Texas Medical Marijuana Program ‘Does Not Provide For Statewide Access For Patients,’ Report Commissioned By State Agency Concludes

A Texas law enforcement agency has released a report advising that the state’s limited medical marijuana system “does not provide for statewide access for patients” and recommending that the number of licensed dispensaries be significantly expanded to meet demand.

The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) didn’t create the report or endorse its various recommendations at this stage. Rather it’s releasing the findings of a New Mexico-based company, Weeds, Inc., that was awarded a state contract last year to carry out the research.

While the Texas Compassionate Use Program (CUP) has grown by tens of thousands of patients—and the state has authorized multiple additional qualifying conditions—since the low-THC medical cannabis law was implemented in 2015, DPS has so far declined to approve any new dispensaries beyond the three it was required to license.

“In general, Texas’ huge geographic spread creates unique problems for both patients and dispensing organizations trying to provide statewide access,” the report says. “The legislature’s expansion of qualifying conditions and increasing patient enrollment have not been matched by comparable increases in enrolled prescribing physicians or dispensary locations.”

“We conclude that while telemedicine and physician education can reduce access gaps between medical cannabis patients and qualified medical specialists, the lack of dispensing organizations outside of the Central Texas region makes access to products to meet those medical needs in accessible,” it continues.

To that end, the research firm carried out an analysis and determined that, in order to meet demand, Texas officials should approve another 10-15 dispensaries, dispersed more equitably across the state rather than being concentrated in one area.

Additionally, it recommended that the department recruit more physicians through continuing education to expand access and allow existing dispensaries to open a “limited number of additional physical locations” beyond the current cluster in Central Texas.

The intent of the report was to “align with the Texas legislature’s intent to revisit the medical cannabis program in the upcoming legislative session, Weeds co-founder Pat Davis told Marijuana Moment on Thursday. “It’s basically a top-to-bottom program review for what’s the scale and scope and what are the opportunities to meet their their mandate from the legislature going forward.”

LATEST NEWS: DPS Releases CUP Report to Public Safety Commission, State Lawmakers

AUSTIN – @TxDPS has released a report on the sustainability and accessibility of Texas’ Compassionate Use Program (CUP) to members of the Texas Public Safety Commission (PSC) along with state… pic.twitter.com/oUaUSwRbLk

— Texas DPS (@TxDPS) October 10, 2024

The report was also partly based on survey data from doctors and patients, and that component of the analysis additionally found that 59 percent of patients would prefer that the state law be amended to allow for smokeable cannabis products.

Further, the firm assessed the “high risk” of the hemp industry to the medical marijuana program.

Cannabinoid products are “prevalent on the shelves of hemp dispensaries, gas stations and retail stores across Texas,” it said. “While many products are produced under the legal hemp program, federal legalization of these products allows for their interstate transport which expands the market even further.”

To Davis, the fact that DPS contracted a company to examine and make recommendations on the state’s medical marijuana program in the first place is a signal that, contrary to popular belief, Texas is interested in building upon the law, rather than maintain a strictly prohibitionist mentality around reform.

“There’s a presumption that Texas does not want to participate in cannabis at all,” Davis, who previously served on the Albuquerque City Council and on a statewide New Mexico cannabis task force, said. “In own experience with DPS—you know, this is one of the few programs in the country that still run by a law enforcement agency—DPS very much understands their legislative directive, which is to provide statewide access to this program for qualifying patients.”

However, despite receiving the market analysis research, DPS said it “will not be recommending any changes to CUP” this year because the report comes so close to the start of the next legislative session that begins in January.

“However, the report has been provided to state lawmakers in the executive and legislative branches to determine what changes to the program, if any, may be warranted in the future,” it said.

Heather Fazio, director of Texans for Responsible Marijuana Policy, told Marijuana Moment that it’s “unfortunate that DPS is going to wait on the legislature to move forward with expanding the compassion use program under their own authority.”

“It would also be beneficial for them to make a direct recommendation to the legislature for expanding patient access through statute,” she said. “Clearly, restricting patient access has crippled the program. For example, there’s no good reason patients living with chronic pain should be denied access to medical cannabis as an alternative opioids.”

“Overall, it would be best to make the compassionate use program more competitive by expanding it to as many patients as possible, reducing the outrageous cost for licensing, and creating parity in the way products are regulated with regard to cultivation, processing, and manufacturing,” Fazio said.

(Disclosure: Fazio supports Marijuana Moment’s work through a monthly Patreon pledge.)

Meanwhile, a poll released last month found that a strong bipartisan majority of Texas voters support decriminalizing marijuana, and more people say they want to reduce restrictions on cannabis than say the same about guns, gambling and abortion in the Lone Star state.

Several Texas cities will be deciding on local marijuana decriminalization initiatives at the ballot this November. Most recently, lawmakers in Lockhart officially placed the reform on the ballot—reaching a compromise with activists after the city attorney attempted to revise the proposal in a way that supporters worried would face legal challenges and potentially upend the reform.

Voters in the Texas cities of Dallas and Bastrop will also decide on local marijuana decriminalization initiatives this fall.

Numerous marijuana decriminalization measures have already been enacted in cities across the Lone Star state in recent years, including Austin, Denton, Elgin, Harker Heights, Killeen and San Marcos. They generally prevent police from making arrests or issuing citations for Class A or B misdemeanor cannabis possession offenses, unless it’s part of a high priority felony investigation for narcotics or violent crime.

Advocates also scored another win in San Marcos in July after a Texas district judge dismissed a lawsuit from the state’s Republican attorney general that sought to overturn a local decriminalization ordinance in that city.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) filed a lawsuit in January challenging local decriminalization laws that were enacted in five cities: Austin, San Marcos, Killeen, Elgin and Denton. A different district judge had overturned the suit in Austin in June.

Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has separately lashed out against the municipal cannabis reform efforts.

“Local communities such as towns, cities and counties, they don’t have the authority to override state law,” the governor said in May “If they want to see a different law passed, they need to work with their legislators. Let’s legislate to work to make sure that the state, as a state, will pass some of the law.”

He said it would lead to “chaos” and create an “unworkable system” for voters in individual cities to be “picking and choosing” the laws they want abide by under state statute.

Abbott has previously said that he doesn’t believe people should be in jail over marijuana possession—although he mistakenly suggested at the time that Texas had already enacted a decriminalization policy to that end.

Paxton had used more inflammatory rhetoric when his office announced that it was suing the five cities over their local laws decriminalizing marijuana, vowing to overrule the “anarchy” of “pro-crime extremists” who advocated for the reform.

Shortly after voters in Harker Heights approved their measure, the city council overturned the ordinance over concerns that it conflicted with state law. But activists collected signatures for another initiative and successfully repealed the repeal last year—though officials have still refused to move forward with implementing the will of voters.

In November, Ground Game released a report that looked at the impacts of the marijuana reform laws. It found that the measures will keep hundreds of people out of jail, even as they have led to blowback from law enforcement in some cities. The initiatives have also driven voter turnout by being on the ballot, the report said.

Another cannabis decriminalization measure that went before voters in San Antonio last May was overwhelmingly defeated, but that proposal also included unrelated provisions to prevent enforcement of abortion restrictions.

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At the state-level last year, the Texas House of Representatives passed a series of bills to decriminalize marijuana, facilitate expungements and allow chronic pain patients to access medical cannabis as an opioid alternative. But they ultimately stalled out in the Senate, which has been a theme for cannabis reform measures in the conservative legislature over several sessions.

The House passed similar cannabis decriminalization proposals during the past two legislative sessions, in 2021 and 2019.

Separately, a Texas Democratic senator brought the issue of marijuana legalization to the Senate floor last May, seeking to attach to an unrelated resolution an amendment that would’ve allowed Texans to vote on ending prohibition at the ballot box. But the symbolic proposal was ultimately shut down. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) agreed to another member’s point of order, deeming the cannabis amendment not germane to the broader legislation.

Three in five Texans, including a plurality of Republicans, support legalizing marijuana, according to a survey released in May.

Another poll released in 2022 found that nearly three in four Texas voters (72 percent) support decriminalizing marijuana. More than half (55 percent), meanwhile, said they’re in favor of broader legalization. Seventeen percent said it shouldn’t be legal at all.

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Photo courtesy of Brian Shamblen.