Legislation to expand Texas’ medical cannabis program has been scheduled for a public hearing on April 3.
House Bill 46, the companion to Senate Bill 1505, has been scheduled for a public hearing in the House Disease Prevention & Women’s & Children’s Health Subcommittee on April 3 at 8 a.m. in room E1.014. With nearly identical language to its Senate counterpart, which was recently given approval by the Senate State Affairs Committee, the bill would significantly expand access to low-THC cannabis for patients across Texas.
If passed, the legislation would allow licensed dispensaries to open satellite storage locations, raise the statewide cap on dispensing organization licenses from three to six, and require approved entities to begin dispensing low-THC cannabis within 24 months.
The measure also establishes a 300-milligram limit on individual packages of low-THC cannabis products—replacing the current 1% THC concentration cap by weight—and it blocks local governments from banning the cultivation, production, storage, or dispensing of low-THC cannabis.
Texas launched its Compassionate-Use Program in 2015, initially restricting access to patients with intractable epilepsy. Since then, the program has expanded to include conditions like multiple sclerosis, autism, terminal cancer, and PTSD, but the state still enforces some of the most restrictive medical marijuana laws in the nation.
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