AUSTIN, Texas — Major changes could be coming to the state’s medical marijuana program, according to Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.

In a post on X on Sunday, Patrick announced that he and State Rep. Tom Oliverson had “come to an agreement” to add chronic pain as a qualifying medical condition to the state’s Compassionate Use Program (TCUP) for those who suffer chronic pain as defined by the Texas Medical Board.

Patrick said he and Oliverson, who is an anesthesiologist, have spoken with the author of House Bill 46 and had a “positive conversation.” HB 46, authored by State Rep. Ken King (R-Canadian), aims to expand the TCUP.

Patrick said his and the Senate’s concern has always been that they “don’t want to go back to the days of doctors writing prescriptions for anyone who paid them for a prescription for pain pills.” He said Oliverson presented a plan that both he and the Senate can support to 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,” Patrick said. “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.”

HB 46 was passed by the House on May 13, then sent to the Senate, heard in committee and voted out of committee on May 23. It is on the intent calendar for the Senate for Tuesday, May 27.

Following the lieutenant governor’s post, KVUE spoke with Dr. Matthew Brimberry, a palliative care physician in Austin, about what these changes would mean.

“It’s time for chronic pain to come be part of the Texas Compassionate Use Program. It’s the next logical step,” Brimberry said. “Chronic pain has the most evidence when it comes to medical cannabis being efficacious as a medicine.”

He added that chronic pain is a very broad diagnosis that encapsulates things like neuropathy and migraines and, depending on how you define it, there is a varying number of Texans who suffer with it.

As for whether incorporating chronic pain in the TCUP might help limit opioid prescriptions for the condition, Brimberry said treatment for chronic pain is usually a multidisciplinary approach. Physicians will start with addressing behavioral health, like lifestyle choices, and then move onto psychological health before considering medicines. If medication is needed, they will then typically follow the World Health Organization’s “stepwise approach,” working their way up to opioids if needed.

“[But] when you’re able to bring cannabis into a state’s program, if people are on chronic opioid use, they reduce the amount of opioids that they’re taking,” Brimberry said. “To the tune of anywhere between 10 and 40% decreased amount of opioids.”

Brimberry noted that cannabis would not replace opioids, but it would give physicians “another step in the ladder” before they consider reaching for opioids.

Brimberry also told KVUE the satellite locations for dispensaries mentioned in Patrick’s post are “absolutely necessary” and have been needed for more than four years, given Texas’ large population.

This potential expansion of the state’s medical cannabis program comes as lawmakers have passed a bill that would ban the sale of all products containing THC, the chemical in marijuana that gets people high.

Under the ban, which would take effect in September if signed into law by the governor, retailers would only be allowed to sell the non-intoxicating, non-psychoactive cannabinoids known as CBD and CBG.

That bill, Senate Bill 3, headed to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk over the weekend.