Commentaries at the San Antonio Report provide space for our community to share perspectives and offer solutions to pressing local issues. The views expressed in this commentary belong to the author alone.
Wars raging overseas should serve as a poignant reminder that so many of my fellow veterans come home with traumatic brain injuries and chronic pain that never fully goes away. Many of us are left navigating a Veterans Affairs (VA) system that often feels more like a maze than a lifeline.
For years, the options for men and women in uniform returning home have been familiar and frustrating: opioids that cloud our thinking and medications with side effects that sometimes feel worse than the symptoms.
Many of us, sadly, are resigned to just live through the pain.
But last session, when lawmakers passed House Bill 46 to expand the Texas Compassionate Use Program — or TCUP — Texas took an important step toward breaking this cycle. Governor Greg Abbott, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, and House Speaker Dustin Burrows, as well as state Rep. Ken King (R-Canadian) and state Sen. Charles Perry (R-Lubbock), all deserve real credit for their leadership in getting this done. President Donald Trump and the U.S. Department of Justice recently took another important step to reclassify medical marijuana as a less-dangerous drug , ensuring federal policy aligns with states like Texas that are giving veterans and people with complex diseases new hope.
The only problem is that almost nobody knows about it.
A recent poll found that, although an overwhelming bipartisan majority of Texas voters support expanding the state’s medical marijuana program , only 11% had heard anything at all about TCUP.
This shows that more must be done to ensure that patients, doctors, and everyone in our care system understand the opportunity to expand safe care options that don’t risk getting patients hooked on dangerous opioids.
Under the expanded TCUP, the list of qualifying conditions has grown substantially. Patients with chronic pain, traumatic brain injuries, Crohn’s disease, inflammatory bowel disease, and those in hospice or palliative care can now participate. Pulmonary inhalation has been added as a permitted delivery method, and patients can now consult with physicians via telemedicine, while satellite retail locations will expand access beyond major metro areas.
This expansion also gives doctors across Texas clear legal footing to prescribe medical cannabis without fear of negative legal repercussions. Oncologists treating terminal diagnoses no longer have to watch patients turn to unregulated, untested products off a shelf at a gas station. They can prescribe a product that is from Texas, tested extensively, and certified to medical-grade standards.
For veterans especially, TCUP’s rigorous standards matter. Every product sold through a licensed dispensary must include a full Certification of Analysis, verifying potency and confirming it is free of heavy metals, pesticides, and harmful solvents. That level of oversight gives veterans and their families confidence that what they’re using is safe, consistent and held to the highest medical-grade standards. This is something the VA system alone has never been able to offer.
The expansion also increases the number of licensed dispensaries from three to eventually up to fifteen. This means lower prices, better products, and greater innovation, all while maintaining the regulatory standards that protect patients. Importantly, participation in the program through the state’s secure Compassionate Use Registry of Texas (CURT) is confidential and protected by law.
As home to more than 250,000 military veterans, San Antonio has a unique responsibility to ensure those returning home from combat suffering from PTSD and other chronic conditions have access to the resources and treatments they need, especially since so few are aware of the recent expansion of the TCUP program.
If you are living with PTSD, chronic pain, or a traumatic brain injury, you may now qualify for a medical cannabis prescription through TCUP. You can find a registered physician through the Department of Public Safety’s TCUP web site , or consult one through telemedicine from your own home.
Let’s break the silence. Tell a friend. Tell a doctor. Tell a fellow veteran. Texas has entered a new era for advancing real, effective treatments for those who have suffered far too long.
