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>> Okay.  Should we go ahead and get started?  It's 2:06. 
Okay.  I'm going to go ahead and mute everybody.
All right.  Hi, all, I'm Laura with the Coalition of Texans with Disabilities.  I will give my audio description.  I'm a white woman with long dark brown hair, black glasses and behind me is a white wooden wall with intermittent brown boards. 
I'm going to quickly go over our Zoom functions and accessibility for today.
This meeting is closed captioned, which you can turn on and off with the closed caption button.  You can also change the font size in your accessibility settings.
And we will be using breakouts today.  If you need the captions to follow into your breakouts and you did not request it during your registration, please let me know so I can put you in the breakout room with the captioner.
We'll be doing a few polls today, but other than that no screen sharing.  You're welcome to turn your video on and off, but we'll ask that you stay muted until we go to breakouts.
And we're also leaving it up to you if you want to do speaker view or gallery view.  Speaker view will probably be a little easier once we get going, but if you want to have a look at all the lovely folks in the room, certainly turn on gallery view for a sec.
We are recording in the main room, so you will be able to revisit today's meeting.  And finally, if you need any tech help, if you have questions, you're welcome to use the chatbox.
We'll be also putting some questions and getting some of your responses in the chatbox during today's session, but you can also use that to ask for any tech help.
If you're unable to access the chat for any reason, we're also watching info@txdisabilities.org you can send us your tech help requests there.
All right.  That's all I have to say.  I'll kick it over to Chase.
>> Okay.  Today we'll be going over medical cannabis in the next legislative session.  We wanted to first kick it off with a poll and ‑‑ actually, I forgot, Laura, I'm supposed to audio describe myself.
For those of that are calling in on the phone, again my name is Chase Bearden, the deputy director here at CTD, a White male and a use a wheelchair and I'm sitting in our guest bedroom.  So at least not at the office.
But thank y'all again for joining us.  And as I said earlier, we're going to kick this off with a poll just to kind of see where everyone stands.  A poll.  The question is are you or a family member currently accessing medical cannabis in some form?  There are three different answers you can give.  Yes is the first one.
Second one is no and I don't plan to.
And the third one is no, but I'm interested in thinking about it.
For those of you that can't access this poll, because you don't have ‑‑ your screen reader won't get to it, we will have it in the follow‑up email so you can let us know.
I'll leave that up for a moment.  As we move on to having Jolene kind of introduce what CTD does and then we'll move on with the program from there.
So Jolene, I'm going to pass it over to you and leave the poll open until you're done. 
>> Thanks, Chase.
My name is Jolene Foster.  I am a White woman with long Brown hair and black rimmed glasses.  I'm wearing a pink shirt with a gray sweater because it's freezing in my room.
And behind me is various things that I picked up antiquing and some of my children's art.
So first of all, some of you may be familiar with CTD, some of you may not be.  We've been around since 1978.  We're a cross‑disability organization which means we touch on all issues, all disabilities across all settings and across all life spans.
For example, today we're going to talk about access to medical cannabis, but we'll also be including other issues, upcoming Raise Your Voice sessions that will be helped on Tuesdays at two p.m.  Some of the things will be school mental health, school discipline, access to medications and a bunch of other really great stuff.
Two of the core principles in the work that we do here at CTD is to involve you, to involve people with lived experience, their loved ones, those who navigate the services and supports.
We value you as self‑advocates and value community input and we will put your input first.
So just to give you an idea about what these Raise Your Voice sessions are if you haven't participated in the previous sessions that we've had.
The idea is to have an opportunity to hear from you, for you to hear from us, kind of what we're working on and then to move forward together.
So when we say Raise Your Voice we really do mean Raise Your Voice.  We want to hear from you.  And these sessions are going to be structured in an interactive way where we can get some of that input and really put it to work.
So today like I said, we're going to be covering medical cannabis, but we hope that you will join us in some of the upcoming sessions that are posted.  The registration links are posted on our website.
So what you can expect by being involved in Raise Your Voice first of all, we're going to listen to you, we're going to involve you, we're going to share some information on advocacy issues, developments, strategies, the process of legislation and other opportunities.
And you'll have an opportunity to also connect with some self‑advocates, some that you may know, some that are new to you.  Some seasoned advocates.  I can see that we have some on here and so many of you who have been participating in our previous sessions we hope that you will all ‑‑ will continue to participate.
We have an experienced staff in advocacy and we are here to collaborate with you.
So finally, before I kick it over to Chase, the question we've been getting is what is January 2021 going to look like?  What is the Texas Legislature doing?  What are their budget priorities?  How is session going to operate?
And the answer is we don't really know yet.  Currently the house is experimenting with this request for information where they're accepting written comments, but we don't know what visits, office visits may look like.
We know that the Legislature is taking protective measures anticipating that COVID‑19 is still going to be around, but as we get guidance from our friends at the capitol, we're here to also continue to share that information with you and make sure that you have an opportunity to get involved. 
So with that, I will kick it back over to Chase. 
>> All right.  Thank you, Jolene. 
Thank you.  I will share those results from the poll.  About half say yes, that they are currently accessing some form of cannabis for medical use.  And half say that they are still thinking about it.
I think that's kind of what we see most of the time.  We also have two that don't plan on using cannabis for any kind of medical use.
And I think that's been the interesting part about the path we've taken at CTD is that we've really focused on the medical side of cannabis.
And the amount of time we've spent now working on this and talking to people, we've seen this dramatic shift from the majority of people not even wanting to talk about it, that stigma was still there, it wasn't looked at as a medical product.  And now over the years as we've gone through the Legislature and we've slowly made some progress, you see a big shift on both sides of the political spectrum that are benefiting or having a family member who is benefiting from some use of cannabis.
So today's discussion and what we're wanting to do is really focus on where is the future of cannabis for us in medical?  What is the best looking bill that we could put forth or that we should be thinking about as the Legislature starts in this upcoming session?
And to do that we have Susan Hays.  And for those of you who ‑‑ we have Susan Hays and she is probably one of the most knowledgeable people in my opinion on cannabis when we're looking at trying to get a bill through the Legislature and really crafting something that benefits the people.  Not just the industries.
So I want to introduce Susan.  She's going to talk to us a little bit about what she thinks would be the best cannabis bill moving forward, and then we'll have a discussion after that.  Susan, take it away.
>> Thanks, Chase.  Appreciate the introduction and having me here today.
And I've been ‑‑ I've spent a lot of time over the past couple of years thinking about what does the best bill look like?  And not buy into the idea that we have to take the crumbs from the table that the political conventional wisdom says is all we can get.
What I've learned from spending time in legal states, states that had medical cannabis and were expanding out to adult use and legalization is a lot of times medical gets pushed to the side.
And the quality and the variety of products that people can access actually can go down as the state legalizes.
And in talking to doctors and talking to patients who are using medical cannabis, the variety of products really matters.  And what do I mean by variety?
A couple of things.  THC level.  Y'all probably know right now the current Texas law, the content of THC in the product ‑‑ in the plant at least is limited to half a percent THC by dry weight, which is pretty close to hemp as opposed to marijuana under the legal positions.
And there are plenty of other helpful things in cannabis like CBD or CBN or the terpenes.  Many people need that in combination with CBD.
What I see in some legal states is you go in the store and half of what's there or more is a very high THC product with very little other things in it.  And when I'm explaining to legislatures I tell them it's like going into the liquor store and half the shelves are ever clear, which what I want is a good bottle of wine and something with a more subtle mix of content in it.
Another aspect of what might make a good bill is allowing some real competition in the industry and allowing small businesses to get in so there is more room for innovation for different products, not only the content, but also delivery system.
Inhaling cannabinoids is a way to get it in quickly.  Ingesting is a long‑lasting effect.
Texas started out basically with just CBD oil and that helps some people, but helping people and their physicians to have a choice about what formations, dosages, etcetera, work best for that patient with that condition at that stage of their condition or disease.
And politically where I think we are is a much more momentum behind an expanded medical cannabis, but running into the sort of squeezing of the bottleneck that the pandemic is going to do to the session.
There's just going to be a lot less bandwith particularly if there's not a widespread vaccine by session.  There's talk that the members may only be introducing three to five bills apiece instead of the typical dozens that they do, and that's going to make it harder for us to get something through and get something through that will be most helpful to the largest percentage of people out there. 
And I ‑‑ Chase, I kind of jumped all over the place, but are there specific issues that I should be addressing or that I should say?
>> Well, I think if you would expand on ‑‑ I know for a lot of people the talk has been we've got to increase the level of THC.  And if we're going to be looking at a Legislature that's going to be ‑‑ bandwith has been lowered, they're looking at filing less bills, are we more likely or less likely looking at trying to go for a large overhaul bill that would get all the different aspects of what we want?
Or should we be kind of looking at what are the top two or three things that would make the biggest bang for our buck this session?
And I know you and I have had that discussion of how much THC versus not enough, and we've talked about the different levels of plants.
I think that's a great discussion to kind of bring up so people started inning the different families ‑‑ people started inning the different families of the genetics and how that might work.
>> I'll walk through that.  And there's a ton of confusion with this and we saw this ‑‑ I also worked on the hemp bill last session.  Awkward conversation with even sponsors of the hemp bill who were like wait, I thought this was a totally different plant than marijuana and I would have to launch into a song and distance explaining that genetically.
The plant whether it's cannabis or hemp is the same.  If you've been in dispensaries you will hear about the different varieties and the alleged medical aspects of each.  And that's really not very helpful information.
Strain names aren't helpful information.  What's helpful information to patients and doctors is what cannabinoids and terpenes are in that particular product you're buying.  I'm a huge fan and absolutely want to see independent third‑party testing and what I call full spectrum testing for medical cannabis.
In some states you only get your CBD in different levels.  It like on the side of after box of cereal, how many vitamins are you getting and in what quantity.
And then as far as the bill itself ‑‑ back to the types of the plant, that said bot tanists have moved away from thinking about the varieties as subspecies and they're subcategorizing the plant in five types, meaning instead of what it looks like let's talk about what it outputs.
And type one is a high THC, low CBD cannabis which you would think of now as very much marijuana.  Type two is a cannabis with about an even ratio of THC and CBD.  And that tends to be the more traditional varieties that people were grown in the 70s and 80s.
CBD softens the psychoactive effect of THC.  So those are I think maybe lend themselves more to being medicinal cannabis.
Type three is a high CBD, low THC.
Now, the legal line between hemp and marijuana is 0.3% THC by dry weight, whereas our TCUP program is 0.5%, almost hemp.
Theoretically all of it would be temporary and not marijuana, except testing varieties are such and plants being plants, they don't really care where lawsuit drew a line in the sand.
So a lot of those type three's, about half will test as marijuana instead of hemp even though nobody will get high off them, which is part of the absurdity of the state regulation on hemp.
Type four cannabis is a CBG cannabis.  And CBG is the precursor molecule in the plants to both THC and CBD.  Whether a given cannabis plant produces one or both or ‑‑ THC, CBD or both depends on its genetics.  And there's an enzyme present in the plant that converts that molecule as the plant grows.
Now, if the plant lacks the enzymes, it just goes CBG and there's some science starting to roll out about the medicinal effects of that.
And then type five cannabis is what we might traditionally think of as hemp, just high fiber, hardly any cannabis in it of the.
One thing a that happens with the changes in the Federal and State Laws in the last few years that I think really through a wrench in the system and in people's thinking is the 2018 farm bill legalized CBD.  They defined hemp as all the cannabinoids that come from cannabis as long as the original plant was under 0.03% THC and that legalized CBD nationally, although it will still be subject to FDA regulation and the FDA takes forever to do anything so now we're in a sort of gray area.
Now, where does that leave us back in Texas with the bill?  There are tincturing bills and then interactive bills and I've seen some bill drop language for some tincturing bills, which might be as you are aware all list conditions that qualify.
Perhaps the most offensive one is terminal cancer.  You can have cancer and not qualify, not until you're actually dying with the State of Texas let you have this, which is absurd.  So we might see bills that just delete the word terminal, which I suppose is better than a sharp stick in the eye, but it doesn't really help when you can buy legally on the market if you have a reliable source a CBD product that's pretty close to the medical marijuana you can get in Texas.
Another way there could be tincturing is raising that THC rate and I've already had discussions with offices that putting a percent THC in the bill or a law is dumb for a variety of reasons.
One, it's not how doctors dose their patients.  Doctors dose in milligrams, not percentages.
And that creates a lot of problems forgiving ‑‑ creating products and getting products to patients that are really helpful.
Second, like I said, the plant doesn't care.  It's going to grow its THC level wherever it grows it given 90% genetics that will determine that.  The growing conditions also, like any plant, what your output is or your yield is.
For people to really ‑‑ and doctors and patients to feel the way around the products, artificially limiting what's available is not medically helpful.
Another reason it's not medically helpful is doctors ought to be allowed to practice medicine and not legislators come in and artificially limit things.
As a policy argument it's about as absurd as 3.2 beer.  Have you ever lived in states that have ever had that?  The effect was you had kind of a crappy beer and way too much carbonation in your gut at the same time because they would overly carbonate the bill to get the level down and you get the weird manipulations of the product with THC as well.
So these tincturing bills I'm less a fan of.  What I think is better for patients long‑term is what I call a comprehensive bill where it's really thinking about how do we regulate this to encourage innovation, encourage a wide variety of products on the market and encourage access to both doctors and patients to the system.
And when Texas wrote its original law it wasn't very sophisticated in its thinking about regulating cannabis and that was in 2015.  That's kind of a lifetime in the development of cannabis regulation around the country.
So we're really starting with a blank slate and it's ‑‑ which I like to view as an opportunity for Texas to take a look at what other states have done, learn something and just do it better and do it in a way that provides more access for more people. 
>> And Susan, thank you for that.  That really leads into what CTD has been thinking and looking.  For some of our top priorities it's making sure that Texas does its job and regulates well.
At the end of the day when we start talking about medical cannabis and working with doctors to prescribe these medications, is that we want them to be able to do that and do it safely.
And to be able to do that it's dosing things in milligrams so that people know what they're getting.  It's doing good independent lab testing that's broad spectrums that you can see all the different components of cannabis and that's something that most people don't realize is that there are so many different molecules, I guess you would consider it, Susan.
But it's not just THC and CBD.  It's so many different things.
And for someone who is like me in a wheelchair that has spasms, sometimes it's a higher level of THC with CBD that makes my body actually not have pain and spasms versus someone else who might just need a little bit or may not need any THC at all.
So it's giving doctors and patients that opportunity to make that decision on what works best for them.
As Susan talked about, giving them a choice and in a variety of products and ways to consume that that works best for them.
For some people just oil under their tongue versus a lozenge or using some kind of vaporizer affects them differently.
So for us our goal is going to be to make sure that doctors and patients have access to a greater amount of THC mixed in with all of the other components of the plant.  Also looking at good lab testing.
And one thing Susan I'd like to see if you could chime in on, and I know we've had this ask by some parents, but also the legal protections.
We have some parents who their kids are at school and they can't get CBD and take it or administered to them by the nurse even though it's a prescribed medication.  And then we have people who are being employed where some employers are saying, no, if you test positive you're out.
What are your thoughts on that?  Because this is still federally illegal in a sense, but legal in Texas to a point.
>> It is owe.
>> I want to jump in for just a second.  For folks who are kind of new to this issue if you could slow down on the acronyms and just quickly explain like what they are.
I'm even learning some new ones.  CBG I had never heard of.
>> I just typed it in.
>> Awesome.  Thanks. 
>> And I'll say working on this issue makes me wish I would have paid more attention in high school chemistry because it is a lot of chemistry and a lot of chemistry of ‑‑ also the many vocabulary words I've picked up is farm mow kinetics, meaning how your body processes a pharmaceutical.  And when you get down to it it's just all molecules.  It's all atoms and molecules.  When we say drug versus food versus pharmaceutical, whatever, it's still a molecule.  It's just how the law chooses to view is it, is it a food or a drug.
And on that just sort of RIF off the food and drug act, the two goals about the Federal act is that things are safe and effective.  And we've talked a little bit about safety with the testing so you know what's in it and there aren't any pesticides or bad things, but also effectiveness.
Unless you know your dosages and what you're getting, you and your doctor can't figure out what's effective for you.
And I'll kind of give you the speech I've given to some ‑‑ I found this really helps even with very conservative members to help them understand.  We all have it ‑‑ it turns out we learned in the last 30 years we have an endocannabinoid receptors.  All mammals have this.  There's a theory that we co‑evolved with cannabis because it is a very effective medicine with us and humans have cultivated it for thousands of years now.
Everybody's system is different and a dosage that works for one patient isn't going to work for another.  That's true of most drugs.
I think it seems like it's more true with cannabis.  And it's more true for people with different conditions.
And I 2020 a medical cannabis CME it seems like 20 years ago, but I think it was only three years ago in Denver.  Hilariously called MJ for MD's.  And listened to medical lectures about it.
And I was very shocked to hear how much THC some of the patients were taking.  In legal states the standard edible dose is 10 milligrams, which frankly is like me drinking a bottle of whiskey.  That's a lot for me.  For other people it's not.
A new phrase I learned is whether your patient is cannabis naive or not, meaning if you've not taken cannabis before, lower doses will do you compared to someone who has built up some tolerance in their body.
But some of the ‑‑ particularly the people with severe conditions, kids can with severe seizures were getting over 100 milligrams of cannabis a day, which is way too much for most of us to take in.  But for these kids it didn't even make them high.  It just leveled them off because their endocannabinoid systems were so out of whack.
During last session one medical article came out about people with autism and surmising by testing the endocannabinoid levels that they had a severe deficiency of endocannabinoid.  And that may be why cannabis seems to help people with autism.
And if any of you are science nerds, go to the national institutes of health online database.  Chase knows I would nerd out on it during the middle of the night during session because we would go into offices and hear that oh, the research just isn't there yet.  But you type in cannabis and tens of thousands of hits come up and can you start narrowing by condition.
And we mentioned THC versus CBD, there's some pretty good research out there that a one to one ratio of the two works well with pain.  And there's a pharmaceutical product that's been developed that's a one to one ratio.
So like I said, for the law to have ‑‑ when the law has arbitrary barriers to all this development, that's bad policy.  So what we're looking for in a bill is a bill that's good policy in a sense that it gives access to patients, it helps the industry produce and want to produce a variety of product, and that the system around the state of how people get it.
It's worded kind of vaguely because some states do cannabis dispensaries, some do it through pharmacies.  Because it's federally legal it becomes a problem to go through traditional systems.  So we may end up with a dispensary system.
But whatever that is, it's got to be done in a way that really is science driven and is good for medical.
And thank you to Marcus for posting the pub med link on there.  Everybody should bookmark it now.
And Chase brought up ‑‑ before you hopped on, these sort of collateral issues that affect people.  And absolutely we need those cleaned up.  We need to make sure someone is not punished by CPS if using it for themselves or under a doctor prescription.
There's been so much ‑‑ one day I did search the word marijuana spelled with an H in Texas status to see where it shows up and I did the same in Federal.
And because of the war on drugs and the hating on cannabis in the last 40 years there are status everywhere that criminalize it.
I lived in Nevada for a little while and the people I worked with who had concealed handgun licenses would not also get a medical cannabis card because it's a crime federally to have a gun and marijuana on you.  And they didn't want that data to be combined because the state knew they had the concealed handgun license and they didn't want the state to know they were buying marijuana too.
That's a lot of cleanup.  And it needs to happen because it does catch people who have done no wrong in any moral sense or ethical sense.  The same with employers' policies.  And that's something that employers are going to have to come around to.
We heard very early during session some guy with a trucking company had to fire their favorite employee because the guy had taken some CBD oil that had THC in it.  He didn't know it, but the company, by God, had a zero tolerance policy because we're so anti‑drug.
And those policies have ‑‑ have vast negative consequences beyond just cannabis, but will catch people who may not know what they're getting or may not even ‑‑ certainly never got high in the sense we say that in street talk the psychoactive affects.  But because they have the trace amounts in their body or because the testing wasn't very accurate can be punished collaterally.
>> Susan, you hit on a lot of the main topics of what we'll be looking at as we go through the session.  Not just the testing, but also its employment side.  The decriminalization to a point that we make sure all of our members are staying safe, but at the end of the day I think that's what we're looking for is what is the safe way to regulate medical cannabis that is effective.
And that being said, tip at this point we go into breakout rooms and let y'all have some discussions and a chance to kind of talk about the issues.
I'm going to let Laura take this part, but what we really want out of y'all is to hear what you want in the next cannabis bills that we can take these issues we're already working on and combine that and make sure we're not missing anything.
So I'm going to pass it over to Laura.  And Susan, thank you so much for joining us.
>> You're most welcome.
>> It's a complex topic.
>> It is, with lots of potential.
>> Yes. 
>> Laura, take it away.
>> Thanks.  I think that is definitely the word of the day on this issue is potential.
So we're going to turn it all over to you now.  We'll send you into breakouts to talk about why medical cannabis is a serious issue to you.  How has it affected you, a family member, a friend?  And what is your definition of good cannabis policy? 
And we'll kind of collect the highlights of what you talked about after your conversations.
So just a couple of tips for breakouts.  You will be placed into your breakout rooms automatically.  You don't need to do anything.
Do a quick sound check when you get in there to make sure everybody has turned on their mic.  I'll have Chase and Jenn go through and manually unmic everybody here.  Here in the main room we found that helps avoid issues later on.
Note that there are a few folks who just don't have a mic.  I know Bryson is one of those so keep an eye on the chatbox for communication from them.
We've been audio describing ourselves.  Please keep that going if you feel comfortable doing so. 
Give everyone a chance to speak.  We'll have about 10 minutes in breakouts.
If you have been talking for five minutes and no one else has gotten a word in edge wise, stop and let someone else talk about their own experience and thoughts.
If you are having my issues there is a help button and we'll send one of the organizers in to help you out. 
On so with that, I will send y'all into breakouts for about 10 minutes. 
[Breakout room]. 
>> Hello. 
>> Hello. 
>>
>> I just want to get started.  Since we only have 10 minutes, my name is Angi.  I'm a T 12 paraplegic.  I've been in the chair for 32 years since the age of 21.
And I experience a lot of central nerve pain, have been on many different types of medication, which none have worked.
I've had to get off of opioids many times going through withdrawals and the only thing that ever helped me was the cannabis.
I don't have a medical cannabis, but I do access cannabis in order to help with pain.  And some of the spasms that I have.  And what I'd really like is for more research to be done in the effectiveness of helping people with withdrawal symptoms, and the pain and spasms.
I just think research is a think that needs to be focused on in the scientific aspects.  That's my look.  So thanks. 
>> I'll go second.  My name is Jim.  I'm a C 5‑6 complete quadraplegic.
>> I've been injured since 15, 40 years.  I also deal with a lot of central nerve pain, neuropathy and I'm enrolled currently in the compassionate use act here in Texas.
And I've been advocating probably for the last six or seven years to get some form of legalization and medical cannabis in Texas. 
And what I'd like to see is a little bit more conditions added to the medical cannabis bill to cover more people that could find it useful as opposed to addictive opioids. 
>> Hello.  I'm John Woodley.  I'm with advocates for disability access and I do support legalizing medicine or cannabis. 
>> [Inaudible]. 
>> Jennifer, I think you're muted. 
>> There, I hear you now. 
No. 
>> Okay.  What about now? 
>> Yes. 
>> You can hear me?  Okay.  My name is Jennifer.  As you can see, I do not have any disabilities, but I have family members with disabilities.  And last session I advocated on behalf of veterans with disabilities.  As well I'm also a veteran, nine years in the marine with four combat deployments so I have a lot of friends who benefit from medical cannabis.
And like I said, family members as well.
I definitely am on board with a lot more research and that's something that if I'm able to push this next session I will push more than anything is a lot more research.
And a lot of things that Susan Hays said I completely agree with. 
>>
>> So the compassionate use, Jim, is that something that you have to sign up for in order to get access to medical marijuana?
>> Actually, I used to hide my medical cannabis use from doctors, but I've got to the point I just let them know.  And one of the doctors reached out to me and said that they were enrolled as a physician to be able to prescribe here in Texas.  And here in Austin there is a pretty good size grow house operation in South Austin so it's ‑‑ you get a prescription, it's fully ‑‑ it's CBD‑THC.  They have different balance levels.  Mine I use a one to one blend. 
And you're also ‑‑ something I was kind of leery about, they enroll you on the DPS registry so that if you get pulled over or something, coming home with these three bottles of cannabis they pull ‑‑ they can pull up and see that you're in the compassionate crew, you are enrolled and under a physician's care. 
So this is a fairly new for me.  I just enrolled in the last three months.  And it's a lot different from Colorado and some of the other places that I've been out of state, but it beats loading up on gummies and driving across state lines to try to get relief.
And I've seen what ‑‑ I've seen what Hydrocodone and stuff does to people.  And I was ‑‑ but my pain sometimes is so severe I'm just begging for some type of relief.
So it does help. 
>> Yeah, I understand that.
It's frustrating because I have family that lives in states that when they come visit they bring me their gummies to help.  I don't not disclose it to my doctors.  I went to pain management for awhile and they wanted to test me and I said, well, you're going to come up with a lot of THC, I'm sorry.
It's just ‑‑ I grew up in the '70s, so I have a lot of friends that have never stopped ‑‑ this is funny.  My father, I grew up in Maryland and he was part of the Nixon war on drugs.  I have papers clips that my father was part of that as a police officer.
And then when he moved to Texas he found some marijuana in my teenage bedroom and he grew it for me after he had retired from the police force.
So even back then he knew that what they were doing wasn't right.
And I think it's just been the pharmaceuticals have taken over the industry, but you can drive legally with opioids in your system, but if you have a prescription ‑‑ I don't know.  I'm frustrated with it. 
>> Yeah.  Well, I never had a ‑‑ I grew up in the '70s too.  We're probably about the same age. 
And I didn't really touch it until I was 45 years old and looking for some kind of pain relief.  And I had a younger attend and I said what do I have to lose at this point?
So I don't foal like I'm a criminal.  I've always been law‑abiding taxpayer, the whole thing.
>> I'm the same.  I mean ‑‑ and the damage that the opioids have done to my system is irreversible.  I have issues even today that with my bowel programs can be a nightmare and cannabis can help that.  It helps with that too.
>> I like the fact, I don't use it everyday.  I can go on and off of it without any kind of major side effects.
>> Exactly. 
Exactly.  If you don't have your opioid medicine, the sweat starts and you start to tremble and I just have been on different ‑‑ even Lyrica and stuff affected me horribly and it didn't help.  I was like I can't function like this.
And I can function with the cannabis. 
>> Right. 
>> I'm aware that it does help prevent seizures.  And it helps with some cognitive and it helps with cognitive issues. 
So I do support it.  I don't use it myself.  I do advocate to support it. 
[Moving back to main room].
>> All right.  Looks like we're getting everyone back into the main room.  I'll go ahead and make sure we're all muted.  We are.  All right.  Chase, go ahead. 
>> All right.  Well, thank y'all and welcome back.  It looks like everyone stayed.  And something we wanted to do really quick just to kind of gather what y'all talked about in your breakouts is called the chatter fall for those of you who haven't done it.
Down at the bottom is the chat function.  We want to hear like the top issues or what you think we should put into this next legislative bill.  And then we're able to capture all of the comments y'all are making.  And then we'll build on that.
And then we also take those and the issues that y'all are dealing with and we're going to try to keep structuring more of these as we get closer to the legislative session that we'll be able to bring you more detail about what the current bills that are going through look like.
What options or what opportunities are there for you to speak out or to access the legislators.
So we're using these kind of weekly different topic issues as a steppingstone into the session and being able to keep that face to face contact as we go through.
So I'm also going to put up a poll.  This will be the last poll we put up.  It's basically talking about since there is a stigma around medical cannabis are you able or willing to speak publicly about the issue? 
I know I spoke with some of our close friends and colleagues who they're afraid to even speak out about it because they're afraid that it could affect their job.
I'm going to put that policy poll up.  Up.  You can answer yes, no or it's complicated.  Basically you're not sure yet.
We'll also put those, for those of you who can't access the poll in a follow‑up email where you can also give us any information that you might not have been able to put into the chat.
It looks like some of those chats are coming through now.  And we really do appreciate all the work.  We want to take the information you're giving us and actually have your voice heard.  This is the way that we're finding that we can do that.
Other than that, I also want to bring up and just thank our sponsors who are helping us put this on.  During COVID it's been difficult for us to be able to do that typical fund‑raising, so we just want to thank some of the groups that have done that, and that's united health care, superior health plan, Astrozenaca, Pharma, Hart Intercivic, Amari Group, Shield Health Care, Care Source and MCNA and Molina Health Care.
So they are the ones who fund our way to be able to host these and we look forward to being able to hear from y'all.  We want to you reach out to us.
In that follow‑up email please let us know if there's something that we could do better or that y'all would rather have us do.
It may be that we're not hitting any of the topics you want us to.
But we want to hear back from you in those emails so that we can make sure that we're reaching out for what our members really need.
Laura, is there anything else I missed or need to follow up on? 
>> I think that's it.  I'm just going to go ahead and paste the feedback survey for today the feedback for today as well as the upcoming dates for the Raise Your Voice in the chatbox and those will be in the follow‑up email that you will be getting later today.
>> And we will take a lot of the questions y'all kind of pose to us in that chatbox and make sure we get them answered and reach back out to y'all with the answers that we can find and work with y'all.
So if there's anything else we can do for you, please let us know.  Other than that thank y'all for joining us today and we look forward to building this program out more as we get closer to the session.
Thank y'all. 
>> Thank you.