nine that's plant-derived. If they're buying all the other synthetic garbage like Delta eight and everything else, nobody can compete with that," said Richardson. Hemp industry legislation Dig deeper Lawmakers are also looking to clamp down on the unregulated hemp industry. SB 3 bans most products containing THC, like gummies and beverages. There is a compromise bill to regulate the products and create a licensing process, but Richardson warns that could involve nearly 10,000 businesses. "I mean just the agency you'd have to build up to go in and to make sure all those people are selling properly regulated products, you can't do it. So, the first thing they have to do if they want to regulate an industry is shrink the retail count down to something that actually matches our population when you look at the rest of the country, which basically means wiping out 90% of the retail in the state of Texas to begin with. And nobody wants to do that on the hemp side," said Richardson. Two years ago, time ran out on similar legislation to expand the compassionate use law. There's less than a month left in this session. The Source Information from the Texas legislative session
Yahoo
01-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Wyoming becomes 12th state not to require homeschool curriculum submission to schools
CHEYENNE — Wyoming officially became the 12th state to drop the requirement for parents to submit their homeschool curriculum to local school districts after Gov. Mark Gordon signed House Bill 46 on Thursday. HB 46, 'Homeschool Freedom Act,' sponsored by Rep. Tomi Strock, R-Douglas, passed with bipartisan support in the Senate earlier this week on a near unanimous vote of 28-2, with one member excused. The bill received support from homeschool parents and public school representatives. During committee discussions of the bill, homeschool parents said the process of submitting curriculum to their local school board was confusing and a form of government overreach. Homeschool Wyoming President Brenna Lowry, who homeschooled each of her five children for the past 25 years, told Senate Education Committee members 'the time is right' to repeal this provision in current Wyoming law. 'The school board has no authority to approve or disapprove the curriculum,' Lowry said. 'It's just a hoop to jump through.' If a child was previously enrolled in a public school, parents will still need to notify the school district of their intent to educate the child at home under the bill. Parents who never sent their child to public school will not be required to notify the district of their intent to homeschool. Wyoming Association of School Administrators Executive Director Boyd Brown said during the Senate Education Committee meeting that public school superintendents also stood in support of the bill. 'We do nothing with evaluating (homeschool curriculum),' Brown said. Wyoming Department of Family Services Director Korin Schmidt previously testified this bill would make it difficult to investigate cases of educational neglect. The submitted curriculum to the school district is a way for investigators to confirm the child is being educated at home, she said. 'It's a tool that will no longer be there,' Schmidt said. 'But we will continue to work around it and do our investigations regardless.' The bill goes into effect July 1.
