Texas Expands Access to Medical Marijuana—But It’s Not Enough

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Each morning when Viridiana Edwards wakes up, she says her physique seems like a roll of aluminum foil crumpled up into a decent ball. Her legs are numb; the muscle tissues in her arms and again are tense. She feels so tense that when she lifts her arm as much as brush her tooth, she worries she would possibly pull a muscle. “One of the best ways I can describe it, is only a marionette that’s been within the case for years,” Edwards says. “I really feel like a puppet with all of my strings in a knot.” 

So she begins every morning with a sequence of stretches, and by rubbing a home made physique oil on her neck—one made with olive oil, chamomile and arnica flowers, and cannabidiol (CBD) derived from hemp. Nearly instantly, she says she begins to loosen up. “As soon as I take advantage of my CBD, it’s just like the strings simply fall off.” 

Edwards, 33, is a U.S. Military veteran who struggles with post-traumatic stress dysfunction (PTSD) and power ache every day. After serving within the navy for a few decade, she obtained medical retirement attributable to accidents she sustained in Afghanistan. Edwards, like others who’ve advocated for measures to broaden medical marijuana legalization in Texas in recent times, says hashish is the one factor she’s discovered that’s efficiently handled her signs with out the dangerous uncomfortable side effects of prescribed drugs. Even a small quantity has allowed her to chop again her different remedy from a pair dozen drugs every day to 1 as wanted.  

For the final two legislative periods, Edwards has shared her expertise with Texas lawmakers and urged them to broaden the circumstances and dosage for authorized hashish. Nevertheless it’s been sluggish transferring. In 2015, Texas lawmakers handed the Compassionate Use Act, which allowed folks with intractable epilepsy to make use of medical hashish with extraordinarily low ranges of Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the ingredient that causes a excessive, with a health care provider’s prescription. Two years later, a invoice to broaden this system had a groundswell of bipartisan assist within the Home, however by no means got here to a full vote. In 2019, this system was expanded to incorporate different circumstances comparable to terminal most cancers and neurodegenerative issues, like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s illness, however still left out those suffering from PTSD. Texas has one of the restrictive medical marijuana legal guidelines within the nation, and is considered one of 11 states that has a low-THC program. As of Might 2021, there are 36 states that enable for the usage of medical hashish, in response to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Seventeen states enable for small quantities of grownup leisure use. 

This spring, the Texas Home handed House Bill 1535 to lift the cap on THC degree in medicinal merchandise from 0.5 % to five %, and broaden the eligible circumstances to incorporate power ache and PTSD for the primary time. However the measure was narrowed considerably within the Senate, the place power ache was eliminated and the brand new THC restrict was lowered to 1 %. Republican state Senators Bryan Hughes, chair of the senate committee that heard the invoice, and Charles Schwertner, the Senate sponsor, didn’t reply to a request for touch upon why the invoice was narrowed. Some opponents to increasing medical marijuana legalization have mentioned they imagine it might result in extra leisure use of hashish.  

Governor Greg Abbott signed HB 1535 into legislation on Tuesday. 

Veterans, advocates, and docs say the 1 % cap on THC is much decrease than many that suffer from ache, PTSD, and different illnesses really want. Even the 5 % allowed within the authentic Home invoice is a fraction of what Edwards says she would wish to totally deal with her signs. 

In 2005, Edwards, a primary era U.S. citizen, met a navy recruiter at her El Paso highschool throughout her junior yr. Her mother and father informed her they didn’t have the cash to pay for faculty, so she seen the navy as her method out of her hometown. 

4 years later, she was deployed. On the way in which to Kandahar, Afghanistan, she says her flight was delayed due to a rocket assault. “It wasn’t even an hour, after which there was one other rocket assault. There’s an alarm that goes off, and in an English voice, the girl says, ‘rocket assault, rocket assault,’ and at that time you simply dropped to the ground,” she says. “In order that was our welcome.” Edwards says she didn’t sleep in any respect that first night time, as rockets continued, injuring folks close by, and triggering requests for blood donations.  

When Edwards returned to the US nearly a yr later, her cycle of PTSD signs—anxiousness and power ache—started. Quickly, her ache turned an excessive amount of to bear. She visited a Veterans Affairs clinic, however got here to appreciate that the drugs she was prescribed didn’t assist her situation. Each medication got here with a brand new aspect impact, like excessive weight acquire, drowsiness, dizziness, and nausea. Quickly she was taking extra drugs to deal with these uncomfortable side effects. On the most, Edwards was taking as much as 23 drugs a day of six to seven drugs.

She additionally took Botox for migraines, which required her to obtain 42 injections between her neck, shoulders, skull, and brow on three completely different events. Botox offered some aid, however didn’t fully cease her migraines. “You type of simply lose hope that you just’re going to search out one thing that’s going that can assist you,” she says. 

As a young person, Edwards first tried hashish utilizing a home made watermelon bong. Then in 2015, Edwards tried medical hashish for the primary time, whereas on trip in California. “I keep in mind simply this sort of silence inside my physique,” Edwards says of the expertise. “The ache, the anxiousness, simply so many issues that I used to be going via every day, have been simply gone.” 

Since then, she’s advocated for expanded entry to authorized medical marijuana again house in Texas, and studied its influence on veterans whereas at graduate faculty on the College of Texas at El Paso and on the College of Maryland, Baltimore. Whereas she’s glad PTSD was added as an eligible situation below the brand new laws this yr, she says she’s annoyed with the still-strict limits and the sluggish means of legalization. “After I raised my hand in Fort Bliss, Texas, saying that I might serve my nation, I don’t keep in mind choosing and selecting who I might serve and defend,” she says. 

The brand new legislation is about to enter impact in September.