Furthering the shameful legacy of nanny-state prohibition that continues to fester within its own borders and throughout the surrounding region, the supposedly liberty-minded State of Texas has decided to follow the lead of many other hypocritically repressive southern states in continuing to deny patients access to the healing cannabis plant in its whole form.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has reportedly signed into law Senate Bill 339, which allows only epileptic patients access to a low-THC, high-CBD cannabis oil extract distributed by the state of Texas itself rather than private enterprise. Only neurologists and epileptologists will be able to prescribe the oil as if it were a pharmaceutical, as opposed to just recommending it like doctors have been doing in places like California for decades.

If Texas was truly a conservative state that embraced policies of limited government, it would have decided to just stop the unjust ruse known as prohibition and restore access for Texans to one of the world’s most healing plants. Instead, Texas adopted virtually the same insulting CBD-only cannabis oil bill passed in other freedom-hating southern states like South Carolina and Georgia.

Texas patients who suffer chronic pain from fibromyalgia or multiple sclerosis still won’t have access to full-spectrum cannabis oil containing all the other healing cannabinoids besides CBD. Texas military veterans who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) remain equally disenfranchised by the CBD-only oil bill, which does nothing to prevent those who suffer from conditions other than epilepsy from becoming criminals for using the other parts of cannabis that they need that are still prohibited in Texas.

“‘Low-THC strain only’ seems to be a new trend in prohibitionist propaganda rhetoric,” wrote one online commenter following the bill’s passage. “Tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, is just one of the roughly 85 cannabinoids found naturally in marijuana. Clinical trials and the experiences of hundreds of thousands of patients have shown that THC, and strains of marijuana that include THC, provide important medical benefits for individuals suffering from pain, multiple sclerosis, nausea, and wasting disease.”

CBD-only cannabis oil bills are still prohibition

Neither Gov. Abbott nor any of the other Texas politicians opposed to whole-plant cannabis appear to care much about people who are suffering and in need of full-spectrumcannabis. They’re also clearly disinterested in the fact that prohibition continues to destroy the lives of millions of Americans, particularly those who end up with permanent criminal records for possessing and using a plant that grows naturally in the ground.

The following statement by Gov. Abbott illustrates his sheer ignorance as well as that of the other mostly-GOP phonies who give lip service to personal freedom and individual liberty but only the types of freedom and liberty that they personally like — in other words, tyranny for everyone else who isn’t just like them:

“I remain convinced that Texas should not legalize marijuana, nor should Texas open the door for conventional marijuana to be used for medicinal purposes,” said Abbott, adding, “As governor, I will not allow it.”

This is the limited-government South in action. Not a single southern state, including Texas, has taken any real or formidable action to stop the unjust war on cannabis. Instead, they are offering more hypocrisy and more oppression. If and when just one southern state does decide to pull its rear out of its behind and stop persecuting people over a medicinal plant, this blanket designation will be retracted. Until then, the classification stands.

Sources:

www.texastribune.org

http://www.ibtimes.com

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/dope/etc/cron.html

http://www.leafscience.com/2014/07/22/7-proven-medical-benefits-thc/