Senate Panel Sets Stage for Appearance
of Patrick Salvation Play on Medical THC
Capitol Inside
May 26, 2025
Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick put himself in position on Sunday night for a ride to the rescue of military veterans on Memorial Day when he revealed that the Texas Legislature would expand a barebones medical cannabis policy that a committee he controls appeared to gut during the weekend.
Senate Republicans set the stage for Patrick's timely emergence as the Compassionate Use program's savior when the State Affairs Committee voted to strip chronic pain and other conditions that veterans suffer from the proposal that cleared the Legislature's lower chamber two weeks ago in House Bill 46.
But the committee's apparent reverse on HB 46 at the start of the holiday weekend proved to be an illusion when Patrick announced last night on social media that he'd struck a deal with Republican State Rep. Tom Oliverson of Cypress to add persistent pain to the list of conditions that qualify for prescriptions for low-dose THC here.
House Republicans had cause to feel like they'd been bamboozled with the Senate panel maneuvering on medical THC until Patrick unveiled the tentative accord with Oliverson. But the Senate committee never took an actual vote on HB 46 as a whole after approving language that would reverse the expansion of the Compassionate Use program.
Capitol Inside raised the specter that the apparent Senate panel gutting could be a ruse that would create the appearance that Patrick was saving the medical program on the eve of a holiday that honors veterans of the U.S. armed forces when the House arguably deserved more of the credit for the proposed expansion.
The speculation on a credit-seizing power play appeared to be on the mark as Patrick outlined other ways that he and Oliverson had agreed to improve a medical marijuana program that's been one of the weakest in the nation up to now.
"We are expanding licenses from 3 (current law) to 12 and adding satellite locations in each public health region of the state for the first time ever," Patrick in a post on X. "We’ve also added terminal illness and hospice care to the list of qualifying medical conditions for the TCUP program. Additionally, we’ve increased and standardized the dosage, while giving physicians autonomy to prescribe the right dose for each patient’s needs, along with metered dose inhalation delivery systems. I thank Dr. Oliverson for working with the Senate to find a truly amazing expansion of TCUP for those in need of help."
The Texas Medical Board would effectively determine who's plagued with pain that's bad enough to qualify for legal treatment with a more advanced medical THC program that GOP State Rep. Ken King of Canadian conceived as the author of the upgrade in HB 46.
Patrick said that he and Oliverson had a "positive conversation" with King about the agreement the two had forged in a move that would salvage some of the expansion that the West Texas lawmaker had recommended for the medical cannabis program with the House's stamp of approval for HB 46.
But the lieutenant governor didn't declined to elaborate on whether Republican Speaker Dustin Burrows had any input in the pact with Oliverson on improvements to the Compassionate Use expansion that King hatched and pushed with the ostensible support of the GOP leadership in the House. Patrick offered no expressions of gratitude to King or Burrows for the accord on HB 46.
Patrick threatened last week to force a special session if the House failed to restore a ban on the sale of THC products for use by adults without prescriptions from doctors. GOP representatives responded the following day with a vote for the Patrick prohibition that King had scrapped in favor regulations, taxes and licensing standards for a booming hemp industry as the House sponsor of a separate but related THC proposal in Senate Bill 3.
Oliverson, who's main political consultant is Patrick's as well, sparked a feeding frenzy on the floor last week with an amendment that prompted GOP members to scuttle King's regulatory scheme and to replace it with the ban that Patrick was demanding with no apparent pushback from the speaker.
King was one of two Republicans along with former Speaker Dade Phelan to vote against the Oliverson amendment that hung the high-ranking Burrows lieutenant out to dry. But State Rep. Brian Harrison of Midlothian was the only Republican who sided with most of the Democrats with votes against the overhauled remake of SD 3 with the ban that would force more than 10,000 small businesses to shut down in a development that would put an estimated 53,000 Texans out of work.
The lion's share of veterans group opposed the Patrick prohibition as a measure that Oliverson pitched with the same claims and fear tactics on which a rash of marijuana exploitation films revolved after the national prohibition on alcohol was repealed in the 1930s. But Patrick and Oliverson both assured nervous House Republicans that the Senate would take care of veterans with the medical program expansion if they fell in line on a ban.
After opposing the Patrick prohibition resurrection in the Oliverson amendment, King voted twice for the ban in the remade SB 3 along with all but one of the other Republicans in the House amid promises from Patrick and Oliverson that the medical program known as TCUP would be expanded. House Republicans appeared to have been hoodwinked into supporting the Patrick prohibition with the Senate committee's maneuvering on HB 46.
Patrick's tweet on the dealing with Oliverson appears below.
"Rep. @TomOliverson and I have come to an agreement to add chronic pain as a qualifying medical condition to TCUP (compassionate use program) for those who suffer chronic pain as currently defined by the Texas Medical Board rules. Dr. Oliverson and I have spoken with the author of HB 46 and had a positive conversation. We look forward to passing this bill for our veterans and those who suffer from chronic pain.
"The Senate and my concern has always been that we don’t want to go back to the days of doctors writing prescriptions for anyone who paid them for a prescription for pain pills.
"The Texas Medical Board has put in strong guidelines to prevent that from happening over the last decade. Dr. Oliverson presented a new thoughtful plan that the Senate and I can support that will help those in true need of relief.
"We are expanding licenses from 3 (current law) to 12 and adding satellite locations in each public health region of the state for the first time ever. We’ve also added terminal illness and hospice care to the list of qualifying medical conditions for the TCUP program. Additionally, we’ve increased and standardized the dosage, while giving physicians autonomy to prescribe the right dose for each patient’s needs, along with metered dose inhalation delivery systems. I thank Dr. Oliverson for working with the Senate to find a truly amazing expansion of TCUP for those in need of help."
more to come ...
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