Name: Temporary medical marijuana dispensaries in Katy, rest of Houston help patients during pandemic
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Temporary medical marijuana dispensaries in Katy, rest of Houston help patients during pandemic

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This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigatePutting on pants every morning is a painful struggle for Julie Archer.Archer’s left leg is fine, but she has to sit down to start the process of putting her right leg in the pants, which requires both hands and all of the 49-year-old’s upper body strength.When that is done, she can put on her shoes. Again the left side is fine, but some of the toes on her right foot have curled under. She has fallen countless times in the 18 years since she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.“I can only lift my leg up about two inches off the ground on the right side; my foot just drops and you can hear me walking from a mile away. It’s called MS relapse,” Archer said. “Before this, I was real active. Then I woke up one day and was blind in my right eye for six months.”Archer, of Deer Park, takes seven different medications and three vitamins to combat the complications of her MS. Three months ago, she was prescribed a combination tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) medication to cope with her pain.On HoustonChronicle.com:She takes a dose in the morning, and another just before bed. It helps her sleep and keeps her from constant excruciating pain, she said.Archer is one of more than 700 Houston-area patients with a valid prescription for a THC medication, said Morris Denton, CEO of Texas Original Compassionate Cultivation. TOCC, located south of Austin in Manchaca, is one of three licensed medical marijuana dispensaries in the state.There are no medical marijuana dispensaries in Houston yet, but TOCC has set up temporary dispensary sites in Katy and Houston on specific days and times to aid this area’s patient population. Typically arranged at doctor’s offices or spas, the sites are appointment-based and prescription-only. No walk-ins are welcome, Denton said.TOCC is a vertically-integrated “seed-to-sale” facility, which means the marijuana plants are grown, cultivated, harvested, extracted and refined all in-house. Every product is tested by TOCC staff before it’s labeled for sale to patients with prescriptions, Denton said.In 2019, Abbott signed signed House Bill 3703, which expanded the list of qualifying conditions to include diseases such as multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease and Lou Gehrig's disease, or ALS.Texas has legalized medical cannabis in very limited circumstances. In 2015, Gov. Greg Abbott signed the Texas Compassionate Use Act, which allows people with epilepsy to purchase cannabis oil with less than 0.5% THC. Then last year, HB 3703 updated the act to allow board-certified specialists to prescribe low-THC cannabis product to patients with who have been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, autism, ALS, terminal cancer, spasticity and neurodegenerative disease, as well as epilepsy, according to Texas Compassionate Access.The law mandates that licensed TOCC employees maintain possession of the THC products until they are given to the patient; this means the products cannot be shipped in the mail or stored at any other location. These technicalities have created an interesting issue during the pandemic, Denton said.Temporary dispensary sites have been set up in Houston, Katy, Plano and San Antonio to make it easier for patients to access their medications without having to drive to the Austin area or pay a $25 at-home delivery fee. Deliveries can only be made by TOCC employees.At-home delivery is still an option, but it’s a long process. First, the prescription has to be called into the TOCC facility. In the morning, the delivery driver will load up that day’s deliveries and drive three hours to Houston. He may only be able to deliver to 10 houses that day before he has to return to Manchaca.On HoustonChronicle.com:The temporary site has been a godsend for Archer, she said. She pays $150 out-of-pocket for two bottles of her medication every month. Her insurance does not cover THC or CBD products, she said.The THC-CBD oil dissolves under her tongue; it helps with constant spasms in her weaker, right leg.“This drug doesn’t get you high,” Archer said. “A lot of people don’t understand the concept of THC and CBD.”There are higher levels of THC in TOCC products than what is typically found in CBD stores, Denton said. CBD by itself is not considered a controlled substance, therefore consumers do not need a prescription for it. The regulations are stricter for Denton’s dispensary than for CBD and other smoke shops because every product has medical-grade THC in it, he added.There are more than 145 qualifying conditions that can be treated by THC products after last year’s legislative update. Denton would like more changes made to the law in the 2021 legislative session.“We think there should not be a limitation on conditions; that should be left up to the doctors, those that have medical training and board certification,” he said. “We should let the doctor come to their own conclusions to see if patients need medical cannabis to treat their conditions. There should also be an increase in the allowable amount of THC in our products.”In Texas, medical marijuana products are capped at 0.5 percent THC. Most of Denton’s products are 20 parts-CBD to 1-part THC, he said.julie.garcia@chron.comTwitter.com/reporterjulieRenew Houston:

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigatePutting on pants every morning is a painful struggle for Julie Archer.Archer’s left leg is fine, but she has to sit down to start the process of putting her right leg in the pants, which requires both hands and all of the 49-year-old’s upper body strength.When that is done, she can put on her shoes. Again the left side is fine, but some of the toes on her right foot have curled under. She has fallen countless times in the 18 years since she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.“I can only lift my leg up about two inches off the...

Temporary medical marijuana dispensaries in Katy, rest of Houston help patients during pandemic

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