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Marijuana for medical use will soon be grown in Austin. The "Department of Public Safety" has approved three companies: to grow, process and dispense low THC Cannabis to prescribed patients.
It’s part of the Texas Compassionate Use Program passed by legislature two years ago.
Debbie Tolany is one of many parents come September that will be giving the new CBD oil to her son, “My son has severe autism, and epilepsy, and what would be labeled Crohn’s Disease if he was an adult, he has a multitude of things that would benefit from medical cannabis.”
She said having tried many different treatments two years has been a long time coming. “We've tried horrendous drugs, we've tried diets, we've tried supplements, we have tried behavioral interventions whatever it is, we've all tried everything and this is a healthier resort for us,” she said.
DPS approved three companies out of 43 applicants to open dispensaries for patients who have been diagnosed with intractable epilepsy to get the low-THC Cannabis.
The department had a panel, evaluate, and score the applications and the top three; Cansortium Texas, Compassionate Cultivation and Surterra Texas were chosen.
While Tolany said she will try the new CBD oil in a few months, she isn't hopeful. “Absolutely we will pursue it, that said, I don't believe that for my son that the levels that they are giving us the .05 percent up from .03 are going to make any difference with his seizures.”
Tolany along with many others have their hopes set on House Bill 2107 which is in the 2017 legislative session and would legalize medical marijuana altogether. After a public testimony went into the early morning hours Wednesday the bill went from 6 authors to more than 70.
“I am really hopeful that our state having my child's health in its hands will shift in our favor.” If not this year she said Texas is home and she will continue to advocate for her son and herself, “The people need it as medicine for their children, we would be criminals, we don't want to do that, we want to do it properly, we want it to be regulated and we want our doctors to be able to choose how much our children get." So far there has been no word on if or when a vote will happen for that medical marijuana bill.