For cannabis enthusiasts living in adult use states, long gone are the days of sneaking around with a dime bag in a coat pocket and worrying about whether the neighbors know you’ve got weed. But the sad truth is that, for millions of Americans living in prohibition or restrictive medical-only states, accessing safe and regulated cannabis is still a problem, writes Danielle Simone Brand. 

Medical cannabis entrepreneurs are looking for answers after the Texas Department of Public Safety unexpectedly shut down its application process for new dispensary permits on Wednesday. The window was originally intended to last through November 1.

When the U.S. Farm Bill passed last year and made hemp legal it marked a sea change in perceptions on the plant and was a major step for the cannabis industry to capitalize on the meteoric rising popularity of CBD.

Marijuana laws have been all over the place in Texas. Many states have passed laws permitting marijuana for medical use. While some states have decriminalized marijuana, others have legalized recreational marijuana. However, Texas has been strict with marijuana laws. So, what’s happening now?

When members of Congress voted to legalize hemp late last year, they likely did not envision that it would make it harder for law enforcement in places such as Florida and Texas. But that’s exactly what has happened.

Officials in both Florida and Texas have voiced their intention to stop the prosecution of low-level marijuana cases. That’s because no reliable field test exists that can tell the difference between the presence of hemp, which won’t get you high, and cannabis, which will.

Once the state with the harshest cannabis laws in the United States, Texas recently expanded the list of qualifying conditions for medical pot use. 

Lawmakers in the Lone Star State approved a bill that expands the Compassionate Use Act, adding multiple sclerosis, terminal cancer, autism, Parkinson’s disease, and various seizure disorders to the scope of conditions that can be treated with medical marijuana.

Previously, state laws allowed only patients with intractable epilepsy to benefit from medical cannabis products.

A New Mexico judge has ruled that recent changes to the regulations affecting the state’s medical marijuana program mean that out of state residents will now qualify to buy cannabis at government-run dispensaries.

“The [word] replacement is a clear sign of legislative intent to widen the reach of eligibility for the New Mexico medical cannabis program,” wrote Santa Fe Judge Bryan Biedscheid, who presided over the proceeding.

The state senator who sponsored the legislation that changed the language of the bill, Democrat Jerry Ortíz y Pino, said that the revision was originally due to a desire to cover individuals who had their medical marijuana cards in other states, or “reciprocal patients.”

In one Texas school district, seventh graders looking to join the chess team will now need to make sure they test clean for alcohol and cannabis. Bushland Independent School District officials say that the decision to enforce mandatory drug testing for seventh to 12th graders hoping to participate in extracurriculars is not to combat a pre-existing drug problem, but rather to prevent kids from trying drugs in the first place. 

Earlier this month, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill that will legalize industrial hemp and CBD products.

Now, some county prosecutors are grappling with the fallout with the new law—namely, what to do with more than 200 pot-related offenses.

The district attorney’s office in Tarrant County, Texas has dismissed 235 marijuana misdemeanors that have been filed since June 10, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.