It may seem an unlikely fit on the surface. Schulenburg, Texas is a small town consisting of around 3,000 people. It houses a Polka Museum and a painted churches tour. Now it is also home to the first Texas dispensary carrying low-THC, high-CBD cannabis for patients with seizure disorders.
Florida-based Knox Medical saw opportunity in (technically very near) Schulenburg. It is a 90-minute drive from Austin, San Antonio and Houston, making it a centerpiece for those in need. Also, being that it is so far off the beaten path, there is ample room to grow cannabis without encroaching on schools, playgrounds or the like.
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Town residents are quick to point out that the dispensary is not in Schulenburg proper, but rather just outside. Plus, the stigma against cannabis has been so strong in rural Texas that Knox’s CEO Jose Hidalgo has learned to not boast about the venture to locals.
Knox offers the “Highest level of service and care for medical marijuana patients,” as stated on their website and they are savvy business people as well. When they came to the area to pitch the dispensary location they showed up in their suits and ties and certainly not high.
Texas’ medical marijuana policy is the Compassionate Use Program, which allows for strictly low-THC cannabis, which is a big step for the conservative state. High-CBD cannabis oil may not get anyone high, but it has proven time and again to curb vicious seizure disorders and drastically reduce the number of seizures a person may otherwise have.
Having a medical marijuana dispensary in Schulenburg could bring revenue into the rural town, but it’s likely to have a soft impact. So far only seven doctors have registered for the program and though there are approximately 150,000 qualified patients in Texas, mostly children, it may be difficult to afford the treatment for many, as it is not covered by any type of health insurance and CBD treatment is an ongoing therapy.
To start off, The Atlantic reports that there will be around twelve employees at the dispensary and the CBD products will only be accessible via delivery. However, the cannabis market is expected to grow three to four times over in the coming seven years and that could mean further expansion of the Compassionate Use Program. Hopefully it will at least mean more registered doctors.
Schulenburg may be just as surprised as the rest of the country that it was cherry picked to be the first medical marijuana dispensary in Texas, but the dice has been rolled and now patients who desperately need it will have access to high-CBD medicine.
