Three firms win preliminary licenses under Texas CBD program

(Note: This story has been updated from an earlier version.)

Three companies won preliminary approval from Texas regulators to receive licenses to dispense CBD-based medicine with a low THC content in the state.

Cansortium Texas, Compassionate Cultivation and Surterra Texas received the initial green light from the Texas Department of Public Safety after compiling the highest scores in the licensing process. There were 43 applicants.

Under the Texas Compassionate Use Act that went into effect June 1, 2015, the companies may grow, extract and distribute CBD-based medicine. Texas has a limited law that allows only CBD oils and stipulates just one qualifying condition – intractable epilepsy.

Texas’ Department of Public Safety will grant the three companies final authorization once inspections are completed by Sept. 1, and product may be available before the end of the year, the Atlanta Business Chronicle reported. License fees are $488,520 for a two-year period and $318,511 for the biennial renewal, according to the Department of Public Safety. There is a $530 fee for the original registration and subsequent renewals.

Surterra Texas is owned by Surterra Wellness, an Atlanta company that opened its first business, Surterra Therapeutics, in Tampa, Florida, last year.

Surterra Texas will offer patients statewide deliveries to their homes or doctors’ offices and “has facilities in place to operate primarily out of Austin,” the Atlanta Business Chronicle reported.