Six-year-old girl becomes first in Texas to get medical marijuana legally
A 6-year-old girl in Central Texas made history Thursday by becoming the first patient in the state to get marijuana-derived medicine legally to treat her epileptic seizures.
Knox Medical, one of three companies licensed by the state to dispense cannabidiol in Texas, announced delivery of the cannabidiol in a news release. The child鈥檚 name and city weren鈥檛 released to protect her privacy.
鈥淔or Texans suffering from intractable epilepsy, the wait for medical cannabis is finally over,鈥� said Jos茅 Hidalgo, founder and CEO of Knox Medical, registered with the state as Cansortium Texas. 鈥淭his is a historic day for Texas and we will work tirelessly to uphold the trust and responsibility the state has placed in Knox Medical.鈥�
The state legalized the so-called Compassionate Use Program , but dispensaries are just now coming online and making cannibidiol, or CBD, oil available to the estimated 150,000 patients who qualify.
A second company, Compassionate Cultivation, in the Austin area, recently announced plans to open its dispensary Feb. 8. Surterra Texas, also in the Austin area, in mid-December became the last to get licensed.
While the program is a major step for the state, Texas has one of the most restrictive medicinal marijuana programs in the nation, allowing only cannibidiol with low levels of THC, the component that gives pot users a high.
Patients qualify if they suffer uncontrollable epileptic seizures they haven鈥檛 been able to treat with traditional medicines.
Efforts in the last legislative session to expand use of the medicine to patients with other debilitating medical conditions failed, though a similar push is expected next year.
Knox Medical, based in Schulenburg, about 100 miles east of San Antonio on Interstate 10, was the first to get licensed by the Texas Department of Public Safety.
The company doesn鈥檛 have a brick-and-mortar dispensary and delivers medicine to customers across the state by vehicle.
Patients have been eager to get prescriptions but have worried about the costs, which still remain largely unknown.
Despite initial concerns that doctors might be wary of prescribing the medicine, at least 16 physicians are now registered with the state to do so.
Critics had said the Texas law authorizing use of the drug put physicians on murky legal ground, because the certified epileptologists and neurologists must prescribe the drug, instead of simply 鈥渞ecommending鈥� it, a phrase other states have used to sidestep federal marijuana prohibitions.
None of the registered doctors, however, is located in West Texas or south of San Antonio, raising concerns about whether patients statewide will have access.
Heather Fazio, Texas political director for the Marijuana Policy Project, said one mother in Brownsville with an epileptic daughter has to drive to Austin in hopes of getting a prescription.
鈥淚t鈥檚 prohibitive for patients in South Texas,鈥� Fazio said. 鈥淚n spite of the program鈥檚 unreasonably restrictive nature, we鈥檙e really happy to see the (cannibidiol) is getting into the hands of at least one patient who needs it.鈥�