Cannabis bills progress in Legislature
A bill that would allow farmers in Texas to grow industrial hemp sailed through the House and Senate and is now awaiting Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s signature.
House Bill 1325, filed in February by Rep. Tracy King (D-Batesville), legalizes hemp and hemp-derived extracts such as CBD as long as they contain no more than 0.3 percent THC (the chemical in cannabis that produces a “high”). The bill passed unanimously out of the House Agriculture and Livestock Committee and the Senate Agriculture Committee. The bill then passed in the full House and full Senate unanimously. Rep. Erin Zwiener (D-Driftwood) was one of the coauthors of the bill.
A bill easing access to medical marijuana, HB1365, passed out of the House last week. Zwiener was a coauthor of that bill as well. Authored by Rep. Eddie Lucio III (D-Brownsville), the bill would expand the Texas Compassionate Use program and give access to low-THC cannabis for patients with PTSD, Alzheimer’s, autism and muscular dystrophy. The bill passed out of the House with a vote of 128-20 and has been referred to the Senate Health and Human Services Committee. A similar bill, HB3703, is scheduled for a hearing in the Senate Health and Human Services Committee today.
“We know that medical marijuana can be used to treat a whole range of debilitating and chronic pain conditions,” said Zwiener in a press release. “Expanding compassionate use gives patients more options to treat their conditions and relieve their pain. I want to thank Rep. Lucio and the advocates, particularly parents of children with chronic conditions, who’ve worked so hard on this issue.”
Zwiener has focused on expanding compassionate use and the decriminalization of marijuana this session. She also coauthored HB63, filed by Rep. Joseph Moody (D-El Paso), which passed the House on April 30 and lightens the penalties for possession of small amounts of marijuana. According to data compiled by Hays County Judge Ruben Becerra’s office, possession of less than 2 ounces of marijuana is the most arrested crime in Hays County, accounting for 866 arrests in 2017.
Zwiener also authored House Bill 4145 to disallow a practitioner to refuse treatment or deny a controlled substance prescription solely because the results of a drug test taken by the patient indicated THC or cannabidiol in the patient’s body.
“We are making substantial progress this session on access to medical marijuana and marijuana decriminalization,” Zwiener said. “With these bills, we can provide Texas patients with another tool to relieve pain and improve their quality of life and stop forcing sick people to break the law in order to treat their medical conditions.”
HB63 passed in the House with a vote of 103-42 and has been sent to the Senate. HB4145 had a public hearing in the House Public Health Committee and is left pending.
