Does Texas have medical marijuana? Is CBD legal in Texas? Here’s what the law says.

In Texas, medical cannabis can be prescribed to treat conditions including epilepsy, cancer, PTSD and neurodegenerative disorders.

Texas Original, a leading medical marijuana provider in the state, had 5,000 active patients enrolled in the program as of July. Texas Original opened its fourth location in Dallas-Fort Worth this summer and has plans to open up more over the next several years.

“We will absolutely have multiple locations in the Dallas-Fort Worth market as the market continues to expand and grow,” says CEO Morris Denton.

The new Frisco medical marijuana pickup location joins sites in Dallas, Addison and Fort Worth. In addition to one store located in South Austin, the company operates nine other pickup locations in East Texas, Central Texas, North Texas and the Houston area. “We will be opening more of those Texas original branded retail locations over the next couple of years,” Denton said. “We’ve got some that are currently in plans in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, as well as San Antonio, Austin, Houston, etc.”

In Frisco, prescriptions are available for pickup between noon and 3 p.m. every Wednesday at OmniLife Wellness, for patients who qualify under the Compassionate Use Program.

How to get medical marijuana prescriptions in Texas?

Qualifying residents can obtain medical cannabis prescriptions through online clinics or local physicians registered with the Compassionate Use Registry of Texas, a program administered by the Department of Public Safety. Prescriptions must contain no more than 1% by weight of tetrahydrocannabinols (THC), and must be taken through swallowing.

Here’s how it works:

• To start the process, patients fill out a form on Texas Original’s website and are connected with a doctor who is qualified under the Compassionate Use Registry of Texas, of which there are about 630.

• If your diagnosis qualifies, that doctor can then enter you into the registry and provide you with a prescription.

• After your appointment, you would call, text, email or online chat Texas Original to fill your prescription and create an account. That account can be used to refill your prescription in the future.

• You pick up the prescription at one of Texas Original’s dispensaries during operating hours. Most are open one to two days per week for several hours.

Texas Original sells three primary products: tinctures, lozenges and gummies. They each have varying ratios of cannabidiol (CBD) and THC including 20 parts CBD to one part THC, three to one, one to one and THC without CBD.

“Much like any other form of medication, it works for some people, but it doesn’t work for all people. For the people that it works for, it’s life saving, it’s life changing and transforms their lives,” Denton said.

Texas Original says many of their patients with seizure disorders become seizure-free using medical marijuana. Others with conditions like MS and Parkinson’s have also described it as effective. The top three symptoms that people use medical cannabis for, regardless of their condition, are anxiety, insomnia and pain.

The state of medical marijuana in Texas

Denton says he wants to increase access to medical cannabis for thousands more Texas patients.

“When we talk about improving access, we mean enabling more people to be able to work with their doctors in order to get a prescription for it, and then making it easy for people in the state of Texas, regardless of where they live, to be able to get the medicine quickly and efficiently,” he said.

One of the issues the company has run into is that inventory can only be stored in the Austin store, meaning that Texans who want to pick up anywhere else have to wait for delivery to that location. He says that being able to store inventory throughout Texas will help patients get the prescription they need sooner.

More people need to be eligible for medical marijuana, Denton says. There are only about 10 conditions that qualify, leaving some prospective patients without treatment that could be effective for them. Specifically, Texas Original wants the Texas legislature to add chronic pain as a qualifying condition.

“We really need to change the way that the state looks at this, so that more people who are suffering from other conditions can also get safe and legal access to our medicine,” Denton said.

He expects that the industry will continue to grow as more Texans welcome the benefits of medical marijuana. A recently conducted Baselice & Associates, Inc survey found that 64% of Republican primary voters in Texas favor legalizing medical marijuana prescribed by a physician for serious medical conditions. And 72% favor allowing physicians to prescribe medical marijuana as an alternative to opioids for treating chronic pain patients.

“Once they see or hear firsthand how it’s helping friends and families and loved ones and neighbors, then all of a sudden their mind starts to open a little bit,” Denton says. “We see the change and the evolution happening. We see it within all political parties.”