A medical marijuana retailer has opened a fourth store in North Texas with plans to expand to additional locations in the coming years.
Marijuana remains illegal at the federal level per the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), which classifies marijuana as a Schedule I controlled substance. But in Texas, patients can be prescribed medical cannabis to treat various conditions, including epilepsy, cancer, PTSD, and neurodegenerative disorders.
Texas Original, a leading retailer in the medical marijuana industry, announced it has opened a fourth pick-up location in Dallas-Fort Worth.
Frisco was chosen as the site for the company’s fourth store, adding to the retailer’s portfolio of North Texas locations, including Dallas, Addison, and Fort Worth.
Texas Original operates nine pick-up locations across the state with plans to open stores in additional territories over the next several years. As reported by The Dallas Express, the company opened up its first drive-thru location in Waco in June.
Morris Denton, chief executive officer for Texas Original, sees many growth opportunities in DFW as the market for medical marijuana continues to grow.
“We will be opening more of those Texas Original-branded retail locations over the next couple of years,” Denton said. “We’ve got some that are currently in plans in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, as well as San Antonio, Austin, Houston.”
As of July, Texas Original had 5,000 active patients enrolled in its medical marijuana program. Texas Original provides three primary products to patients, all with varying ratios of cannabidiol and THC. The company’s products include tinctures, lozenges, and gummies.
Per Texas’ Compassionate Use Program (CUP), prescriptions must contain no more than 1% by weight of tetrahydrocannabinols and must consumed through swallowing.
“Much like any other form of medication, it works for some people, but it doesn’t work for all people. For the people that it works for, it’s life-saving, it’s life-changing,” Denton said.
By law, CUP is limited to Texas patients with:
- Epilepsy
- Seizure disorders
- Multiple sclerosis
- Spasticity
- Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)
- Autism
- PTSD
- Cancer
- Incurable neurodegenerative diseases
Qualified residents who have been given a medical marijuana prescription through the proper channels can pick up their order in Frisco between 12 p.m. and 3 p.m. every Wednesday at OmniLife Wellness.
Medical marijuana prescriptions can be obtained through online clinics or local physicians registered with the Compassionate Use Registry of Texas, a program administered by the Department of Public Safety.
In 2013, the DOJ under President Obama’s administration formally announced the Cole Memorandum, a policy that barred the department from enforcing federal marijuana prohibition in states that “legalized marijuana in some form and … implemented strong and effective regulatory and enforcement systems to control the cultivation, distribution, sale, and possession of marijuana.”
Although the new guidance meant the DOJ would not interfere with marijuana operations that strictly complied with state regulations, in 2018 under President Trump’s administration, the agency abruptly terminated this policy. It announced that federal prosecutors could pursue criminal cases whenever state and federal marijuana laws collide.
In 2019, Congress introduced H.R.1588, a bill to end the Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act. The congressional bill has not advanced beyond its introduction.
Denton thinks states behind the trend should enhance their focus on medical marijuana awareness.
“We really need to change the way that the state looks at this so that more people who are suffering from other conditions can also get safe and legal access to our medicine,” Denton said.
Changing how the state looks at marijuana would have to begin with Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who has held a firm stance against marijuana legalization. Abbott said he only supports reducing the criminal penalty for marijuana possession to a Class C misdemeanor but not completely legalizing the drug.
Only time will tell if marijuana legalization will gain traction with Texas policymakers. Until that happens, marijuana remains reserved for medicinal use only.
That’s how it always starts: “For those in need and who are suffering”.
Not that I’m anti-marijuana I’m actually libertarian but let’s at least not be disingenuous about the matter.