Medical marijuana expansion becomes campaign issue

Retired Army Maj. David Bass served in the U.S. Army for 25 years from 1985 to 2006. He’s a veteran of operations Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom. “When I returned to Fort Hood, I had these symptoms that I didn’t understand,” Bass said. “I was diagnosed by Army doctors with post-traumatic stress disorder, which was a condition that I had never thought I would be diagnosed with. And so the doctors prescribed psychotropic medications for PTSD. And I was also prescribed opioids for chronic pain from some injuries I had on active duty. After I retired, I was being treated by the veterans administration in Temple. And after a few years, I got tired of those pills. I didn’t like the side effects. So I did some research for alternatives to the pills, and that’s when I discovered medical cannabis.”

Bass joined a nonprofit focused on cannabis reform called Texas NORML in 2012. In 2013, he became the director of veteran outreach. Two years later, he founded Texas Veterans for Medical Marijuana in 2015. He’s been advocating for medical cannabis ever since. It wasn’t until 2021 that PTSD was added to the list of qualifying conditions for medical marijuana use. Bass had been using cannabis illegally in Texas for nearly a decade. “I have an actual prescription to medical cannabis in Texas now, which is wonderful,” Bass said. “It’s really a good thing and changed my life in a very positive way because I didn’t want to use cannabis illegally; I want to use it legally.” Besides expanding access to medical marijuana, Bass wants lawmakers to pass a decriminalization bill. He doesn’t believe Texans should be arrested for possessing small amounts of cannabis. “It ruins people’s lives because even though they’re probably not going to go to prison, they have an arrest. They have a conviction. They had to hire a lawyer. They’re on probation,” Bass said. “That arrest and conviction affects all aspects of their life–their job, education, housing. We just don’t think that the punishment fits the crime for possessing personal use amounts of cannabis.”