[Address of Congressional or Senatorial Name and Office goes here.
[Be sure to address them as Honorable Senator/Representative]
[You can find your representative here: https://house.texas.gov/members/find-your-representative/]
[Your own person address goes here
Dear Rep./Senator XXXXXX,
I wanted to urgently contact you about the potential Delta 8 ban in Texas.
Source: Texas says popular cannabis extract, delta-8, is illegal, sending retailers scrambling: https://www.texastribune.org/2021/10/21/texas-delta-8-hemp/. By Kevin Reynolds Oct. 21, 2021 Texas Tribune.
I wanted to inform you about some basics facts about Delta 8 and ask you you to please go on record or introduce legislation to Decriminalize Delta-9 by the on this important legislation. This completely reckless against by the State of Texas Health and Human Services (HHS), with no warning, no time for public comment, or any other input from the public is egregious.
The Delta 8 Science
First of all, as I’m sure you aware aware that The Farm Bill of 2018 was passed by President Donald Trump. This bill makes hemp and hemp related products legal, including those that contain 0.03% THC per serving. Delta 8 is a natural derivative from hemp and comes from cannabidiol (CBD) , and should thus fall under the 2018 Farm Bill. Not to mention, in House Bill 1325, which Gov. Greg Abbott signed in 2019, legalized hemp products under 0.3% tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).
There have been many anecdotal reports with Delta 8 that have shown it has very positive benefits.
Source: The U.S. Hemproundtable. https://hempsupporter.com/news/delta-8 & Dallas Morning News https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2021/10/19/delta-8-thc-products-illegal-in-texas-updated-health-department-website-says/
Abstract
Delta-8-tetrahydrocannabinol (delta-8-THC), a cannabinoid with lower psychotropic potency than the main Cannabis constituent, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (delta-9-THC), was administered (18 mg/m2 in edible oil, p.o.) to eight children, aged 3-13 years with various hematologic cancers, treated with different antineoplastic drugs for up to 8 months. The total number of treatments with delta-8-THC so far is 480. The THC treatment started two hours before each antineoplastic treatment and was continued every 6 hrs for 24 hours. Vomiting was completely prevented. The side effects observed were negligible.
If we look at the full study, we find the following information: Delta-8-THC (Fig 1) is a double bond isomer of delta-9-THC. It is less psychotropic than delta- 9-THC [6].
Source: A Abrahamov, A Abrahamov, R Mechoulam. An efficient new cannabinoid antiemetic in pediatric oncology. Life Sci. 1995;56(23-24):2097-102. doi: 10.1016/0024-3205(95)00194-b.
Available at https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7776837/
That is the ONLY study I was able to find that detailed the workings of Delta 8 on children with cancer had reduced incidents of nausea. I would not call that a detrimental effect. and found it beneficial & uploaded a copy of the full study to my Google Drive (it’s in PDF format), so if you would like to download it for yourself. However, I had to shorten the link in order for you be able to type it in. The URL had to be shortened, so you could type it in if you wanted to. That URL is https://v.gd/Delta8Study1. The v.gd shortener has a unique feature, where it will show you where the shortened URL is going to instead of automatically redirecting you to it, so it’s much more safe.
According to the website linked, Delta 8 THC has the following medicinal properties:
• appetite-stimulating
• antiemetic – which can suppress nausea and vomiting
• anxiolytic – a category of drugs that prevents anxiety, important for anxiety disorders
• neuroprotective properties
• analgesic – for pain relief
When you use delta 8 THC, the G-protein cannabinoid attaches to the CB1 receptors in your central nervous system. Source: Delta 8 THC Benefits. https://www.nothingbuthemp.net/delta-8-thc-benefits. I can attest to the anxiolytic (anxiety reducing) effects of Delta 8. It would be extremely beneficial for psychiatrist patients who experience anxiety and want to try to reduce it without the use of pharmaceutical drugs. It could also be used a pain relieving compound, and having benefits for cancer patients who are unable to get marijuana in Texas since it still criminalized, including increase an appetite and nausea reduction.
So, in the single scientific & peer reviewed study on the subject, it showed it was helping to prevent nausea in children receiving chemotherapy and was far less potent than Delta-9-THC (the active ingredient in marijuana).
The National Cancer Institute defines delta 8 THC as “An analogue of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) with antiemetic, anxiolytic, appetite-stimulating, analgesic, and neuroprotective properties. [Delta-8-THC] binds to the cannabinoid G-protein coupled receptor CB1, located in the central nervous system…This agent exhibits a lower psychotropic potency than [delta-9-THC], the primary form of THC found in cannabis.” Source: delta-8-tetrahydrocannabinol. The National Cancer Institute.
The action to ban Delta 8 by the Texas HHS tantamounts to be in direct conflict with this legal and abiding bill, House Bill 1325. This is an issue that have come up in legislature where it should have seen publicly debated and voted on by the Texas State Congress.
We have no idea how the Texas HHS had “no medical benefit” and that it was a potential drug of abuse. They haven’t published any studies on the issue, issued any advisory statements, or produced any good science that Delta 8 is detrimental.
Further, I want to point out some very important issues concerning the State of Texas and the introduction of another controlled drug to the Texas narcotic drug bans. Texas has one of the highest prison populations in the entire country. We have the 6th highest prison population out of all the states in the Union. Do we will really another law to put more prison in our already massively overpopulated prisons, deny people the right to vote if they are convicted of a felony (I’m not sure what the specific penalties are for having Delta 8 placed under a “Penalty Group 1” entail – whether it is a misdemeanor or felony).
The Prison Population in Texas and The Recidivism Rates
Further, I want to point out some very important issues concerning the State of Texas and the introduction of another controlled drug to the Texas narcotic drug bans. Texas has one of the highest prison populations in the entire country. We have the 6th highest prison population out of all the states in the Union. Do we will really another law to put more prison in our already massively overpopulated prisons, deny people the right to vote if they are convicted of a felony (I’m not sure what the specific penalties are for having Delta 8 placed under a “Penalty Group 1” entail – whether it is a misdemeanor or felony).
Sources: The Sentencing Project: https://www.sentencingproject.org/the-facts/#rankings & Prison Policy Initiative. https://www.prisonpolicy.org/profiles/TX.html
According to The Texas Center for for Justice and equality, “Policymaking stemming from the 1980’s War on Drugs has dramatically increased the number of people arrested and incarcerated in Texas for drug offenses. In 2019, nearly 700,000 people were arrested in Texas — 128,000 for drug violations alone.” Source: https://texascje.org/2021-session-lower-penalties-minor-drug-possession-free-funding-strategies-get-texans-back-their-feet
This ban is only going to increase the number of people being incarcerated for a drug with much less the potency of marijuana (as you can see in the study I listed below). They need to be sent to a treatment center, not incarcerated with violent offenders, prison gangs, and other criminals. Delta 8 is now under Texas’s Drug Crime control level of Penalty 1. I don’t know whether violators caught with Delta 8 would fall under a misdemeanor or a felony.
““According to a 2014 Human Rights Watch report, "tough-on-crime" laws adopted since the 1980s have filled U.S. prisons with mostly nonviolent offenders. However, the Bureau of Justice Statistics reported that, as of the end of 2015, 54% of state prisoners sentenced to more than 1 year were serving time for a violent offense. 15% of state prisoners at year-end 2015 had been convicted of a drug offense as their most serious infraction. In comparison, 47% of federal prisoners serving time in September 2016 (the most recent date for which data are available) were convicted of a drug offense” Source:
Nation Behind Bars: A Human Rights Solution. Human Rights Watch, May 2014. https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/related_material/2014_US_Nation_Behind_Bars_0.pdf
& Bureau of Justice Statistics (2018): "Prisoners in 2016 https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/p16_sum.pdf
Furthermore, recidivism rates in Texas are also very high. This is due to several factors, including not be able to get vocation education while incarcerated
“Nationwide recidivism rates have remained high for the last decade finding that roughly 67% of offenders released from state prisons return to the system within three years.
(U. S. Bureau of Justice)
Texas recidivism rate (return to prison) between 20.3% and 44.3% depending on what type of facility the individual was incarcerated in.
(Legislative Budget Board Statewide Criminal and Juvenile Justice Recidivism and Revocation Rates 2018) Source: One Man’s Treasure: https://www.onemanstr.org/statistics
“With the exception of the DWI Treatment Program, most incarcerated individuals can only access
programs offered by the Rehabilitation Division of TDCJ [Texas Department of Criminal Justice]
after a favorable vote by the Parole Board. Therefore, people often do not have access to the very programs that could address needs identified on the Texas Risk Assessment System, such as substance abuse, until they are being considered for release. The Parole Board is unable to measure progress toward addressing treatment goals, so they are forced to guess whether the individual will be a lower risk to the public following treatment. This should not be the role of a non-‐clinician. Further, many parole denials for reasons such as “Drug or Alcohol Involvement,”16 a factor that should have been addressed through the Rehabilitation Division prior to parole consideration.” Source: TCJC Testimony House Corrections (Recidivism and Reentry): The Texas Criminal Justice Association. https://v.gd/TexasRecidivismAndReentry (PDF) – Once again, I had to shorten the link for you because the link to the PDF file caused errors in the Word Document.
This is a shameful look at the reality of life in Texas in the 21st century where an opioid epidemic, as well as a meth epidemic are ravaging the country. It’s time to reform our drug laws. It’s time to get rid of mandatory minimums, which tie the judges hands behind his back where he is forced to sentence drug offers to extremely excess time in prison for a simple drug offenses
It’s been 50 years since President Richard Nixon declared the War on Drugs, and it has been an absolute failure. “ In 2015, the Drug Policy Alliance, [...], estimated that the United States spends $51 billion annually on these initiatives, and in 2021, after 50 years of the drug war, others have estimated that the US has spent a cumulative $1 trillion on it.”
Source: "Drug War Statistics". Drug Policy Alliance. http://www.drugpolicy.org/drug-war-statistics [I HIGHLY RECOMMEND VIEWING THIS LINK] & Mann, Brian (June 17, 2021). "After 50 Years Of The War On Drugs, 'What Good Is It Doing For Us?'". NPR. The campaign — which by some estimates cost more than $1 trillion — also exacerbated racial divisions and infringed on civil liberties in ways that transformed American society. https://www.npr.org/2021/06/17/1006495476/after-50-years-of-the-war-on-drugs-what-good-is-it-doing-for-us
Yet, regardless of our continual War on Drugs continues to burn through money that could be better spent improving our countries infrastructure, public schools, programs for WIC, loans for small business, helping out veterans coming home and countless other beneficial improvements to our countries citizens, drugs are still as easy to get as a bottle of Coca Cola at the local convenience store – and that is no exaggeration. According to the CDC, “ Nearly 841,000 people have died since 1999 from a drug overdose. In 2019, 70,630 drug overdose deaths occurred in the United States. The age-adjusted rate of overdose deaths increased by over 4% from 2018 (20.7 per 100,000) to 2019 (21.6 per 100,000).” Source: Drug Overdose Deaths – CDC. https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/deaths/index.html
As you well know, we tried prohibition against alcohol in the 1920s, yet the population ignored these laws en mass and continued to drink with reckless abandon. Finally, we realized that this ‘social experiment’ had utterly failed miserably and alcohol was decriminalized. This is the same thing that is going on with marijuana right now. All that is going to happen is Delta 8 will be banned, so users will switch over to buying marijuana. The War on Drugs is an economic issue, not a morality issue. Where there is a demand for something, there will be a supply. Some people just want to get high, and that is an issue of basically a libertarian stance on the issue. I believe in people should be able to put whatever they want in in their bodies, so long as they are not hurting someone else. I believe in what’s known as “harm reduction”.
“Harm reduction refers to policies, programmes and practices that aim to minimise negative health, social and legal impacts associated with drug use, drug policies and drug laws.
Harm reduction is grounded in justice and human rights. It focuses on positive change and on working with people without judgment, coercion, discrimination, or requiring that they stop using drugs as a precondition of support.
Harm reduction encompasses a range of health and social services and practices that apply to illicit and licit drugs. These include, but are not limited to, drug consumption rooms, needle and syringe programmes, non-abstinence-based housing and employment initiatives, drug checking, overdose prevention and reversal, psychosocial support, and the provision of information on safer drug use. Approaches such as these are cost-effective, evidence-based and have a positive impact on individual and community health.” Source: Harm Reduction International. https://www.hri.global/what-is-harm-reduction
So, whether this means building more state funded treatment centers, more psychiatric wards, more police training to deal with the mentally ill, having a cultural shift where the mentally ill aren’t disenfranchised, mocked, or ignored -- or all of the above, it’s time for change.
It is time to decriminalize the sale of marijuana in Texas, if nothing else, because of the huge revenue that could be generated from it’s sales tax. When we look at states that have legalized marijuana, it is an absolute boon to the economy. Consider this information from Forbes: “In January 2021, marijuana sales continued to set records in the state, reaching $187.5 million. During the last six years, the Centennial State has collected over $1.6 billion - that's just at the state level - in marijuana taxes and fee revenues.” Source: Forbes, “The Success Of Colorado’s Marijuana Tax Dollars” by Robert Hoban. May 23, 2021. https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthoban/2021/05/23/the-success-of-colorados-marijuana-tax-dollars/
Think of what all that money could be doing for the state. But, because we are lead by a generation of individuals who were brought up in the age of “Reefer Madness”, they believe marijuana is an illegal and dangerous drug – when nothing could be further from the truth. Marijuana has never killed a single person.
“According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), a government agency that handles drug use and addiction, there has yet to be an adult death attributable solely to marijuana. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also states that while using too much marijuana can cause extreme confusion, emotional distress, increased blood pressure, heart rate, severe nausea, or unintentional injury, “a fatal overdose is unlikely.””
Source: Popular Science by Gigen Mammoser https://www.popsci.com/overdose-on-weed-marijuana/. by Marion Renault | Published Feb 19, 2021
And although there are risk factors, such as driving while intoxicated, I’m sure our private sector can come up with some sort of utility or device to determine if a driver is intoxicated on marijuana and go through the same steps we use for individuals who drive impaired while drinking. But, regardless, marijuana is not a drug that is killing people. No one is overdosing on marijuana.
We need to focus our efforts in helping people with mental illness who are addicted to opioids, methamphetamine, cocaine and other hard drugs. These people are using this drug to treat an undiagnosed mental illness that they don’t realize they have. If we could put these people into mandatory treatment centers it will help many of them kick their addiction and get get the resources to help combat their mental health issues. Currently, in the US and Texas it is very hard for an inmate to receive access to a prison psychiatrist and/or psychologist.
Currently, “Incarcerated individuals have high rates of mental disorders and substance use disorders compared with the general population, yet correctional facilities in the United States have difficulty recruiting mental health professionals. This has led to shortages in the availability of clinicians who can provide psychiatric care in these settings. During training and in practice, mental health professionals may develop misconceptions about correctional psychiatry that deter them from the field. This article examines common misconceptions about working in correctional psychiatry, including that correctional psychiatry provides unnecessary care to criminals, supports mass incarceration, is dangerous work…”
Source: Misconceptions About Working in Correctional Psychiatry Nathaniel P. Morris and Sara G. West. Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Online February 2020, JAAPL.003921-20; DOI: https://doi.org/10.29158/JAAPL.003921-20 http://jaapl.org/content/early/2020/02/12/JAAPL.003921-20
“However, Dallas County decided to provide a new pathway on helping mentally ill patients.
If you looked into Texas jails any day in 2015, you would find between 12,000 and 16,000 people with mental health disorders – between about 6.5% and 7.4% of the total Texas prison population. That may not sound like a lot, but it means that Texas jails have become the largest mental health institutions in the state. It costs Texas about $650 million per year to care for these individuals; and they also tend to stay in jail longer and have a higher rate of recidivism. To counter this trend, Dallas County was one of over 250 counties in the country to pass a resolution to implement programs aimed at reducing the number of people with mental health disorders in Texas jails.
A New Approach in Dallas
Dallas County Jail
With twenty-five detention centers in Dallas County and only three hospitals that offer psychiatric drop-off sites, it is frequently infeasible for law enforcement officers to bring people experiencing mental health crises anywhere other than detention sites. And after release, there is no set method to follow-up with people with mental illness awaiting trial or to ensure they get treatment. As a result, the Dallas County Jail (Lew Sterrett Justice Center) has become the county's primary mental health treatment provider for individuals with any involvement in the criminal justice system. It is also the second largest mental health facility in the entire state.”
Source: Jails: Texas’ Largest Mental Health Institutions By Emma Nye Center for Health and Social Policy Ambassador. https://chasp.lbj.utexas.edu/jails-texas-largest-mental-health-institution & CHASP Ambassadors: https://chasp.lbj.utexas.edu/chasp-ambassadors
So, in conclusion Rep XXXXX, I hope you will see that Delta 8 is yet another substance we are banning that is additional inmates to the prison industrial complex, as most prisons are run under privatized administration. Source: The Prison-Industrial Complex by Eric Schlosser. The Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1998/12/the-prison-industrial-complex/304669/
It takes average citizens off the street, and turns them into criminals and if they receive a felony, they are deprived of many advantages in later life, such as the inability to vote, making harder to get a job to having a felony on their record, and other negatives that come from the social stigma of being a convicted felon. I sincerely hope you will bring this up with the Texas Legislator at their next session. So, Mr. Rep XXXXXXX, I realize this letter is long and I’m sure you have much business to attend to with your other duties to our Great State of Texas. But, I will say in closing, please keep this letter in mind the next time legislation regarding marijuana or Delta 8 or other drugs come up. You don’t have to follow the party line and vote against it, but you can be the maverick, like the late Senator John McCain and show your constituents and the country that it’s time for change in America in the 21st Century. In our system of representative government, as stipulated by the Founding Fathers and the Constitution, you are my voice in government, so I felt obligated to write this letter to you because I feel very passionately about this issue and I wanted to share these facts and with you. So, in this new century it’s time for reform.
Finally, in closing I want to thank you for your service to our country. Even though we may have a difference in opinion, I hope my letter might make you change your mind or allow you to investigate further for yourself what I have presented. I also want to wish you and your family a Happy upcoming Thanksgiving and Christmas Holiday. Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
[Insert Your Name Here]
