The Texas Original cannabis farm, a medical marijuana dispensary in Manchaca pictured here on Sept. 26, uses red light to bleach the flowers of marijuana plants.Jack Stinnett got life-changing news in 2020 when he learned the lump that appeared on the side of his neck was tongue and mouth cancer. He and his wife Karen quickly enrolled him at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, where he underwent five and a half rounds of chemotherapy and 33 treatments of radiation.
Stories like this point to the successes of Texas’ Compassionate Use Program, but it is facing its worst existential crisis since its inception in 2015. Strict rules on who is eligible, what products can be sold, and where they can be stored have limited the program's impact, while unregulated hemp products like delta-8 and the more potent delta-9 continue to rise in demand due to ease of access.
“Of course, your typical consumer, in their mind, perceives it as the same product, and if it is cheaper and easier to access and equally as effective, then I can’t fault anybody,” Bass said. “The medical marijuana program is highly regulated, and the medicine is more expensive than the hemp product, and you have to have a prescription and renew it every six months, and you have to drive all the way to the dispensary, so it’s a big challenge,” he said.
Medical marijuana users have turned to products containing delta-8, pictured here at Oasis A CBD Wellness Shop in Brownsville on Nov. 8, 2021, because of its ease of access.Bass said despite it never being the intent of Texas for legal weed-like substances to be sold to the public, now there are thousands of hemp products that veterans are using to treat their PTSD, chronic pain, and more, and it might be too far to go back now.
“It's a miracle drug; it’s literally been life-changing,” Collins said, adding that he has researched delta-8, but hasn’t tried it. “I encourage those who might have a bias towards to speak to a therapist and let them tell you the benefits.” State regulations also prohibit inventory storage of medical cannabis products in multiple locations, so products must be distributed from the central dispensary. Any prescriptions scheduled for pickup outside the central dispensary must be driven daily to and from the pickup location—sometimes thousands of miles roundtrip.