People who suffer from periodic seizures as the result of epilepsy, as the Texas Tribune reports, have to take fairly powerful medication, and even so suffer neurological damage and loss of IQ. It is hoped that the use of cannabis oil, which does not have any of the properties that make one high, will provide a gentler solution to preventing seizures. The first three dispensaries authorized to sell the oil have opened, but just 18 doctors will be able to prescribe it.

Since the current law is highly restricted and the medicinal properties of marijuana have been touted for other ailments, a push for expanding the program is all but inevitable. An editorial in the Beaumont Enterprise suggests that the state consider expanding the use of medicinal marijuana as a tool for chronic pain management. At issue is the opioid addiction crisis, which has hit Texas just as much as it has most of the other states of the Union.

Some studies suggests that medical marijuana is just as effective at combating chronic pain as opioids with a reduced risk of addiction. This property is an important consideration, considering the deaths by overdose that have exploded nationwide.

On the other hand, the Texas Legislature is likely to be resistant to the idea of expanding the use of medical marijuana during the upcoming 2019 regular session. The legalization of medical marijuana, even in forms that do not offer the properties that make one high, has often been the prelude to the legalization of recreational pot. Think what happened in Colorado and is now occurring in California. Texas is one of the last states to legalize medical cannabis in any form. The political climate in Texas will make an expansion of that program an uphill climb.