HB 46 Is About Political Spoils—Not Patient Access

06-03-2025

High At 9 News Original Story

By Jay Maguire, Executive Director, Texas Hemp Federation | Co-Founder, CRAFT

"I seen my opportunities and I took 'em."—George Washington Plunkitt, Plunkitt of Tammany Hall

The Legislature has passed the conference committee report for House Bill 46, sending the legislation to Governor Abbott's desk. He now has 20 days (excluding Sundays) to sign it, veto it, or allow it to become law without his signature. What started as bipartisan legislation to expand patient access to medical cannabis has become a textbook case of political favoritism—reform disguised as compassion, but engineered to reward the well-connected at the expense of fairness, transparency, and public health.

The final version does not deliver compassionate care. It delivers a controlled market to a select few, negotiated behind closed doors.

The House Version: Reform with Guardrails

The House version of HB 46 took meaningful steps toward repairing Texas' dysfunctional Compassionate Use Program. The legislation would have prioritized longstanding applicants—some waiting since 2017—for new licenses while expanding qualifying conditions to reflect genuine medical needs and improving access across Texas without dispensing special favors.

The House respected the waiting line and constructed a level playing field. It sought to expand access without sacrificing integrity.

The Final Version: Spoils, Shields, and Shutouts

"We stood as we have always stood, for rewardin' the men that won the victory. They call that the spoils system. All right; Tammany is for the spoils system."—George Washington Plunkitt, Plunkitt of Tammany Hall

The Legislature chose the Senate approach, eviscerating the bill's foundation. It strips away the House's safeguards and substitutes vague standards like "competitive evaluation" and "minimum dispensing activity," granting regulators sweeping discretion over who enters and who faces exclusion. Most troubling: three licenses must be issued by December 2025—but only to applicants who filed in 2023.

Why 2023? No policy justification exists—only political utility.

This arbitrary cutoff excludes nearly every longstanding applicant who was promised consideration when licenses reopened. It narrows the field to a handful of newcomers—one of which, Blissful Canico, appears unusually well positioned to benefit. The company employs lobbyist Taylor Cummings, a corporate attorney with longstanding personal ties to Lola Wilson Lake, Deputy General Counsel to Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick. The two attended law school together at Texas A&M and maintain public connections.

This alignment between legislative fine print and private advantage demands scrutiny. Who inserted this language? Why that specific year? Who benefits?

Texans deserve answers, and lawmakers should demand them. At minimum, a formal inquiry is warranted.

Senator Perry's Hypocrisy: Prohibition Framed as Prudence

"A hypocrite is the kind of politician who would cut down a redwood tree, then mount the stump and make a speech for conservation."—Adlai Stevenson I

During Senate floor debate, Senator Charles Perry held up his thumb and forefinger and declared that TCUP is designed to be "this tightly controlled." He spoke with pride, as if regulatory suffocation were a badge of honor.

Call it what it is: a decades-long blockade on patient access, imposed by prohibitionists like Perry who have refused to allow Texans access to safe, plant-based relief for chronic pain, PTSD, neurological disorders, and countless other conditions.

Now, having long obstructed meaningful reform, Perry secured credit for loosening a few screws while rigging the system to benefit a tiny group of handpicked winners. The Legislature rewrote HB 46 not to expand access, but to consolidate it. The same people who crippled TCUP from the beginning now expect gratitude for doing the bare minimum while rearranging the rules to their own advantage.

We see them. We are not fooled.

A Contradiction at the Heart of the Senate's Strategy

A deeper contradiction permeates the Legislature's approach: by seeking to dismantle the $4.5 billion hemp-derived cannabinoid market while expanding TCUP, lawmakers effectively acknowledge what consumers have declared all along—that these products serve relief, not recreation.

If the goal is expanding medical access to include chronic pain, anxiety, PTSD, and other conditions, then the legislation confirms that the hemp market has served those patients in the absence of a functioning medical system. Put simply: if you believe TCUP must be expanded, you validate the demand that created the hemp industry.

So why crush it?

The answer is simple: to redirect that demand into a tightly controlled, state-sanctioned system where access remains limited, oversight stays absolute, and profits flow to select licensees.

This is not public health. This is not conservatism. This is cartel economics, executed through regulation.

A Manufactured Windfall for the Well-Connected

The Legislature's version doesn't merely end one market and create another. It funnels consumer demand into a state-controlled channel that benefits whoever holds the licenses. With DPS granted broad discretion and subjective criteria for awarding those licenses, the result creates a windfall not for patients, but for political allies.

This is government choosing winners. This is legislative gatekeeping masquerading as reform.

The cost is clear: patients will face higher prices, limited formats, fewer providers, and tighter surveillance. Meanwhile, newly minted licensees—some with little or no operational history—will be handed shares of a medically dependent, state-locked market.

That's not reform. That's a racket.

The Stakes for Patients—and for Texas

The Legislature has made its choice. HB 46 now sits on Governor Abbott's desk, and the decision is his alone. The question is whether Texas will have a medical cannabis program based on science, need, and fairness—or one shaped by favors, cutouts, and campaign proximity.

The Legislature has confirmed what so many already suspected: that HB 46 serves allies more than patients. Governor Abbott should veto it and demand better legislation.

Texas deserves a medical cannabis system that works for patients, not powerbrokers.

When the people who spent years blocking progress suddenly appear with keys to the vault, don't mistake it for generosity. It's just the payoff phase of a very long con.