Thread: Medical cannabis dispensaries are opening in Texas, but the newly legal oils still ar

Medical cannabis dispensaries are opening in Texas, but the newly legal oils still aren't easy to procure

The state has approved three dispensaries to provide cannabis oil to seizure patients. But with only 18 doctors able to prescribe it, the oils still can be tough to secure.

by Alex Samuels Feb. 5, 2018 12 AM

Modern medicine has helped Laura Campbell’s 27-year-old daughter, Sierra, fight off many of her persistent seizures. At her peak, Sierra suffered from more than three seizures a day. Now, she's down to one or two per month.

But the gains come with their own frustrations.

“She takes five pills twice a day, plus more if she needs an emergency supplement in case of a seizure. It damages her brain every time she has [a seizure]. Her IQ has gone down and her neurological functions are suffering,” Campbell said, trailing off between tears. “With every seizure she has, it just gets worse for her.”

Now Campbell, an Austin resident, is hoping she can wean her daughter off the “harsh” meds and turn to cannabis oil instead. That treatment was legalized in 2015, and a dispensary in Schulenburg made its first delivery of the oil to a young Texas child last week.

But as dispensaries are opening, Texans like Campbell’s daughter might still have a hard time getting access to the oil from marijuana plants. Currently, fewer than 20 doctors across the state are registered with the Texas Department of Public Safety to prescribe it.

They are able to do so under the Texas Compassionate Use Act, which legalized the sale of a specific kind of cannabis oil for a small group of Texans: epilepsy patients, like Sierra, whose symptoms have not responded to federally approved medication.

But to qualify for the medicine, Texans must have tried two FDA-approved drugs and found them to be ineffective. The patients also must be permanent residents of Texas and get approval from two of the 18 doctors listed on the Compassionate Use Registry of Texas.

Under the law, a physician can only sign up for the state registry if, among several other requirements, the doctor has dedicated a significant portion of his or her clinical practice to the evaluation and treatment of epilepsy and is certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in either epilepsy or neurology.

While a primary doctor must physically see the patient before prescribing low-THC cannabis, the second physician doesn’t have to have make contact, according to a DPS spokesman. Rather, the second doctor only needs to approve the first doctor’s diagnosis.

Still, the system is frustrating to parents of patients like Sierra, whose mom worries that the dearth of eligible doctors will prevent her daughter from getting the help she needs.

“I’m going through this list thinking that I’m going to have to call these doctors and see if they even accept new patients,” Campbell said. “Then if we’re lucky enough to get in, how am I going to pay for these doctors? I’m not sure insurance will cover it.”

“It’s just a daunting process,” she added.

M. Scott Perry, the medical director of neurology at Cook Children's Medical Center in Fort Worth, is one of the physicians registered to prescribe the cannabis oil. He called the two-doctor rule “essential.”

“It’s important to have an independent physician not involved in the day-to-day care of the patient to look and see if [cannabis oil] really makes sense," he said.

Out of the thousands of epilepsy patients he sees, Perry said he’d only consider prescribing the oil to a handful of them, since he wants to make sure all other treatment options have been exhausted first.

Perry, who signed up with the registry in January, said it’s likely other neurologists haven’t signed up yet because, until recently, there was no product being dispensed. He also suspects a lot of doctors still don’t feel comfortable prescribing cannabis oil to their patients.

“I don’t think anyone knows how to prescribe it, to be honest, because it’s still an evolving science to figure out what the doses are, what the side effects are and how efficacious the medicine is,” Perry said. “When we’re talking about the [cannabis] oil that’s going to be produced by the dispensaries, they’re all slightly different.”

“To some degree, they’re all different medications,” he added.

“New territory for Texas”

State law is narrow in the kind of cannabis oil it allows. Only products with low levels of tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive element in marijuana known as THC, and high levels of cannabidiol, a non-euphoric component known as CBD that is used to treat epilepsy and other chronic medical conditions, can be sold.

Late last year, the Texas Department of Public Safety authorized a total of three dispensaries to begin growing and distributing the product.

Twenty-nine states now allow for comprehensive public medical marijuana and cannabis programs, according to the National Council of State Legislatures. Texas is now one of 17 states to pass a law allowing for the use of "low THC, high CBD" products for medical reasons in limited situations.

While Texans like Campbell worry about the shortage of licensed doctors, advocates and dispensary owners are united behind one message: Texas families might need to hold on a bit longer.

“I know many families are tired of waiting and are frustrated. We hear you,” said Sindi Rosales, the CEO of the Epilepsy Foundation of Central & South Texas. “We know that you’re anxious to get the oil and we’re doing everything we can do to try to help physicians get the information they need to so can be comfortable with the process.”

Rosales added that she doesn’t think Texas families should be concerned.

“This product is coming out differently than how a typical medication for epilepsy comes up the pipeline,” Rosales said. “There’s still a lot of questions about the product and I think that’s adding to some of the slow movement.”

Morris Denton, the CEO for the distributor Compassionate Cultivation, said he expects more doctors to join the registry in the coming weeks.

“This is new territory for Texas and new territory for all these doctors,” Denton said. “If the maximum number of doctors was [18], then we’d have a lot of concerns. But this is the beginning of what we expect to be an ongoing process.”

Both Denton and Rosales encouraged eligible Texans to speak to their physicians and to let them know if they want to try the cannabis oil.

In the meantime, Campbell said she’s going to start making phone calls to doctors already on the registry and try to encourage Sierra’s epileptologist to join the growing list. While four of the 18 doctors able to prescribe CBD oil are located in Austin, two are pediatric neurologists who she says likely won't see Campbell's adult daughter.

“I just feel bad because you’re supposed to do anything for your kid, right? At all costs. I don’t know for sure how much the oil will help, but I’ve seen cases where it just makes a world a difference,” Campbell said. “We’re just ready for a change.”

https://www.texastribune.org/2018/02...doctors-keep-/

So Texas didn't even legalize for cancer patients to help with the nausea and pain??!! Oh man, that's sick. How could you not want to help them? Big Cancer and Big Pharma oppose?? Do not listen to these donors, listen to your citizens.

Originally Posted by Judy

So Texas didn't even legalize for cancer patients to help with the nausea and pain??!! Oh man, that's sick. How could you not want to help them? Big Cancer and Big Pharma oppose?? Do not listen to these donors, listen to your citizens.

Oh, and there's not big money behind the push to legalize marijuana?

Originally Posted by MW

Oh, and there's not big money behind the push to legalize marijuana?

I don't know. Who would it be? I don't have any money in it. It's certainly NOT Big No Cure Cancer or Big Keep You Doped For Life Pharma, that's for sure.

Originally Posted by Judy

I don't know. Who would it be? I don't have any money in it. It's certainly NOT Big No Cure Cancer or Big Keep You Doped For Life Pharma, that's for sure.

Well, let's start with your compadre in the effort to legalize marijuana, George Soros. Yep, his efforts to destroy America from within probably reach further than you even thought possible.

Billionaire George Soros behind major push for marijuana legalization

Published time: 3 Apr, 2014 19:37Edited time: 4 Apr, 2014 11:57

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George Soros.(Reuters / Pascal Lauener) / Reuters


Hungarian-American billionaire and philanthropist George Soros is no stranger when it comes to throwing around money, but the former hedge fund manager is making headlines over some major donations he’s made to help legalize marijuana.

On the heels of the approval of two of the United States’ first recreational laws in Colorado and Washington, other locales across the country are considering implementing policy changes that could decriminalize pot, ease penalties for users or eliminate weed laws altogether. Advocacy groups are leading the campaign to crush marijuana prohibition from coast-to-coast, and 83-year-old Soros is helping line the pockets of those making that push.

On Wednesday this week, Kelly Riddell at The Washington Times pulled back the curtain to reveal details about some of the roles that Soros has played in the pro-weed debate, and helped explain how the billionaire’s many foundations are fighting the war against pot prohibition.

“Through a network of nonprofit groups, Mr. Soros has spent at least $80 million on the legalization effort since 1994, when he diverted a portion of his foundation’s funds to organizations exploring alternative drug policies, according to tax filings,” Riddell wrote.

The Soros-affiliated Foundation to Promote an Open Society donates roughly $4 million annually to the Drug Policy Alliance, Riddell added, a nonprofit group that describes itself as the nation's leading organization promoting drug policies that are grounded in science, compassion, health and human rights. Soros is among the group of board members who help steer policy reform efforts undertaken by that organization, which has contributed to the successful attempts in both Colorado and Washington state to legalize recreational marijuana, as well as in Uruguay where last year the South American country became the first in the world to allow for the regulation, distribution and sale of weed to legal adults.

Records obtained by the Times also reveal that Soros cuts other substantial checks annually to the American Civil Liberties Union, “which in turn funds marijuana legalization efforts,” Riddell wrote, as well as the Marijuana Policy Project which funds state ballot measures. In 2013, the MPP ranked Soros as the ninth most influential marijuana user in the US, behind President Barack Obama, television host Oprah Winfrey and a handful of other politicians and celebrities.

The co-director and spokesperson for that group, Mason Tvert, told the Times that MPP and the Drug Policy Alliance are planning to support full legalization measures in the near future in the states of Arizona, California, Massachusetts, Maine, Montana and Nevada, and Soros himself has advocated on behalf of previous attempts to abolish pot prohibition in at least one of those locales.
Ahead of an attempt in November 2010 to legalize weed in California through the failed Proposition 19, Soros wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal in which he called the since-failed initiative “a major step forward.”

“In many respects, of course, Proposition 19 already is a winner no matter what happens on Election Day,” Soros wrote then. “The mere fact of its being on the ballot has elevated and legitimized public discourse about marijuana and marijuana policy in ways I could not have imagined a year ago.”

Soros declined to be interviewed for the Times’ article published this week, but he’s more than likely enthused about the approval of pro-weed laws in Colorado and Washington carried out after Prop 19 was defeated in the polls. And with regards to initiatives up for vote during the 2014 election, Riddell wrote that Soros is once again playing a substantial role.

“In Florida, Mr. Soros has teamed up with multimillionaire and Democratic fundraiser John Morgan to donate more than 80 percent of the money to get medical marijuana legalization on the ballot through its initiative ‘United for Care, People United for Medical Marijuana,’” Riddell wrote, and the MPP is “focusing a lot of time and resources passing bills” in Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont, according to her report.

“It’s only a matter of time before marijuana is legalized under federal law,” Tom Angell, founder and chairman of the Marijuana Majority advocacy group, told the Times. “We now have 20 states plus the District of Columbia considering legalization efforts, two states have already legalized it for all adults over the age of 21 — politicians will have to follow the will of the people on this.”
As RT reported previously, the results of a Pew Research Center poll released last year found that 52 percent of Americans support the legalization of marijuana. Despite recently approved laws in Washington and Colorado, marijuana remains an illegal narcotic under federal law.

https://www.rt.com/usa/soros-mpp-times-marijuana-189/

LOL!! $80 million since 1994 through the ACLU?? That's not "big" money. Koch Brothers are spending $400 million on the 2018 midterm elections. Americans have spent far far more than that to legalize marijuana. And that number whatever it is will grow like a prairie fire because now there are 7 states who have legalized for both medical and recreational use and 28 counting the 7 who have legalized for medical use. There's at least 4 more states considering legislation and ballot initiatives this year for recreational use, so there's lots of businesses now who will be funding these actions along with ordinary Americans who have funded the advocacy groups for so many years to get it this far.

Originally Posted by Judy

LOL!! $80 million since 1994 through the ACLU?? That's not "big" money. Koch Brothers are spending $400 million on the 2018 midterm elections. Americans have spent far far more than that to legalize marijuana. And that number whatever it is will grow like a prairie fire because now there are 7 states who have legalized for both medical and recreational use and 28 counting the 7 who have legalized for medical use. There's at least 4 more states considering legislation and ballot initiatives this year for recreational use, so there's lots of businesses now who will be funding these actions along with ordinary Americans who have funded the advocacy groups for so many years to get it this far.

I said he was for starters. Like I originally stated, there's a lot of big money behind the effort to legalize marijuana. There is nothing you can say to change that fact. There's a lot of greedy people out to get a piece of the 'pot' pie. Do your research, Judy.

Oh I'm sure there is, I just don't know who they are, and for me it doesn't matter. I don't consider it "greedy people". Anyone who funds these efforts to end this War on Drugs in any state in our country or at the federal level as well, has my full support. Even Soros can stumble into a right thing once in awhile, even if for the wrong reason, because I'm sure he thought it would legalize the illegal foreign drug supply which is why he's lending his support, but that's not how it's going to come down. There will be no cross-border "trade" on this one.