Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law legislation that will slightly expand the state’s restrictive medical marijuana program to make MMJ available to additional patients and allow for marginally more THC in regulated medicinal cannabis products.
House Bill 1535, signed into law Tuesday, will take effect Sept. 1.
The new law permits the use of low-THC marijuana for patients with post-traumatic stress disorder as well as any form of cancer, instead of only terminal cancer.
Those two illnesses add to a short list of medical conditions that can warrant a cannabis authorization in Texas.
The law will also raise the THC cap on regulated MMJ in Texas from 0.5% to 1%.
That cap was lowered by the Texas Senate, watering down a House version of the bill that would have raised the THC limit to 5%.
The bill also paves the way for a new research program to study the use of low-THC medical marijuana.
Texas’ medical marijuana program listed only 6,051 registered patients as of May.
– Solomon Israel
