Honorable Four Price, Chair, House Committee on Public Health
FROM:
Ursula Parks, Director, Legislative Budget Board
IN RE:
HB2107 by Lucio III (Relating to authorizing the possession, use, cultivation, distribution, transportation, and delivery of medical cannabis for medical use by patients with certain debilitating medical conditions and the licensing of dispensing organizations and cannabis testing facilities; authorizing fees.), Committee Report 1st House, Substituted
The provisions of the bill addressing felony sanctions for criminal offenses are the subject of this analysis. The bill would amend various sections of the Health and Safety Code and Occupations Code to create exemptions from criminal liability for conduct involving medical use of cannabis and to expand the allowable uses and recommendations of medical cannabis. The bill would also establish limitations on the allowable amounts of medical cannabis a person could use. Possession of marihuana is punishable at various misdemeanor and felony levels, depending on the amount manufactured, delivered, or possessed. The bill would add or amend several requirements related to the recommendation, distribution, testing, or use of medical cannabis, including permitting recommending physicians to register information on the allowable use of cannabis specified for each patient in the compassionate-use registry.
Expanding the list of individuals exempted from arrest, prosecution, or penalty for certain conduct is expected to result in a decrease in the demand for the correctional resources of counties or of the State due to a potential decrease in the number of individuals placed under supervision in the community or sentenced to a term of confinement within state correctional institutions. In fiscal year 2016, 8,106 individuals were arrested, 1,108 were placed under felony community supervision, and 511 were admitted into state correctional institutions for manufacture, delivery or possession of marihuana punishable as a felony under existing statute as outlined in the bill's provisions. Although data do not exist that would allow cases in which an individual met the requirements outlined in the bill to be isolated from all other cases in which marihuana was manufactured, delivered, or possessed, this analysis assumes the bill would not result in a significant impact on the demand for state correctional resources. This analysis is due to the bill's requirements for the recommendation, distribution, testing, and use of medical cannabis, and its creation of an allowable use limitation for qualifying patients.