
 By Amy Shafer
Measures introduced in the House and Senate would allow patients in Texas with debilitating conditions–including veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)–to access medical marijuana if their doctors recommend it.
HB 3785, introduced by Rep. Marisa Marquez (D-El Paso) in the House, and a companion bill introduced by Sen. Jose Melendez (D- San Antonio) in the Senate would create a program through which individuals with qualifying medical conditions would receive licenses allowing them to possess up to 2.5 ounces of medical marijuana, and grow up to six plants (three mature) in their homes, if their doctors recommend it.
The bills also would also direct the Department of State Health Services to establish a tightly regulated system of licensed marijuana cultivators, processors and dispensaries.
“The law currently does not reflect marijuana’s legitimate medical use and denies access to patients, such as veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, citizens suffering with cancer, and severe aliments of the aging,” Rep. Marquez said in a press release announcing the bill. “By continuing to deny access to patients, we limit the rights of families to seek the best possible treatment for conditions that do not respond to other drugs or therapies. We should create paths, and not obstacles, in allowing doctors to recommend medicine that has been shown to work.”
The new bills are different than previously introduced legislation that allowed for CBD oils with little or no THC–the psychoactive compound in marijuana. According to a statement issued by the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) about the new bill, many patients have found that THC and other components of whole marijuana are needed in addition to CBD in order to effectively treat their conditions, and some have relocated to states with more comprehensive medical marijuana laws so that they can access whole marijuana and oils that include a more balanced ratio of CBD and THC.
Dean Bortell and family, for example, relocated to Colorado in order for his nine-year-old daughter, Alexis, to have access to "full-spectrum" cannabis oil for her epilepsy. “Since starting treatment with full spectrum cannabis oils [which include CBD and THC], our daughter has not had a single seizure or spasm,” commented Bortell in the MPP's press release. “With prescription drugs, we never had a symptom free period of more than two days. With cannabis oil, we have a record of eleven days with no end in sight. Since moving to Colorado we have realized how important it is to have access to the whole cannabis plant. Dosing decisions should be left to doctors and families, not lawmakers.”
Qualifying conditions covered by HB 3785 include cancer, glaucoma, HIV/AIDS, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, Alzheimer’s, PTSD, and conditions causing wasting, severe pain, severe nausea, seizures and severe muscle spasms.
Seventy-seven percent of Texans think seriously ill people should have the right to use marijuana for medicinal purposes (according to a University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll released in February 2014). Twenty three states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. territory of Guam have passed laws that allow people with qualifying conditions to access medical marijuana if their doctors recommend it.