Get those testimonies ready if you have them.

It was announced that HB3703 has been added to the Health and Human services calendar for a hearing on May 17, 2019 and is being sponsored by Senator Donna Campbell. The committee will convene at 8 a.m. and there is no clear indication of when the bill will be heard. If you have testimony or wish to testify please arrive as early as possible to the capitol and meet at E1.010. Understand that the bill may not be heard in the morning and may be heard later in the evening. Note that if you have already submitted a testimony via TXNORML online, check your email so that you can respond to the request to reuse your testimony for this next committee hearing.

Click here to send a letter to your senator asking to add amendments to HB3703 to improve it for all Texans. The letter is already written, just enter your address so the system can find who your senator is, and then click send to deliver the pre-written message to your senator.

As of writing this article, the senate has assigned HB1365 to the Health and Human Services Committee. This bill is vastly better than HB3703. All of the things being requested to be added to HB3703 were coming from HB1365. So at this point, one may wondering, which of these should I be supporting? Which of these should I send a letter to my senator about?

The answer is both. Send a letter about both to your senator. The letter regarding HB3703 should be focused on getting the amendments of adding conditions and the Cannabis Therapeutic Research Review Board (CTRRB), an important in-state research program that will have the authority and duty to “determine the formulations and dosages, including ratios of cannabinoids, that are medically appropriate for patients with particular debilitating medical conditions.” As well as removing the requirement for a neurologist to be the initial prescribers of the required two, for any condition that is not a neurological issue.

The letter regarding HB1365 should be focused on getting HB1365 a senate committee hearing as quickly as possible as it is the better of the two bills for Texans. This bill doesn’t require a neurologist (it was confirmed today that the issue reported on earlier is false and not the case) to be the first prescriber of the two required, has more than a dozen conditions listed with one of the conditions covering several medical issues, establishes the CTRRB, amongst other improvements the bill offers compared to HB3703.

Click here to send a letter to your senator asking to give HB1365 the hearings it needs to receive Senate floor debate and vote. The letter is already written, just enter your address so the system can find who your senator is, and then click send to deliver the pre-written message to your senator.

Be sure to share this information with the people you know are wanting to see the law change, share it with the people that you know will benefit from the change medically.

Don’t be a slacktivist.