I was off. And it paid off to be patient in writing an article.
Representative Stephanie Klick’s HB3703 has passed the house in its third and final vote. Normally when any bill that expands the Texas Compassionate Use Program is heard and passed out of committee, it would be celebrated. When a bill of that nature would pass on the floor of either chamber of the Texas legislature, it would normally be celebrated. It’s a good sign that the people of Texas are ready to expand this program.
Unfortunately this bill is nowhere near as helpful as HB1365 from Representative Lucio III. HB3703 only adds two more conditions to the current program and changes intractable epilepsy to just epilepsy.
That was the beginning of the article I originally was writing, then it changed drastically when I received more information about what was taking place.
The Texas Tribune wrote an article about this recently and it should be clarified. The Tribune wrote,
“Klick successfully added an amendment to her bill Tuesday saying the second doctor only needed to be a licensed physician, rather than a specialized neurologist.
Unlike Klick’s bill, Lucio’s strikes the residency requirement and says those wanting to try the medicine only need approval of one neurologist from the registry and a second physician who must be licensed in the state of Texas and have “adequate medical knowledge” in order to render a second opinion.”
I thought to myself, that is just not true about Lucio’s bill. The bill language of HB1365 actually reads as follows,
“A [Only a] physician [qualified as provided by this section] may prescribe low-THC cannabis in accordance with this chapter for a patient with a debilitating medical condition, provided that:
(1)the physician has obtained the proper medical knowledge concerning medical use as treatment for a patient’s particular debilitating medical condition through a course of instruction provided for that purpose, continuing medical education relating to medical use, or self-study;
(2)the physician has determined that the risk of medical use by the patient is reasonable in light of the potential benefit for the patient; and
(3)a second physician licensed in this state has concurred with the physician ‘s determination under Subdivision (2)and the second physician ‘s concurrence is recorded in the patient’s medical record.”
Click here to call your senator and request they support HB1365 today!
I emailed the author about the article stating that a correction was in line and cited the bill language. Here is the response I received,
“I just called the representatives’ office to talk about this. He said this language is likely a result of a drafting error since the first doctor still needs to be in the registry — which only consists of neurologists. The second doctor, meanwhile, just has to have “adequate medical knowledge” to prescribe the medicine. Lucio’s office said it’s his intent for the first prescribing doctor to be a neurologist in the CURT, and moving forward, they’ll make that language explicitly clear. Thank you for flagging, because his office admits the language can be ambiguous. Going forward, however, I’m told this will be addressed. “
So no matter what your diagnosis is, according to this exchange you will have to see a neurologist to receive low-thc cannabis treatment in the state of Texas. Cancer, PTSD, muscle spasms, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, and muscular dystrophy would all have to be seen and prescribed by a neurologist to receive low-thc medical cannabis. It just isn’t a feasible approach for any of disorders. I made a video a little over 10 minutes going into this and thanking the other people that have been out there doing their part to change the law in the Texas.
Click here to send your letter of support for HB1365 today.
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