The Brief

The Texas House and Senate have both filed bills that would effectively ban all consumable products with any detectable amount of cannabinoids, except for CBD and CBG.
This legislation follows Governor Abbott's earlier veto of a similar ban, with advocates arguing it would undo years of work and harm those who rely on these products for medical conditions like epilepsy.
The House bill also proposes a significant $10,000 licensing fee for businesses selling these products.

The Texas House filed its own version of the THC legislation today, following last week’s move by the Senate to go forward with legislation that is almost a total ban on the products. A ban that was vetoed by Governor Abbot earlier this year.

That house bill also includes a $10,000 license or renewal fee for every location that might want to sell the products.

Here's the sticking point: The bill filed by both the senate and the house bans all products that have even a trace of any detectable amount of cannabinoid.

CBD for Epilepsy

Local perspective

Stephanie Fokas is a board member for the Dallas chapter, Epilepsy Foundation of Texas and worked to get the legislation passed that allowed hemp products, CBD and CBG, to be sold in Texas after her now 17-year-old son, Regan, began having seizures and was diagnosed with epilepsy at age four.

"It would take away everything that we worked for 10 years ago and that's really the problem," said Fokas. "He had brain surgery just six weeks after he was diagnosed because there were no pharmaceutical drugs that were working for him."

The surgery worked for a time, but the seizures returned, and Stephanie turned to CBD.

"He's been seizure-free for 10 years, knock on wood on that one, but he's been seizure-free for 10 years on a non-intoxicating product," she said.

But Senate Bill 5, which passed out of committee last week, bans all products that contain any detectable amount of any cannabinoid other than the non-intoxicating components of cannabis, CBD, and CBG.

THC ban

What they're saying

Cannabis attorney, Susan Hays, says that amounts to a virtual ban on all products.

"CBD oil, the kind of thing that got famous for helping little kids, contains a variety of cannabinoids in its natural form and that's also its most effective form," she said.

Hays says when hemp products were first allowed in Texas, no one thought about consumables like gummies and drinks.

Advocates, like Hays, agree with lawmakers that synthetic products and super-potent products should be banned, and there needs to be age requirements of 21 and over to purchase.

"Let people who take gummies in low doses, for example, to sleep, let people still be able to access them. Or moms with kids with epilepsy and seizures access these now, much lower-cost products than they were in the beginning," said Hays.

Dig deeper

Fokas says many people, from children with epilepsy to veterans with PTSD, are better because of CBD products and hopes the legislature understands that.

"We should protect the ones that save lives. Which are sort of full-spectrum CBD products that are hemp-based, and we can make sure that the families that need them have access to them," said Fokas.

Information in this article was provided from an interview conducted by FOX 4's Shaun Rabb.

Source: https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/texas-thc-ban-threatens-access-225803138.html