Pot Legalization Movement: Targeting Texas Hoping for a Big Win

The movement to legalize pot has not been a grassroots effort. Nor has it come from doctors or medical professionals; or scientists, public health experts, educators or law enforcement agencies.

For decades, the organizations working to legalize pot − beginning with "medical" cannabis and working towards the ultimate goal of legalizing all illicit drugs − have been a highly funded worldwide network of NGOs. The largest in the U.S. are the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) and Drug Policy Alliance. These are projects of billionaires, including George Soros and Peter Lewis. New Approach PAC has become another top supporter of State cannabis ballot measures, spending $32 million alone since 2014.

In 2018, the Drug Policy Alliance organized a coalition of other George Soros-funded activist groups calling itself  the "Marijuana Justice Coalition" lobbying for legalization of marijuana on a national level. Money on State legalization lobbying in the 2020 election, for example, outstripped opposition by 36 to one, spending $19.6 million in just five States.

The special interests seeking to profit from pot are also well organized and heavily financed. These vested interests are looking to make a bundle on marijuana. Most cannabis companies saw large selloffs and lost more than half their values in 2018-2019, as popularity waned across the country. Venture capitalists, jumped in and pumped nearly $2 billion into fledgling marijuana companies in 2019 − that's more than 100 times all the money raised by cannabis startups in 2013 after Colorado legalized pot. The Big Pot companies listed on the stock exchange, alone, had a total value of $254.6 billion (as of April 2020).

Besides venture capitalists, major corporations are also investing in marijuana, and these big industry players coincide with more covert actions to push legalization forward, as the commercialization of pot presents pathways for more "addiction-for-profit industries," according to the 2020-2021 report from Smart Approached to Marijuana.

The pot industry associations and lobbying organizations have joined forces to lobby for legalized pot and remove it from DEA oversight as a Controlled Substance. They continue to take a two pronged approach to move the country towards complete legalization: via hemp/CBD and "medical marijuana" legislative initiatives, as we'll look later in this paper.

Vote Hemp is a lobbying group founded in 2000 by the hemp industry and based in Washington, D.C. While claiming to be a nonprofit, its nonprofit exempt status was revoked by the IRS after it failed to file the required 990 forms for three years, according to GuideStar. It wrote the first Hemp Farming Act in 2005 which unsuccessfully attempted to get hemp removed from the Controlled Substances Act. It continues to lobby for removing criminal penalties for growing or manufacturing Schedule 1 Controlled Substances and push marijuana legislation at both federal and State levels. It is approaching the legalization of marijuana through agricultural legislation and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), as well as using lawsuits against the DEA. It claimed success with the 2018 Farm Bill, which also enabled "hemp" businesses to get Federal government money and Small Business Administration funding. Vote Hemp admits that it next wants to raise the THC limits for hemp and then eliminate any THC testing or restrictions all together  – whollah! – pot. They envision U.S. agriculture not as feeding the world, but drugging the world, with pot as a major crop.

Pot Lobby Has Moved to Texas, Hoping For Its Biggest State Win  

A broad coalition of the national pot lobbying groups have organized in Texas. Working under the umbrella "Texans for Responsible Marijuana Policy," these activists and lobbying groups include NORML, Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, Students for Sensible Drug Policy (funded by Soros' Open Society), Marijuana Policy Project, Drug Policy Forum of Texas, Texas Young Republicans, Republicans Against Marijuana Prohibition, ACLU and others. The Texas Cannabis Industry Association has also actively campaigned not only for key legislation but also to put in pro-pot candidates. 

Texas' marijuana ballot initiatives and legislation were drafted by Marijuana Policy Project, the same mega-lobbying group that drafted nearly identical medical and recreational pot legislation in States across the country, including Colorado. Already, 25 pot bills have been pre-filed for the 2021 Texas Legislative session.

Included among these Texas activists is the biggest marijuana lobby in the country, the Drug Policy Alliance, which had $30 million in revenue last year, and gives grants to a wide range of activists groups across the country. George Soros, known as the largest supporter of drug reform in the country, founded and remains Chairman of the Board of Drug Policy Alliance. He funded it with $80 million between 1994-2014 alone and makes ongoing annual contributions of $4 to $5 million.

Pot Lobby Is Not Working In the Best Interests of Christians, Families or Patients

George Soros' lifelong mission to destroy America has been recognized for decades and continues today, beyond expanding the drug trade, to crippling law enforcement; removing religion from public life (funding his Faith in Public Life group with $1.7 million just between 2012-2015); activism against Christians, families and conservative values; and $246 million funding pro-abortion groups. Soros is acknowledged as the greatest threat to free sovereign countries, Christian values and individualism, with his vision to remake the world. Since establishing his Open Society Foundation in 1993, he has funded it with more than $32 billion and operates some 200 radical organizations focused in the U.S., including 180 media organizations. He's also led the worldwide movement to legalize pot, anticipating annual profits from legalized marijuana sales in North America to reach $47.3 Billion in 2027.

The financial interests lobbying for legalization of pot are the very groups working to tear down our Country and American Christian values. On a national scale, the pot interests are lobbying to circumvent the States entirely with national legislation. The More Act to legalize and tax pot sales, decriminalize it and remove it from the Schedule 1 Controlled Substance, remove penalties for illegals arrested with marijuana, and provide government funding for marijuana businesses and services, was sponsored by Senator Kamala Harris and cosponsored by progressive Democrats.

Legalized Pot Isn't as Popular as We're Being Led to Believe

 The pot lobbying is so intense, most of the public believes that legalization has widespread support. This is pervasive marketing, not reality. As of 2021, the overwhelming majority of States in the country − 70% − have not wanted legalized recreational marijuana.  

Even in States where pot has been legalized and where pot businesses are licensed by the State, large percentages of municipalities and counties have made pot sales illegal in their local jurisdictions.

Even the first States to legalize recreational pot in the country in 2012, Washington and Colorado, have been unable to win public support. They've experienced first hand the problems it is bringing to their States. 

·       In Washington State, 82 cities and six entire counties have issued local zoning laws prohibiting pot sales.

 ·       In Colorado, only 39% of the State's counties (25 of its 64 counties) allowed recreational pot businesses and only 28 counties allowed medical marijuana businesses to operate in 2017, according to Colorado Counties, Inc. data. By January 2019, 67% of local jurisdictions banned medical and retail marijuana, according to Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA).

Even in the marijuana growing capital of the country, California, most communities do not want marijuana. A full 80% of California's nearly 500 municipalities outlaw retail marijuana businesses, as the New York Times reported. According to data from CannaRegs, only 161 of California’s 482 municipalities and 24 of the 58 counties allow commercial cannabis activity of any sort, and many of those allow only very select businesses, such as testing labs only.

The vast majority of communities across the country do not want pot sold in their towns and they've done something about it, even when their State legislatures or voters in a few big cities have made it "legal" in their States.

These known facts make Texas' Hemp and Compassionate Use legislation especially disreputable.

TEXAS CITIZENS' ALERT: A very insidious and unusual provision was put in both of the cannabis-related Texas legislations - SB 339,  Sec 487.201 and HB 1325, Sec 122.002 - signed by Governor Abbott. If the citizens of any local community anywhere in Texas decides that it doesn't want cannabis grown, produced, distributed or sold in dispensaries all over their town, they have been forbidden to stop it under this legislation.

The legislature sided with the pot lobby and eliminated any rights of local counties and municipalities to enact their own ordinances, resolutions or regulations against cannabis. Every community in Texas must comply with the pot legislation as decided in Austin.

 Today's Marijuana and CBD Marketing − Slick and Professional

 The public and healthcare professionals, alike, are inundated with cannabis and CBD sales marketing. But today's marijuana marketing has become so sophisticated, most people don't even realize that they're being sold.

 Marketing professionals now come from top New York advertising agencies and luxury brands, working to drum up demand, according to the New York Times. Marijuana marketing is trying to turn public perceptions of pot from Woodstock hippies to upscale and celebrity status, even selling $100,000 diamond vaping devices. Marijuana advertising has gone mainstream. Newspapers, magazines and online publications are publishing ads, even though marijuana is illegal under Federal law and ignoring the fact that scientists have growing concerns about the misleading and unproven claims in many ads.

Austin has become the epicenter in Texas for hip marijuana startup companies, all eager to get in on the cash crop. Austin is the heart of CBD and cannabis hype. You'll find a former football player looking to use his star power, a company offering hemp tours, a CBD ice cream shop, CBD waffles, CBD gourmet cuisine, CBD coffee bar, CBD oil massages, and anything else you might dream up.

Marijuana marketing is also being reshaped to appear to be part of the country's health care, creating an image of health care pioneers, on the cutting edge of science, even though health benefits of cannabis products are not supported by any good science.

Most marijuana marketing does not appear as advertisements. It is disguised as news stories, informative health articles or even medical research. Some of the most visible and frequent marketing in Texas can be seen in the Texas Tribune. While it appears as editorial content, it is what is more accurately called "advertorial" content. The newspaper is funded and receives financial support from Texans for Responsible Marijuana Policy (the coalition of the largest and massively funded outside marijuana lobby organizations that have moved in on Texas) and Compassionate Cultivation (the well-funded Texas marijuana dispensary that was awarded the license to supply cannabis for Texas' Compassionate Use Program).

Besides media and social media, marketing often masquerades in fake or predatory journals and consumer magazines. These publications can appear to be real medical journals or consumer health information publications, but are actually cannabis industry marketing vehicles.

·       Alternative Medicine magazine and website, for example, has 13 webpages filled with links to articles all seeming to report CBD and cannabis research and health tips. These articles epitomize the false and exaggerated claims in FTC's consumer warnings. In actuality, this magazine is produced by InnoVision Health Media, a media marketing company for the marijuana industry, which also produces the sister publication Beyond CBD Retailer.

There's been an explosion of predatory and fake medical journals, many of these publications are online and open access. Not only can they take advantage of medical research authors, they also lack the peer-review that was once valued in medical journals, such as not validating contributor disclosures, and can mislead doctors and medical professionals who may fail to recognize the marketing. Fake research is also increasingly finding its way into mainstream medical journals.  

·       An article in a Dovepress open access journal, Journal of Pain Research, for example, reported research appearing to support promising potential benefits of cannabis for treating a wide variety of pain. While the authors reported "no conflicts of interest," in actuality, three were with Apollo Applied Research, a cannabis marketing company and online service enabling anyone wanting "medical cannabis" to get it without their doctor's referral; and also offers a service to physicians to connect them with cannabis producers. The lead author was also on the advisory board of PhytoPain Pharma, a subsidiary of GrowPros Cannabis Ventures, Inc., and two were writers for MMJPR.ca, a cannabis lobbying group for the legalization of pot in Canada.

The message for the public and medical professionals is just as Sargent Phil Esterhaus of Hill Street Blues used to say: "Let's be careful out there!" 

Texas' CBD and Hemp Legislation Is Designed to Bring Pot

The sole purpose of the CBD Compassionate Use legislation and the Hemp Program in Texas is to move the State to pot legalization and facilitate recreational pot.

They are not about health, although that's how the programs were sold to politicians and Texans. Instead, they're a tactic, being used exactly like "medical marijuana" legislation has been used around the country, to propel us towards legal pot.  

State Legalization of "Medical Marijuana" 101

Briefly: State "medical marijuana" programs are not the same thing as Texas' CBD-based Compassionate Use program. With legalization of "medical marijuana," States establish a bureaucracy of governmental departments, licensing and regulations that allow "marijuana doctors" to "recommend" marijuana (it is illegal for licensed medical professionals to "prescribe" a Schedule 1 Controlled Substance under federal law, so it's called "recommend") for people who claim to be suffering from one of the "qualifying conditions" under the State's program, that have been decided upon by legislators.

 The "patients" then get a "medical marijuana" card (popularly called a "green card") that enables them to buy certain amounts of pot from marijuana "dispensaries" the State has licensed (these are not registered "pharmacies") and allows card holders to possess certain amounts of pot, to grow some number of marijuana plants for personal use (so they are never without their "medicine"), and/or to designate a "caregiver" who can grow it for them. States may charge fees to patients, caregivers and dispensaries. States have issued a mishmash of regulatory measures under "medical marijuana" legalization which are continually changing and vary by State. These will be discussed later.

Across the country, the public and medical professionals have been coming to understand that "medical marijuana" is the exact same plant substance as street pot, and brings the exact same problems. As favor waned and legislative efforts to approve "medical marijuana" were increasingly being voted down, the pot lobby made CBD (cannabidiol) the new starting point.

Texas Compassionate Use Program

First, Texas' Compassionate Use Program (CUP) was enacted by the Texas legislature only for patients with intractable epilepsy (SB 339 effective June 1, 2015). It was later expanded to include patients with any epilepsy, seizure disorder, multiple sclerosis, spasticity, ALS, autism, terminal cancer or incurable neurodegenerative disease (HB 3703 effective June 14, 2019).

CUP legislation gave the Department of Public Safety the authority to allow CBD products for ingestion (defined under the program as cannabidiol, "low-THC cannabis" not over 0.5% THC) to be dispensed by registered retailers, for cannabis to be grown under it’s determination, and for CBD to be prescribed by doctors registered with the DPS (87 to date). It specifically prohibits smoked cannabidiol products, at least recognizing that nothing smoked can claim to be a medicine. 

It issued licenses to three marijuana suppliers to provide the State's cannabis products: The Florida-based global company Fluent (a brand of the Consortium, Inc.), Austin-based Compassionate Cultivation (receiving $5.1 million venture capitalization last July, $2.5 million from an investor last June, $320,000 last February), and Surterra Texas (a brand of Georgia-based Parallel Cannabis, one of the world's largest and heavily funded private cannabis companies)

 Two years into the program at the end of 2017, only 12 patients and 16 doctors were registered. After the program was expanded, there were 3,519 registered patients and 240 doctors by November 2020. The DPS annual regulatory reports reveals the department conducted no investigations in 2020 and one it closed in 2019 with no formal disciplinary action. Worse, there is no accountability or public records of regulatory oversight or monitoring of the patients – confirmation of their diagnoses, medical record reviews to confirm that their diagnoses was made by the specialist doctor treating them for their condition or that the patients had actually even been seen and examined the prescribing doctor; and no documentation of side effects, problems or effectiveness of the CUP program.

Texas' CBD program legislation was written by the pot lobby with one purpose…

The CBD program is designed to essentially put everything in place to be poised and ready
in anticipation of marijuana legalization: all of the infrastructure, from the grow facilities,
supply chain distribution, to licensing of retail shops.

 The legislation is intentionally written so that when pot is legalized, the registered CBD dispensaries, along with the growers and distributors, will be the businesses permitted to enter the "legal" market, supposedly because they've already proven compliant with regulations. This amounts to a State-sanctioned monopoly.

The same tactic was used in Colorado and across the country with "medical marijuana" legislation that put everything poised and ready for recreational legalization. It was so effective, that when recreational pot was legalized in Colorado, Denver instantly had "legal" marijuana dispensaries on nearly every block – more than public schools, liquor stores or even Starbucks.

And sure enough, just as planned, the moment Proposition 207 passed in Arizona in November, Arizona DHS announced that "medical marijuana" dispensaries in good standing would be given the first licenses and could begin selling recreational marijuana.

Texas Hemp Program

Second, the Hemp Program (HB 1325) signed by Governor Abbott and in effect on August 2, 2020, puts the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) over licensing of hemp producers, three permitted distributors, and retailer dispensaries for CBD consumables. It allows the possession, transport, sale and purchase of "consumable" hemp products – defined as hemp products intended for ingestion and forbids the manufacturing or processing of consumable hemp products for smoking. Both the 2018 U.S. Farm Bill (HR 5485) and the Texas Hemp Program legislation define industrial hemp and CBD products as those with less than 0.3% THC and allows them to be cultivated, transported and sold, and enables growers to receive federal crop benefits.

Despite all of the industry claims of the multiple uses for industrial hemp seeds and fibers, and the potential soaring business and profits, the total acres planted in hemp in 2020 was actually 9% less than 2019, according to the USDA, and wholesale prices have been continually falling.

Hemp is being marketed to politicians and the public as an industrial crop, but in actuality, very little is grown for fiber and stalks (11%). According to Hemp Industry Daily’s 2019 Hemp & CBD Factbook, 94% of producers grew flower varieties for cannabinoid (CBD) last year.  

Hemp is about advancing CBD…and covertly bringing marijuana.

Designed To Impede Law Enforcement

This legislation was knowingly written by the pot lobby to impede law enforcement and DEA efforts to enforce marijuana laws. By allowing hemp production, transport and distribution, drug traffickers can smuggle illicit marijuana under the guise of hemp shipments. 

The legislation authors knew it is nearly impossible for law enforcement officers to visually tell the difference between marijuana and hemp, or for narcotic detecting dogs to tell the difference. Counterfeit paperwork to mislead law enforcement to make marijuana shipments appear to be legal hemp has proven easy, and phony laboratory certification templates are even available on Google. HIDTA in the Midwest, for example, is already reporting that law enforcement officers are finding abuses of hemp legislations being used for illegal marijuana smuggling.

The only way to tell the difference between hemp and pot is by laboratory testing. Prosecutors can no longer use experienced officers' testimony to confirm if something is marijuana. Laboratory forensic tests are required to perform the quantitative analysis to determine if the THC content is under 0.3% in compliance with the new hemp legislation. But the Texas legislation was signed into law by Governor Abbott with no crime lab funding attached. There are no roadside tests available, and turn around at most crime labs can be several months.

Private labs are currently the only way for Texas law enforcement and prosecutors to test drug seizures, and these tests are expensive, ranging from $88 to $400 each, according to Tarrant County District Attorney. With city budgets reluctant or unable to foot the enormous bills, which cost Plano $49,000 last August to test 500 suspected marijuana cases, the legislation has been having its intended consequences – or certainly consequences that responsible politicians would have anticipated.

Across Texas, the number of criminal prosecutions and drug cases being filed across Texas courts have been slashed by more than half, according to data from the Texas Office of Court Administration. Criminal drug filing have plummeted – 52% in Dallas county, 68% in Tarrant County and more than 80% in Collin County, for example. In Collin County, cases are being held open until a State lab is available to do the testing more affordably.

 The hemp legislation was also put in place without regulatory oversight. While the public was told consumer protections would ensure licensee compliance with the Texas Hemp Program for consumable CBD retailers, the bill states only that DPS "may" conduct inspections and randomly test samples. There is, however, no reporting mechanism or public documentation of any such program on the DSHS Hemp Program website. Other States to date have failed to regulate medical marijuana programs, focusing primarily on recording and collecting registrations and fees.  

Texas' Hemp Program already appears lacking in due diligence in vetting the very businesses they've licensed. An examination of the 71 TDA Registered Hemp Producers (licensed as of December 7, 2020) found that 27 had just filed business licenses in the previous 18 months, most in 2020 within months of the legislation; over two dozen had no business locations and/or company LLC filings; many of the pre-existing businesses had no hemp-related enterprises. Most selling CBD products online were working out of their homes, with two giving mobile home addresses, and nearly all were making the same extraordinary claims that the FDA and FTC have warned consumers as "junk science." Rather than hemp growers or producers, the State licensed crane operators, field welders, a lawn service, earth excavator, truckers, and moving companies; and addresses included a UPS shipping center, a boat storage unit and even that of an auto outfitter with a BBB rating of "F." Texas registered owners in the midst of bankruptcy; with arrest records for DWI, marijuana, probation violations and assault; and defendants in recent lawsuits for debt collection and personal injury. Many had nothing to do with hemp businesses at all, including media and marketing companies; tax preparers and accountants; electronic tracking apps for birth to death medical records; social media weaponized marketing that tracks audiences and creates billions of likes, shares, retweets, clicks and comments; and a teenager who appears to be living at home. If this is an example of consumer protection, the public is well advised to be careful.

The "CBD is Legal" Myth

A myth was popularized in Texas media that all CBD products had been rescheduled and taken off Schedule 1 Controlled Substances and were now legal. It was and is false.

CBD marketing in Texas has intentionally tried to confuse the public into wrongly thinking that CBD (cannabidiol) products − sold through Texas' Compassionate Use Program or at local CBD dispensaries – are the same thing as the cannabidiol medication that was approved by the FDA. They are not the same thing…but it requires consumers to look carefully at the terminology being used trying to confuse them.

The only CBD product that has been approved by the FDA is the prescription medication, Epidiolex, a specific epileptic medication derived from cannabidiol.

The public cannot buy it directly at retail stores, online, at dispensaries, or through Texas' CUP. This prescription medication can only be prescribed by licensed medical doctors and filled at regular licensed pharmacies in purified, precise and controlled dosages. Pharmacies also closely follow specialty guidelines that this medicine requires because of its high risks.

The nonprescription CBD products and supplements being sold to the public have not received quality assurance oversight from the FDA. They have varying and unknown levels of CBD, along with other ingredients or contaminants – none of which are reliably listed on the labels. According to laboratory analyses of CBD products from 31 companies sold through compassionate use programs (purchased at dispensaries or online) nearly 70% do not even contain the CBD amounts the label says.

Researchers from Children's Hospital Colorado found that the high CBD oils purchased through compassionate use programs or CBD dispensaries that were being administered by parents resulted in no significant reduction in seizures in the majority of their pediatric patients, and no improvements were shown on their EEGs, said Amy Brooks-Kayal, MD, President of the American Epilepsy Society and Chief at Children's Hospital Colorado. These CBD products are not the same thing as Epidiolex, nor are they legal.

CBD products are still illegal under Texas and federal law (Federal Register 83 FR 48950) and
still fall under DEA regulations as Schedule 1 Controlled Substances.

Epidiolex was federally placed under Schedule V, enabling licensed medical doctors to prescribe it, just as they would other FDA-approved controlled prescription medications, but that is the only cannabidiol that is not a schedule 1 controlled substance. The prescription Epidiolex also has less than 0.1% THC – a third of the THC concentration of CBD products under Texas' Compassionate Use Program.

 The Texas Medical Board has oversight over the physician licensing, practice guidelines and prescribing of all controlled substances. It follows federal DEA guidelines for prescribing, meaning no licensed medical professional can prescribe a Schedule 1 Controlled Substance. Texas doctors are also professionally accountable for following close regulations when prescribing other controlled substances.

No politician or State legislature can simply pass a bill and override federal FDA or DEA regulations for controlled substances or the prescribing of controlled substances. Governors and politicians, with no medical or scientific expertise, do not oversee the license and medical practice of physicians.

Cannabis is not a legal “medicine” and cannot legally be prescribed by licensed medical doctors, even if it is permitted by State "medical marijuana" legislation. As doctors at Yale School of Medicine wrote in JAMA, medications must be purified, tested in randomized, double-blind, placebo- and active-controlled clinical trials, and approved by the FDA, not by popular vote or State legislatures. "Otherwise, States are essentially legalizing recreational marijuana but forcing physicians to act as gatekeepers for those who wish to obtain it.”

Texas Consumer Warning Buried in the Regulations. There is a special note to consumers on the DSHS Hemp Program website that is frequently overlooked by the media. Under the Federal Status of CBD, it cautions Texans that the FDA has only approved a prescription drug derived from CBD (cannabidiol) and that prescription drugs cannot be added to foods, drugs or dietary supplements sold directly to the public. In other words, CBD is only available as an FDA-approved prescription medication and HB 1325 does not enable the DSHS to allow CBD to be sold or used in any food, drug or other product.

Going directly to the Texas DSHS regulations, you'll see they are aligned with Federal regulations. They state that cannabidiol drugs that are FDA-approved and contain no more than 0.1% THC are allowed under Schedule V. An amendment on November 13, 2020 removed FDA-approved prescription cannabidiols from Schedule V, leaving the federal law against CBD.

But how many Texans still think CBD has been legalized for use because an FDA-approved, prescription drug derived from cannabinoids was approved?

Understanding Epidiolex

By better understanding the cannabidiol (CBD) medicine that was approved by the FDA, the public will also better understand the risks of over-the-counter CBD products. Epidiolex has been approved for use in patients diagnosed with either of two very rare and difficult to treat syndromes: Lennox-Gastaut and Dravet. Even these patients are carefully screened, and medical and pharmacy professionals follow careful guidelines, as even this prescription medication can bring complications.

·       Epidiolex is a purified form of cannibidiol C21H30O2 in precise doses that was studied in clinical trials to be used in addition to these patients' conventional antiepileptic medications.

·       While Epidiolex may reduce the frequency of seizures, it requires close supervision by medical doctors to monitor for significant rates of side effects which include liver damage (12 times higher risk), somnolence and sedation (three times greater risk), interactions with multiple other medications, weight loss, and suicidal behavior (200% increase risks).

·       Epidiolex is reserved for these patients whose seizures have failed to be controlled with other treatments. It requires prior authorization by insurance companies under strict criteria and is a lower tier, less preferred medication, in most all formularies and clinical guidelines.

·       Its safety for pregnant women and unborn babies, nursing mothers and older people over 55 years of age are also not known, and the pharmaceutical manufacturer has special warnings for these populations. 

·       One only has to look at the extensive clinical guidelines for prescribing Epidiolex and the laboratory tests and close medical monitoring needed, to see that, even when purified and manufactured by an FDA-approved pharmaceutical company, CBD is not benign and can be potentially life threatening.

It is not something a responsible parent would just pick up at a shop or purchase online and give to their child or elderly parent.

Compassionate use "is neither compassionate nor responsible," Dr. Gregory Bunt, MD, addiction expert and President of the International Society of Addiction Medicine, wrote in ASAM's journal Quality & Science. These programs are the opposite of modern medical science and the scientific process that ensures patient protections. All medicines today, he said, are made available after FDA-approval only after they've been proven in well-controlled clinical trials to be effective and have a reasonable risk/benefit profile; are standardized by purity, potency and quality; come with adequate directions for use; and have known and reproducible chemistry.  

In Part Four, we'll look at Texas' Compassionate Use Program and "medical marijuana" programs around the country.

by Sandy Szwarc, BSN