Making Texas’ medical cannabis laws more patient-friendly
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By Morris Denton Texas Original Compassionate Cultivation
Chief Executive Officer of Texas’ Original Compassionate Cultivation (TOCC). TOCC is the leading licensed medical cannabis producer in Texas, working alongside physicians to provide the highest quality cannabis medicine to patients and families seeking relief across the state.
In 2015, Texas established the Compassionate Use Program (CUP), which allowed physicians treating intractable epilepsy patients to prescribe low-THC cannabis. Since then, legislators have continued their commitment to patients suffering symptoms that can’t be alleviated through other means, taking the time to learn the therapeutic value of medical cannabis and hear personal accounts from the patients whose lives have been profoundly transformed. And they acted again in 2019, expanding CUP to include conditions like terminal cancer, autism, multiple sclerosis, ALS and others.
During the upcoming legislative session, patients, their families and their physicians hope that progress will continue, because much remains to be improved.
In Texas, medical cannabis’s legal THC amount is 0.5 percent by weight — a limit far lower than those of the 33 other states where medical cannabis is legal. A doctor, however, is permitted to prescribe the amount of THC it takes to alleviate a patient’s symptoms. The medicine itself has traditionally been delivered in an oil tincture which, for patients who require larger doses of THC, means swallowing an unhealthy amount of carrying oil and often suffering harmful gastrointestinal side effects as a result.
In response to our patients’ feedback, we created a solution that delivers medicine without the oil and its unintended side effects. Our team developed a lozenge with the same CBD and THC concentrations as our tinctures to deliver medicine in a more patient-friendly way. To best inform the production and delivery of our new lozenge statewide, we conducted research trials with more than 20 patients suffering from conditions, including autism, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s and epilepsy. The majority of trial patients reported little to no gastrointestinal discomfort after taking the lozenge, and found it easy-to-consume, portable and capable of mitigating mobility issues and travel risks.
Still, because of the low THC content, many patients have to consume multiple lozenges in order to achieve their prescribed dose, delaying relief of symptoms and proving cumbersome in general.
While we were able to find this less-than-perfect solution to the challenge created by the low-THC statute, the need for our new lozenge is a great illustration of how medical cannabis laws in Texas can become less burdensome for patients.
“Some CUP regulations are limiting our ability to effectively treat patients, and we believe putting decision-making power in the hands of physicians when it comes to meeting patients’ needs is the right thing to do.”
We therefore respectfully encourage lawmakers to take three steps to make an enormous difference for patients in need:
- Allow for a reasonable increase in THC so that physicians can achieve the desired therapeutic effect for patients without burdening them with cumbersome delivery mechanisms or creating unnecessary side effects.
- Expand allowable conditions so that more Texans can benefit from medical cannabis where necessary and appropriate.
- Shift from condition-focused to symptom-based legislation, letting doctors decide when a patient’s symptoms warrant a medical cannabis prescription.
Registered prescribers and the Texas medical community are discovering and witnessing the positive impact THC has on patients, and will continue to prescribe it at dosages necessary to treat patients effectively. While the most logical and medically sensible way to treat patients who respond positively to cannabis treatment is to remove the barriers listed above, our team is committed to finding innovative ways to produce the highest quality medicine, and providing our patients with the most convenient, accessible consumption options legally available.
“If we have learned anything from 2020, it’s that taking care of Texans’ health and well-being is paramount. And the last few years have proven beyond a doubt that Texas can introduce safe and effective medical cannabis legislation that improves thousands of Texans’ lives.”
It’s not the government’s responsibility to determine which patients are suffering enough to receive treatment and what treatment is best for them. These vital healthcare decisions should be kept between a patient and their doctor, and we should trust our doctors, whose expertise and sacrifice are carrying our state through the battle with Covid-19. Texas lawmakers have shown outstanding leadership during this national health crisis, and I am eager for them to return to Austin and continue putting patients’ needs first.