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Texas state officials have finalized new regulations for an expansion of the state’s medical cannabis program. The new rules allow doctors to recommend cannabis as a treatment for additional medical conditions and set standards for low-THC inhalation devices, Marijuana Moment reported this week.
The Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) posted the finalized rules in the Texas Register on November 28 after a public comment period. The new regulations were adopted to implement an expansion of the Texas Compassionate Use Program (TCUP) approved by the state legislature and signed into law in June.
The new law significantly expands the list of conditions that qualify a patient to use medical cannabis, adding traumatic brain injury (TBI), chronic pain, Crohn’s disease, and other inflammatory bowel diseases to the TCUP. End-of-life patients in palliative or hospice care may also qualify as TCUP patients.
The legislation also increases the types of authorized medical cannabis products by adding medical cannabis patches and topicals, as well as approved inhalers, nebulizers, suppositories, and vaping devices. The new law also directs the state Department of Public Safety (DPS) to increase the number of medical cannabis business licenses from three to 15. Licensed medical cannabis providers would also be allowed to operate approved satellite locations, a change that could significantly increase the number of dispensaries in Texas.
The DHS’s Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) said part of the rule change, which will enable the department to “receive physician requests to add medical conditions to the list of qualifying conditions for which physicians may prescribe low-THC cannabis,” was not changed from its initially proposed text after the public comment period.
Under that provision of the new regulations, doctors will be able to recommend additional medical cannabis qualifying conditions to DSHS. The department will then forward the recommendation to DPS, which will be responsible for submitting the request to state legislators for consideration during the next legislative session.
State Officials Announce New Medical Cannabis Providers
In another development in the expansion of the TCUP, DPS announced that nine companies had been granted preliminary approval for a license to produce and dispense medical cannabis. The nine providers will be granted conditional licenses, subject to further due diligence evaluations, the agency announced on Monday.
“Conditional licenses do not grant the applicant permission to cultivate, manufacture, distribute or sell cannabis products until final approval by the department,” DPS wrote in a departmental update. “As a holder of a conditional license, the licensee is subject to the department’s ongoing due diligence evaluation. Each conditional licensee is expected to fully comply with all statutory and regulatory requirements applicable to the medicinal license issued under TCUP.”
The nine companies selected for conditional licenses are Verano Texas, LLC; Trulieve TX, Inc; Texas Patient Access, LLC; Lonestar Compassionate Care Group, LLC; Lone Star Bioscience, Inc; PharmaCann; Texa OP; TexaRx; Story of Texas, LLC; and Dilatso, LLC.
George Archos, founder and CEO of Verano Holdings, says that the progress in Texas is a significant development for the national cannabis policy reform effort.
“As the second largest state by size and population, Texas’s medical cannabis program expansion marks a significant step forward for legal cannabis in the U.S., joining a growing number of states and an overwhelming majority of Americans that have embraced the regulated cannabis sector as a job creator and provider of health and wellness benefits for millions every day,” Archos said in a statement from Verano on Tuesday.
DPS will issue a total of 12 new licenses over a two-phased selection period as part of the medical cannabis expansion program. The nine conditional licensees announced this week constitute the first phase, and three additional conditional licensees will be issued in the second phase by April 1, 2026.
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The information in this article and any included images or charts are for educational purposes only. This information is neither a substitute for, nor does it replace, professional legal advice or medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. If you have any concerns or questions about laws, regulations, or your health, you should always consult with an attorney, physician or other licensed professional.
